Make Your Own Damn Movie: Secrets of a Renegade Director Review

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Make Your Own Damn Movie: Secrets of a Renegade Director ReviewBefore reading this book, I had never heard of Lloyd Kaufman, Tromaville or the Toxic Avenger. Now I feel like he and all his crazy characters are family. And why not? You've got to love a guy who in the acknowledgments writes, "No thanks to: Viacom, New Corp, Vivendi, AOL Time Warner, Sony and other devil-worshipping international media conglomerates." He is a modern-day Don Quixote.
"Make Your Own Damn Movie," sounds like a call to action but it really isn't. For that reason, I gave this book four stars. Kaufman writes knowledgeably about how independent theaters, studios, and filmmakers are being squeezed out by consolidation - where Viacom owns Blockbuster, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster Publishers, along with TV, cable and other media - basically all the channels of distribution and publicity in the marketplace. This book contains witty, subversive, smart and useful information, but to what purpose if the outlook is so bleak?
Kaufman closes his book with "sometimes lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for." That's hardly the call to action I thought I'd be reading. He clearly sees himself and his work as being a dying breed. This is a horror director who has written a tragedy. Has it come down to that for this innovative, dynamic and vivacious film pioneer?
If you are an aspiring filmmaker, this is an excellent autobiography about a 25-year veteran of independent films. But if you're looking for the nuts and bolts of filmmaking or a rah, rah you can do it tract, you may want to consider other material.Make Your Own Damn Movie: Secrets of a Renegade Director Overview

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Andy Kaufman Revealed: Best Friend Tells All Review

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Andy Kaufman Revealed: Best Friend Tells All ReviewOne thing Zmuda's book does that "Man on the Moon" did not is outline the M.O. for Andy's stunts, although it still doesn't really establish a reason for them. Of course, maybe there wasn't one. Andy tried to erase the boundary between comedy on the screen and comedy in the field, but whether or not there was a point to his efforts isn't completely decided in this book -- he still could have just been an idiot savant for all we know. The stories behind Andy's best-known antics are wonderful; he and Zmuda really did operate a precise machine of real-life theatre that, for better or worse, set a lot of precedents in show business. The Jerry Lawlor passage puts to rest one of the entertainment questions I've been wracking myself about for many years.
I also liked Zmuda's chapter on his adventures with Mr. X (btw, Mr. X is allegedly Norman Wexler, who wrote "Serpico" and "Saturday Night Fever," according to Roger Ebert); if it doesn't obviously show the inspiration for Tony Clifton, it's still a great story. But I also agree with many other readers that Zmuda intrudes a bit too much of his own biography upon the story of Kaufman's, and succumbs to cliches, and sometimes embarassing details, about his own sex/love lives too much for my taste.
I haven't read the other bio on Kaufman yet, but I suspect that seeing "Man on the Moon" and reading this book might provide you with a good summary of Kaufman's life and importance. Of course, what's really needed is a comprehensive video release of his television history -- a great idea would be a compilation of his appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and "Fridays" if such a deal could be worked out. Not a bad reference, and definitely an entertaining and quick, if flawed, read.Andy Kaufman Revealed: Best Friend Tells All Overview

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