Shit, Actually
Books | Humor / Form / Essays
3.7
(89)
Lindy West
One of the "Best Books of 2020" by NPR's Book Concierge **Your Favorite Movies, Re-Watched** New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle's alternative newsweekly The Stranger, where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In Shit, Actually, Lindy returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from the past 40 years with an eye toward the big questions of our time: Is Twilight the horniest movie in history? Why do the zebras in The Lion King trust Mufasa-WHO IS A LION-to look out for their best interests? Why did anyone bother making any more movies after The Fugitive achieved perfection? And, my god, why don't any of the women in Love, Actually ever fucking talk?!?! From Forrest Gump, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and Bad Boys II, to Face/Off, Top Gun, and The Notebook, Lindy combines her razor-sharp wit and trademark humor with a genuine adoration for nostalgic trash to shed new critical light on some of our defining cultural touchstones-the stories we've long been telling ourselves about who we are. At once outrageously funny and piercingly incisive, Shit, Actually reminds us to pause and ask, "How does this movie hold up?", all while teaching us how to laugh at the things we love without ever letting them or ourselves off the hook. Shit, Actually is a love letter and a break-up note all in one: to the films that shaped us and the ones that ruined us. More often than not, Lindy finds, they're one and the same.
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More Details:
Author
Lindy West
Pages
243
Publisher
Hachette Books
Published Date
2020
ISBN
0316449822 9780316449823
Community ReviewsSee all
"Not as funny as I thought it would be. Too much swearing that really wasn't necessary and some of the conclusions she makes about the films don't make much sense sometimes. Also, in the chapter about the movie Speed, she keeps referring to the steel cable used to keep the elevator from falling at the beginning of the film as a "rope". It is a STEEL CABLE! She does this again when referring to the cable used to hold the small cart while Jack is under the bus trying to dismantle the bomb. I just expected better."
Christopher Allen
"Lindy West's books give me such joy. I find her writing to be both incredibly amusing and very insightful. This book is especially nice because, as each chapter covers a single movie, you can easily dip in and read a chapter if you're especially stressed and just want something to take your mind off what's going on in the real world for a few minutes."
John Detrick
"Hilarious! The author put into writing all the things we think when watching movies. "
D K