Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano

Movies (And Other Things) Reviews

• 
  thefourthvine

  First, the easy problem.
  
  In college, I made the same terrible mistake three times: I confessed to a dude that I had not seen Pulp Fiction. Each time, I was assured that I HAD to see Pulp Fiction, and then, by way of proving it, the guy narrated his favorite scenes to me. At length. The kind of length where you could watch the scene five times, then come back to the table and the guy would still be narrating it.
  
  (They were, let me note, always the same scenes.)
  
  Movies (And Other Things) is the book version of those guys I knew in college. It’s basically like telling a guy you have not seen a whole, whole bunch of movies, and then he narrates his favorite scenes from all of them at you in excruciating detail, and in this case I’m not referring so much to the length as excruciating (Serrano is, unsurprisingly, a little more succinct than college boys in thrall to Tarantino and the sound of their own voices), but the specific details Serrano chooses.
  
  Very, very many of his favorite scenes involve someone dying horribly. In fact, going by this book, a lot of his favorite movies are nothing BUT people dying horribly. Like, Serrano is a man who gives movies a lot of bonus points for really unusual and graphic deaths. Which would probably be fine with me if I were very into gore and death. But I’m not. I haven’t seen a lot of Serrano’s favorite movies in part because I don’t want to watch people die horribly.
  
  So, okay, this book is a mismatch with me, fine. That happens and it’s no big deal. I mean, I could write a version of this book, and it would be full of questions like “What’s the most homoerotic look exchanged between supposedly straight women?” and “Which is the best One Single Tear of Manpain?” and “Which dude/dude kiss is best?” Serrano wouldn’t enjoy that book any more than I enjoyed his. We’re just not compatible when it comes to movies.
  
  But. Now the hard part. There’s a footnote in this book where Serrano basically punched me directly in the gut.
  
  (Spoiler cut for mentions of sexual assault.)
  
  Here’s the thing: I know Serrano mostly from Twitter and his Ringer writing. I know he’s done some lovely things on Twitter. I tend to think of him as a Good Dude. I also know he’s extremely online. But in a footnote in this book, he says that right after they sent the book to be printed, one of the actors he mentions got fined for sexual harassment. And that made Serrano check to see if other actors he’d mentioned had been accused of sexual harassment, besides the SINGLE ONE he already knew about: Kevin Spacey.
  
  And, yes, of course, a cursory google, which Serrano could have done at any point in his life or while writing the book, revealed to him that many of the actors he wrote about have been. He provides a list of five, all of whom I knew about, and most of whom I knew about before Me Too was a thing, because they’re absolutely FAMOUS for it. Serrano then hopes that there are not others he missed (uh, yeah, there are) and apologizes.
  
  I read that and I thought about this extremely online guy who wrote an entire book about movies and just … did not know, and did not care enough to find out, about ANY sexual assaults the many actors he mentions have done (except, of course, the one assault that is palatable to him because the perpetrator is a gay man). Even though he was right there online during all of Me Too. And I realized, hey, this book is literally not for me. It’s not just a content mismatch, it's an exclusion. I’m not in Serrano’s mental audience. No woman is. Which was a painful thing to learn, given that I like the guy and I also like some of his writing.
  
  The one part of this book that is genuinely good and interesting is the chapter where he does a thing The Ringer does and asks a bunch of people to answer the chapter’s question. Those essays, with their varied opinions, provide depth and breadth and perspective. And, also, some of them are by women. If he’d structured the whole book that way – well, at least he would maybe have had someone to nudge him and go, hey, dude, yeah, you can’t just google this stuff after the fact and then say “whoops, forgot, sorry!” in a footnote. (Someone might also have pointed out his repeated use of an ablist slur in the bonus ebook material.)
  
  But this book isn’t written that way. And it apparently wasn’t written with female readers in mind at all. I wish very much I had known that going in. Would’ve saved me the gore and the plot summaries as well as the punch in the gut.
• 
  Cait

  This sort of feels like a fake rating, because I was almost certainly going to always give this 5 stars: I like Shea's writing, I like movies, I like the illustrations.
• 
  Harry Jahnke

  What an absolute chore to get through. I was really excited for this book and about half way through, I just wanted to die. The book is full of pointless rules the author sets for himself and then breaks anyway because the rules have absolutely no meaning in the first place. He'll list things off and then add 17 more things within the list in a footnote, each more obnoxious and grating than the last. He also spends chapters just talking about movies he likes like the chapter where he goes on and on about how much he loves Booksmart. There is nothing worse in this life that is worst than someone saying to you "Oh have you seen this comedy? It's really funny. Let me describe all the funny scenes for you." This is comedy poison. Also, he seems to like every single movie he's ever seen. Look, it's great to have a passion and clearly this guy loves movies but it's a drag listening to him. This book is much as fun as being cornered at a party by a film major who wants to tell you why Christopher Nolan is an underrated genius. And the jokes are the worst part of the book. Serrano went to the Seth McFarlane school of humor where if you repeat something enough times, surely it must be funny. This is not a book to be read cover to cover. I'm not sure this even a book meant to be read. This is a book that you get for your brother who is in the film industry or your friend who likes movies and then they let it collect dust on their coffee table. I couldn't wait for this to end. Absolutely my least favorite thing I think I've read this year.
• 
  Chad

  Let this be a reminder to readers/publishers that not everyone who is funny or entertaining on Twitter needs to (or can) write an entire book on one topic. I picked up Movies (And Other Things) based on hearing Serrano on a few podcasts that I listen to regularly and generally enjoying his tweets and takes on pop culture.
  
  This is a book about very popular American movies from the last 25 years (mostly the last 10 years) and broken up into quirky chapter titles like "Who gets it worst in Kill Bill?" and "What happened at the Michael Myers press conference?" Serrano spends a lot of time making rules (like in the chapter where he changes the Oscar winners category by category) but then the rules become inconsequential and ignored. The whole tone of this book is very lighthearted and tries way to hard to be funny (repeating something over and over is not comedy!)
  
  There is a nice chapter on Selena where Serrano gets personal and talks about what that movie meant to him growing up, and I thought the chapter comparing The Social Network and Get Out was entertaining and resembled some sort of critical analysis, but overall, this is a very dumb book. 2/5
• 
  Randell Green

  Shea leads discussions that feel as if you’re in a film studies class. Or at least, hanging out with your buddies at the local Diner at 2am. Fun and unique takes on movies. 🎥
• 
  Jeffrey

  I'm really enjoying this book. It's funny. Nice bite sized distractions from the day to day, and a good mix of movies I know well and movies with titles I recognize but have never watched. Or movies I watched and after reading Shea Serrano's take I want to go rewatch them. I like it.
• 
  Joe Davoust

  That I didn't do my homework is the persistent feeling I had almost the entire time I spent reading this book. I've shown up for class and the teacher is leading an intense, interesting, and even entertaining discussion about the subject matter of which I'm am totally unprepared. The author compares, rates and does deep dives into a list of hundreds if not thousands of movies that I may have seen 40 per cent of. There are some chapters that I've seen all of the movies discussed, but not recently enough to keep up with the author's take on them. I'm guessing that to get the most from this book, we need to get a list of movies for each chapter, take the hours, days, or weeks needed to watch those movies,and then read the chapter. I liked the writing. I enjoyed the discussions that I could relate to. But I did not like the pervasive feeling that I was always behind on the required background material.
• 
  Zoe

  This book is a series of kitchen-table debates about movies. Serrano isn't particularly concerned with re-hashing the common critical debates about cinema, instead the book focuses tightly on films and genres he has a deep personal affection for. The debates are structured more like conversations than essays, range in topic from silly to emotional, and cover a wide range of movies, including many I was not familiar with.
  
  Serrano's skill lies in the way he invests his readers in those debates, even ones for films or genres they're not particularly knowledgeable about. My taste in movies overlaps with his to a certain extent, but though there are gaps, they don't really matter. The point is not to read an argument that convinces you (anyone who's had these kind of debates with friends knows half the joy is in the disagreement) the point is to relax into Serrano's viewpoint, digressions and all, and see the movies from his point of view. (All this, and he manages to hammer home quite a few points about the lack of diversity in a lot of Hollywood's offerings)
• 
  Jackie Mancini

  As a huge fan of moves and of talking obsessively about movies, I had a feeling I would enjoy this book. I loved the attention to detail and precision with which the author described the things he loved about all these movies. Even when I didn’t necessarily agree with him, I was struck by the passion he poured into each chapter. It was both hilarious and insightful. However, some chapters are hard to enjoy if you haven’t seen most of the movies he’s talking about. I found myself having to skip a few of them. But on balance, this book was a really fun read, especially when I lost power for four days and couldn’t actually watch any movies or TV.
• 
  Jessica L. Martens

  Reading this book is like chatting with a very funny friend about movies you love. There isn’t much here in the way of ~intellectual criticism~ , but I do appreciate that Shea comes at his “analysis” with a clear love and respect for movies. I adore Shea and I adore his writing, so the experience of reading these essays was an absolute delight.
• 
  Leif Quinlan

  See my review of Shea Serrano's "Basketball (And Other Things)"
• 
  Neel Amin

  I’ll definitely come back to this book after I finish the list of 50+ movies I made of movies Shea talks about that I haven’t seen. If you’re a fan of his work, this book will not disappoint. He does a great job of helping you understand the movies he’s talking about even if you haven’t seen them.
• 
  Evan Dragic

  The rating is bumped up a bit because of how much I enjoy Shea’s work generally. But, as with all his work, this book mixes some very silly bits and exuberance with heartfelt emotion and meaningful writing about race and family. The And Other Things hits quite hard in several chapters in this book.
• 
  Jason

  Incredibly fun and easy to read. I haven’t watched a ton of the movies discussed in the book but Shea does a great job explaining things before-hand so you hardly feel lost. The illustrations are also incredible. A must-read for anyone who has seen a movie in the last 30 years.
• 
  Andy

  Packed with laugh out loud funny observations and hypothetical questions no one thought to ask about some of cinema’s most beloved (and obscure) movies from the past 40 years, “Movies” is the perfect coffee table book for the Millennial movie lover in your life.
  
  In each of the 30 essays, Shea Serrano asks a question (example: “Is this movie better or worse with The Rock in it?”) that he then answers through digressions, footnotes, social and pop culture commentary.
  
  It’s not a heavy read, but it will make you think – from reassessing your taste in film to analyzing your own beliefs about how characters and situations have been portrayed.
  
  Serrano borders on existentialist and absurdist, which I found endearing, since it often reads like he wrote unfiltered stream of consciousness ideas – not unlike how you might present a good natured (and completely inconsequential) argument to a friend.
  
  While each chapter has its merits, I wasn’t enthralled by all the essays, because I didn’t particularly care for the genre (i.e. heist movies) or films discussed (i.e. the Fast and Furious franchise). Unless you’re a film obsessive, you can probably peruse the table of contents and pick the sections of most interest.
  
  Each chapter includes several illustrations by Arturo Torres, who mashes up Serrano’s argument into pop culture art that would rival Warhol or Hamilton. If you ever dreamed of seeing Leonardo DiCaprio holding The Rock on the Titanic or watching Jesus baptize a raptor from Jurassic Park, well, this is the book for you.
  
• 
  Renata

  I enjoyed this SO much. It read like a conversation I might have with a very funny and insightful friend about the movies I like (featuring amazing illustrations).
• 
  Sonja

  This was really, really, really fun, and also wildly accessible for someone like me who knows very little about movies. I liked the Mean Girls and Booksmart chapters the most, but I actually enjoyed even the chapters where I hadn't really seen any of the source material. Would recommend!
• 
  Benoit Lelièvre

  I was a little let down by this.
  
  Part of it is Shea Serrano's fault. Part of it isn't. With this book, he basically tried to reproduce what he did with Basketball (And Other Things), but it doesn't really work because one doesn't experience movies like one experiences basketball. In hoops, there is one league and one history that everyone experiences the same and everybody has a different movie culture. There were many movies in this book I haven't seen (Something's Gotta Give, Finding Nemo) and movies I've seen that meant little to nothing to me (Fast & Furious franchise). There were little commonplace films, which was quite frustrating.
  
  But still, there are fun and intellectually stimulating exercises like: replacing movie characters with The Rock, finding out which race was white-saviored the best by Kevin Costner or Serrano's explanation of what Selena means to hispanic people (probably my favorite chapter. The one I learned the most in, at least). Shea Serrano is talented and this book is ultimately fun, but if he wants to keep making movie books, it'll have to be less fragmented than that. Because I wouldn't put myself through another 250 pages of this formula. At least not for movies.
• 
  Linda Stack-Nelson

  I don't know shit about movies, but then I didn't know shit about basketball or rap either before I read the last two books. I will read whatever Shea Serrano writes forever, even when I have absolutely no context for it. The text? Hilarious and insightful. The illustrations? Hilarious and beautiful. What more could you want?
• 
  matt

  I love Serrano, but I haven’t seen a lot of these movies. I guess it’s impressive that I enjoyed a book in a subject I don’t know that well? I would read Seranno’s book on the history of bread loaves, though.
• 
  Katie Florida

  Funny! Shea writes very conversationally and has a great sense of humor, and offers some keen analysis in the process.
• 
  Skyler

  Much like Basketball (and Other Things) and his twitter feed, Shea brings the full force of his personality to bear on this book about the movies, movie moments, and performances he loves. The book is stuffed with heart, jokes, observations, and incredible Arturo Torres drawings of iconic Hollywood figures turned inside out. It's a quick and exhilarating read of one man's natterings on one of our greatest cultural phenomenons.
• 
  Mwalizadeh

  I wanted to love this book more than I did. I loved Shea’s BASKETBALL (and other things) book. A lot. That was full of great details and stats, with very creative concepts and questions. This MOVIES edition was not as creative or informative. I felt several of the chapters/questions were too simple, or better yet, they were not thought provoking.
  
  That said, I loved the chapters where he re-did the Oscars. And overall, fun to read.
• 
  rebecca

  i don’t know what else to say other than this was super fun and i really enjoyed it. some of the essays featured movies i hadn’t seen so i skimmed them but i really enjoyed shea serrano’s perspective on things & the story about him falling off his ladder made me cry with laughter. basketball isn’t big where i’m from & i know nothing about it otherwise i’d already bought his other book basketball (and other things). would read another pop culture book from him in a heartbeat though.
• 
  Ryan

  In Movies (And Other Things), Shea Serrano considers whether Get Out is better than The Social Network and ranks the best JCVD movies. There are guest posts from The Ringer/ Grantland writers and even a paragraph from Jia Tolentino. My knock on Movies (And Other Things) is that I could read this content on The Ringer/ Grantland or listen to it on a podcast, and I worry it might be better in either format.
• 
  Brandon Forsyth

  This is a glowing tribute to oft-maligned Hollywood genres, from romantic comedies to action films, and the craft that goes into them. Serrano is one of the best Internet culture writers we have, and his refreshingly blunt and humorous takes on everything from the work of Diane Keaton to an exhaustive analysis of the Fast and Furious movies will leave you eager to throw on a guilty pleasure or two over the weekend. The analysis isn’t always particularly deep, but it’s always funny, and that feels particularly appropriate.