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Title details for Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt - Available

Silver Screen Fiend

Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film

by Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The instant New York Times bestseller from author, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, a "heartfelt and hilarious" (USA TODAY) memoir about coming of age as a performer during the late 1990s while obsessively watching classic films at a legendary theater in Los Angeles. "[Oswalt has] a set of synapses like a pinball machine and a prose style to match" (The New York Times).
Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol, or sex: it was film. After moving to Los Angeles, Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the famous New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships.

Set in the nascent days of LA's alternative comedy scene, Silver Screen Fiend chronicles Oswalt's journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way. "Clever and readable...Oswalt's encyclopedic knowledge and frothing enthusiasm for films (from sleek noir classics, to gory B movies, to cliché-riddled independents, to big empty blockbusters) is relentlessly present, whirring in the background like a projector" (The Boston Globe). More than a memoir, this is "a love song to the silver screen" (Paste Magazine).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 6, 2015

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781442375147
      • File size: 118713 KB
      • Duration: 04:07:19

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Patton Oswalt's audiobook is a bit about movies--but more about the life and times of Patton Oswalt, as told by the comedian himself. In a light and breezy tone, he talks about films but frequently breaks off into tangents about himself and his childhood. Oswalt is an engaging fellow, the kind of nice guy you'd like to meet and listen to at a bar, but he could get tiresome fast. That's one reason this audiobook is just long enough. Oswalt's passion for films runs deep, and he clues listeners in on a lot of great movies they may not know about. M.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 2, 2015
      In this dynamic memoir, comedian and author Patton Oswald writes of his obsessive four-year love affair with film. Arriving in LA to chase his dream of standup stardom, Oswalt was seduced by films, from classic to contemporary, and spent four years racing from theater to theater to catch everything from latest blockbuster to Hammer retrospective. Oswalt's celluloid odyssey provides a framework for his education as an artist and human being. A brash suburbanite when he arrives on the West Coast, Oswalt endures one humiliation after another â bombing onstage in San Francisco, getting fired from MADtv â on his way to success, and still manages to keep his soul. Silver Screen Fiend serves as a sort-of a sequel to a previous memoir (Zombie Spaceship Wasteland). Two memoirs in quick succession from a, relatively, young man might raise doubts but Oswalt's unique voice and offbeat conceits save him from any danger of a sophomore slump. While he does indulge in the typical Hollywood smoke blowing â every peer is a genius! Prodigy! Seventh Wonder! â his sardonic self-awareness and fascination with the minutiae of film history are seductive. Oswalt's sentences crackle with energy and humor; this stand-up comic is also a sit-down one.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 23, 2015
      Veteran stand-up comedian and television actor Oswalt brings his quirky persona to the audio edition of his latest book. Oswalt recounts a four-year period as a young adult in the 1990s when he became obsessed with vintage movies and spent at least three nights a week at the famed New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Oswalt provides a conversational and confessional style of delivery familiar to fans of his stand-up act; he moves at a fast pace, never slowing down to allow time for listeners to digest all of his unapologetically esoteric references to cinema and the comedy scene. Yet that mixture of eccentricity and bravado is
      the essence of Oswalt’s appeal. A tribute to The Beverly Theater’s colorful owner and operator, the late Sherman Torgan, is especially memorable, as Oswalt vividly recites a list of never-made films that he wishes Torgan could view as a reward in the afterlife. The audiobook also includes a bonus PDF with photos and a helpful index detailing all of Oswalt’s movie-going during his addiction period. A Scribner hardcover.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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