Movieola

"A concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling." --The Millions "Released just in time for summer blockbuster season, [Movieola!] turns the movie industry's elevator pitch idioms inside-out with acrobatic humor." --Brooklyn Rail "The linked stories in John Domini's Movieola! riff on the storylines of various movie types. The result? Part parody, part meditation." --Chicago Tribune "Thoroughly entertaining." --Vanity Fair "A collection of fragmentary stories linked by the author's feverishly exuberant riffs on the world of moviemaking." --The Rumpus "Movieola is for fans of Calvino -- and of the film director's art." --BBC "A concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling... Movieola! is not aptly described as a gathering together of fun tales. Rather, it's a concise and intelligent assessment of the state of modern storytelling, and its joy -- it's edge-of-your-seat, cliff-hanger thrill -- stems from what it offers by way of philosophical critique." - The Millions "If you've had it with the movies, John Domini in Movieola! will tell you, friskily, why." --Padgett Powell "Reading John Domini is always the smartest kind of fun - and beneath the brainy humor, the delicious wordplay, and the wry observations, there's a warm beating heart and a giddy excitement for our most egalitarian art form. Everyone who loves movies will love this book." --Amber Sparks "Like Coover's A Night at the Movies, Movieola! demonstrates a lover's attentiveness to the mannerisms and conventions of film. What Domini sneaks into the theater under his jacket, however, is a slyly disruptive deployment of the language of Hollywood insiderdom and wannabe insiderdom -- the parody is unstinting, but the souls of the characters are never neglected. Two thumbs up!" --Chris Sorrentino "A remarkable, droll meditation on film; in particular, on film genre; more particularly still, on how all great works of art either invent a genre or dissolve one." --David Shields