BOOK REVIEW:
The Film Snob’s Dictionary would like to paint the world
as a place where only two types of people exist: the film
snob and the non-snob. But I tell you there can only be two
reasonable reactions to this book: mild interest or disinterest,
depending on whether you are a Monday-Wednesday moviegoer
or a Thursday-Sunday moviegoer. Get it? No? It just means
that this book is, in a very apt Singlish term, slightly “extra”.
Fans
of this book will thump their sofa and shout their glee at
finally finding the tome that justifies their time spent in
Video-Ezy looking for Tom Laughlin’s 1971 movie “Billy
Jack”. Don’t know what movie I am talking about?
Welcome to the world of normal human beings. Say bye-bye to
becoming the next Quentin Tarantino and Peter Jackson.
The
fact is; I wonder how a book explicating on directors and
movies that only about 20 Singaporeans (myself not included)
really know about would sell here. Unless this book is trying
to do a “The Cook the thief his wife and her lover”-style
Miramax-dun-watch-it campaign here. Don’t know what
I am talking about? Well, this is how I felt for about 70%
of the book. Apparently there is a class difference between
“movie” and “film” as well. Huh?
Well,
even though I enjoy the movie “Castaway” and no
I don’t want to watch the film “I am curious –
Yellow” just so that I can show off to my friends, this
book still manages to be adequately funny and wildly informative.
CHOICE XCERPT:
“Meditation on. Stock hack-crit phrase used to bestow
an air of erudition and gravitas on both the critic and the
film he is reviewing. Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation
is an affecting meditation on cultural and temporal dislocation;
the Matrix series is the Wachowski brothers’ mediation
on the intersection of technology and spirituality.”
VERDICT:
Full
of information for fans – others call it trivia or in-jokes.
Nonetheless, a sharply-written diversion that would not take
too much of your time.
Review
by Lim Mun Pong
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