Much like my endless blathering about how incredible An Evening With Kevin Smith is, my talking about this book is sure to make people want to kill me, until they read it.
Books by movie folk are usually boring as hell, but, Boring Ass Life hit me on the same level as Bruce Campbell’s If Chins Could Kill. I loved it.
As much as I loved Smith’s previous book, Silent Bob Speaks, this one was more fun to read.
One of the great things about Smith is his complete separation from Hollywood super-ego, even though, in my opinion, he’s as entitled to it as almost any other bonehead making movies these days. I love his films, I love his writing, I love his website, I read his blog every time he posts something, I love his speeches and, you know what, I LOVED Jersey Girl. I think that it was his best work so far (I mean that in a good way. It was a beautiful movie).
Warning: If you don’t like the F-word, get over yourself and read this book anyway.
Random Reviews:
“No-holds-barred … like his best films: raw, openhearted, and mordantly funny” - Entertainment Weekly
“Elevating the white-guy-doing-nothing prerogative from a lifestyle choice to a moral principle.” - New York Times
“There’s more to Clerks director Kevin Smith than just jokes, and he proves it with his long, moving - and, yes, funny - account of helping a friend kick heroin.” - Newsweek
“A rude blast of gleeful provocation.” - Rolling Stone
“Smith’s brand of auteurism still celebrates boyishness verging humorously on arrested development.” - New York Times
“Kevin Smith is beloved for his vulgar cockeyed yet sweetly human dissections of life through the eyes of the young and disaffected.” - Los Angeles Times
2 users commented in " Recommended Reading - My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m still kinda neutral about Kevin Smith, he was a terrific guest critic on “Ebert & Roeper” and his cameo in the last Die Hard flick was good, too. As an auteur, I dunno.
Haven’t read Bruce Campbell’s book, but I should.
Campbell’s book is almost a how-to on making a low budget horror movie. He’s also funny as hell throughout the whole thing. You should read that one.
I’ll tell you what … as an actor, I’m always happier to see Smith in a film than, say, Tarentino. I think Smith has more acting chops than he gives himself credit for.
As a film writer, I think his dialog is smart and heavy. I really like smart and witty conversation. As to his more adult content? I’ve spent almost half of my life outside of Utah, and what Smith talks about, people actually talk about in other places.
As to his directing. Sure, Clerks was a student flick and Mallrats was … odd (I thought it was funny) but Chasing Amy was a deep, thoughtful flick. Dogma was one of best films I’ve ever seen that dissected loss of faith in modern society, and it had a poop monster.
Jersey Girl was a great movie. That Kevin Smith could write and direct something that made a heavy emotional impact on me in the first ten minutes blew my mind.
Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms.
Leave A Reply