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Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
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Nominee for Readers' Favorite Humor (2015)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.
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.
240 pages, ebook
First published January 6, 2015
222 people are currently reading
7588 people want to read
About the author
Patton Oswalt
129 books537 followersPatton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor.
His first wife was the late Michelle McNamara.
His first wife was the late Michelle McNamara.
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September 15, 2016
(I received a free advance copy of this via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt wrote this unflinching account of his battle with addiction during the late ‘90s, but he didn’t spend his days cooking meth with bikers or whoring himself out for crack. Poor Patton was a movie junkie who found plenty of dealers to get him high in the theaters of Los Angeles.
A double feature of Billy Wilder films at the New Beverly Cinema was the gateway drug that led Patton down a relentless path of devouring movies and cataloging them in a diary as well as notations in several film books he had. His work and his relationships suffered as he became unable to relate to other people’s every day interests that didn't involve movies, and he rationalized his behavior by thinking that it would eventually give him the insight to make a great film of his own. His descent continued until he hits bottom shortly after seeing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Which is understandable because a lot of us never felt like seeing a movie again after that one.
Ah, but seriously folks…
I noted in my review of Oswalt’s that I found the darker elements of that memoir intriguing, but that he’d seemed a little scared of making it too personal and sincere so he’d inserted segments of pure humor in it as deflections. Here we have him recounting a period when he feels like he let his love of movies of get the better of him, and how coming to terms with that changed the way he approached his own career as well as what was really important to him as a person. Since this is a professional comedian telling the story, it’s still funny, but it doesn’t seem like he’s using humor as a shield like it did in his previous book.
Here’s the tricky part for me about reviewing this: I’m a Patton Oswalt fan who finds him not only hilarious but also an actor capable of great work in both TV and film. I love reading about what creative people think about the process of actually turning ideas into something that can be shared. I’ll also confess to being a movie junkie. While I’ve never chased the dragon as hard as Patton did, I am the kind of person who is perfectly happy to kill an afternoon at a special showing of Seven Samurai or spend the better part of a day in a Marvel movie marathon. When Patton tells a story about seeing Last Man Standing and subjecting the friend he was with to the whole history of how it’s actually the same story as A Fistful of Dollars which is pretty much a remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo which was heavily influenced by Dashiell Hammet’s Red Harvest, it made me cringe because I said the same exact thing to the person I saw it with, too.
So this book obviously hit a sweet spot for me, but I could see another reader (Someone who doesn’t have their own custom I HATE! I HATE! coffee mug based on Oswalt’s Text routine.) maybe not liking this book quite so much. Such a person might point out that Patton is essentially berating his younger self for the time spent on his movie obsession rather than creating his own work as well as lamenting the time he didn’t spend with friends and family. And they’d have a valid point.
Because for all his self-criticism here it’s a little odd that Patton doesn’t give himself more credit for what he was accomplishing at the time which was turning himself into a top-notch comedian by performing relentlessly as well as landing regular work in the movies and on TV. Yeah, maybe he was on King of Queens for years instead of making his own Citizen Kane, but that helped him get to a point where he’s got to do other things like his great and disturbing performance as a sports nut in Big Fan. And now he’s married and has a daughter that he loves dearly so he figured out that whole work/life balance thing, right?
So what exactly is this guy bitching about? That he wasted a lot of time in the ‘90s watching movies? Hell, we all did that.
However, it the book works for you, then you‘ll find a lot more than that. It’s hard to break down the stew of events and small epiphanies that make us who we are, and that’s what Patton has tried to do here. He’s describing a period when he wasn't satisfied with what he was doing and was flailing around for answers by immersing himself obsessively in something he loved. He did finally learn something from all his time watching movies, but it wasn't what he went looking for. Maybe he didn’t become Quentin Tarantino, but he did grow into being Patton Oswalt. And like a lot of his fans, I’m happy it worked out that way.
Hey, I just got an email from Alamo Drafthouse telling me that they’re having a screening of The Apartment this weekend. Maybe I should check that out....
Also posted at
Comedian and actor Patton Oswalt wrote this unflinching account of his battle with addiction during the late ‘90s, but he didn’t spend his days cooking meth with bikers or whoring himself out for crack. Poor Patton was a movie junkie who found plenty of dealers to get him high in the theaters of Los Angeles.
A double feature of Billy Wilder films at the New Beverly Cinema was the gateway drug that led Patton down a relentless path of devouring movies and cataloging them in a diary as well as notations in several film books he had. His work and his relationships suffered as he became unable to relate to other people’s every day interests that didn't involve movies, and he rationalized his behavior by thinking that it would eventually give him the insight to make a great film of his own. His descent continued until he hits bottom shortly after seeing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Which is understandable because a lot of us never felt like seeing a movie again after that one.
Ah, but seriously folks…
I noted in my review of Oswalt’s that I found the darker elements of that memoir intriguing, but that he’d seemed a little scared of making it too personal and sincere so he’d inserted segments of pure humor in it as deflections. Here we have him recounting a period when he feels like he let his love of movies of get the better of him, and how coming to terms with that changed the way he approached his own career as well as what was really important to him as a person. Since this is a professional comedian telling the story, it’s still funny, but it doesn’t seem like he’s using humor as a shield like it did in his previous book.
Here’s the tricky part for me about reviewing this: I’m a Patton Oswalt fan who finds him not only hilarious but also an actor capable of great work in both TV and film. I love reading about what creative people think about the process of actually turning ideas into something that can be shared. I’ll also confess to being a movie junkie. While I’ve never chased the dragon as hard as Patton did, I am the kind of person who is perfectly happy to kill an afternoon at a special showing of Seven Samurai or spend the better part of a day in a Marvel movie marathon. When Patton tells a story about seeing Last Man Standing and subjecting the friend he was with to the whole history of how it’s actually the same story as A Fistful of Dollars which is pretty much a remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo which was heavily influenced by Dashiell Hammet’s Red Harvest, it made me cringe because I said the same exact thing to the person I saw it with, too.
So this book obviously hit a sweet spot for me, but I could see another reader (Someone who doesn’t have their own custom I HATE! I HATE! coffee mug based on Oswalt’s Text routine.) maybe not liking this book quite so much. Such a person might point out that Patton is essentially berating his younger self for the time spent on his movie obsession rather than creating his own work as well as lamenting the time he didn’t spend with friends and family. And they’d have a valid point.
Because for all his self-criticism here it’s a little odd that Patton doesn’t give himself more credit for what he was accomplishing at the time which was turning himself into a top-notch comedian by performing relentlessly as well as landing regular work in the movies and on TV. Yeah, maybe he was on King of Queens for years instead of making his own Citizen Kane, but that helped him get to a point where he’s got to do other things like his great and disturbing performance as a sports nut in Big Fan. And now he’s married and has a daughter that he loves dearly so he figured out that whole work/life balance thing, right?
So what exactly is this guy bitching about? That he wasted a lot of time in the ‘90s watching movies? Hell, we all did that.
However, it the book works for you, then you‘ll find a lot more than that. It’s hard to break down the stew of events and small epiphanies that make us who we are, and that’s what Patton has tried to do here. He’s describing a period when he wasn't satisfied with what he was doing and was flailing around for answers by immersing himself obsessively in something he loved. He did finally learn something from all his time watching movies, but it wasn't what he went looking for. Maybe he didn’t become Quentin Tarantino, but he did grow into being Patton Oswalt. And like a lot of his fans, I’m happy it worked out that way.
Hey, I just got an email from Alamo Drafthouse telling me that they’re having a screening of The Apartment this weekend. Maybe I should check that out....
Also posted at
November 23, 2016
Patton Oswalt was born in January of 1969. Later that summer, on July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two humans to walk around on the surface of the moon – in what some pundits have declared was the high water mark for western civilization. Beginning the downward slide, I showed up in September of that year.
All that to say that Oswalt and I are the same age and we were both raised in the suburbs and attended high school in the 1980s (both graduating in 1987). We both liked comic books and weird literature, music and – movies.
In Silver Screen Fiend, published in 2015, Oswalt takes us on a journey down the strange and unusual trip he had in his addiction to film.
Now, believe it or not, I also had something of an addiction to film. Prior to my current addiction to books on 카지노싸이트, I rated and reviewed almost 2,000 films on Flixster. In reading Silver Screen Fiend, I recognized many of the films Oswalt discusses and even made some of the same connections he has. Like Oswalt, I also had a thick film critics compilation book in which I made check marks and notes (mine was Leonard Maltin’s).
And that’s about where the similarities end. Oswalt has been in scores of films and TV shows and has had a successful stand up comedian career. He has a full Wikipedia page whereas I am only mentioned on a Wikipedia page. I do have three children to his one, and whereas he has been married for 10 years, my wife and I celebrated 25 already. I’ll retire someday as a lawyer and as a veteran, but his retirement check will no doubt have more zeros than mine.
And – I have enjoyed his two books very much, hopefully as much as he enjoyed writing them. While Silver Screen Fiend was not as funny as 2011’s , which was a laugh out loud laugh fest, Fiend has more soul, and is a lot of fun in its own way. Describing much of his stand up career, especially the early days, as well as the beginnings of his film career, Fiend goes into great detail about the films he saw and how they affected him. Oswalt has an above average command of the language, is actually a very good writer. His similes and metaphors are golden.
One of the coolest things Oswalt does (and it is pure Patton Oswalt, making an oblique media reference) is to imagine a film festival based upon movies that might be in a perfect universe. Oswalt references Neil Gaiman’s series and specifically his dream library that has books that have never been published, or even written but rather that the author had DREAMED of writing, Lewis Carroll’s Alice on the Moon for instance. Oswalt creates movies for this list that would have been impossible to create, using actors and directors from different times and being used in ways that could not rationally happen, but this fun fantasy film festival (did not even INTEND for that quadruple F alliteration!) is too good to miss.
All that to say that Oswalt and I are the same age and we were both raised in the suburbs and attended high school in the 1980s (both graduating in 1987). We both liked comic books and weird literature, music and – movies.
In Silver Screen Fiend, published in 2015, Oswalt takes us on a journey down the strange and unusual trip he had in his addiction to film.
Now, believe it or not, I also had something of an addiction to film. Prior to my current addiction to books on 카지노싸이트, I rated and reviewed almost 2,000 films on Flixster. In reading Silver Screen Fiend, I recognized many of the films Oswalt discusses and even made some of the same connections he has. Like Oswalt, I also had a thick film critics compilation book in which I made check marks and notes (mine was Leonard Maltin’s).
And that’s about where the similarities end. Oswalt has been in scores of films and TV shows and has had a successful stand up comedian career. He has a full Wikipedia page whereas I am only mentioned on a Wikipedia page. I do have three children to his one, and whereas he has been married for 10 years, my wife and I celebrated 25 already. I’ll retire someday as a lawyer and as a veteran, but his retirement check will no doubt have more zeros than mine.
And – I have enjoyed his two books very much, hopefully as much as he enjoyed writing them. While Silver Screen Fiend was not as funny as 2011’s , which was a laugh out loud laugh fest, Fiend has more soul, and is a lot of fun in its own way. Describing much of his stand up career, especially the early days, as well as the beginnings of his film career, Fiend goes into great detail about the films he saw and how they affected him. Oswalt has an above average command of the language, is actually a very good writer. His similes and metaphors are golden.
One of the coolest things Oswalt does (and it is pure Patton Oswalt, making an oblique media reference) is to imagine a film festival based upon movies that might be in a perfect universe. Oswalt references Neil Gaiman’s series and specifically his dream library that has books that have never been published, or even written but rather that the author had DREAMED of writing, Lewis Carroll’s Alice on the Moon for instance. Oswalt creates movies for this list that would have been impossible to create, using actors and directors from different times and being used in ways that could not rationally happen, but this fun fantasy film festival (did not even INTEND for that quadruple F alliteration!) is too good to miss.
March 22, 2019
Find all of my reviews at:
3.5 Stars
Let me begin by saying I was waaaaaaaay not smart enough for this book. I am 100% unapologetically a pop culture aficionado and most certainly not a “sprocket fiend” . . . .
I also have to admit that I have only watched a couple of episodes of The King of Queens (and there’s a WHOLE lot of baggage about the why on that one in the form of “why does the woman in these couple comedies always have to be portrayed as some shrieking bitch harpy even though she’s married to a slug of a dude who totally gets a pass and I'm supposed to find simply chaaaaaaarming?” – but that’s a discussion for a different time and place).
That being said, I am a rabid fan of Parks and Rec and Reno 911 and Brooklyn 99 and A.P. Bio and Drunk History and Archer and I have come to simply adore this man. He has the most pleasant voice, he’s cute as a dang button and he steals every scene he’s in. It was like having an old friend talk to me in the car this week . . . .
Okay, okay, I’ll dial it back and try not to make it weird. Anyway, what I was trying to say was that it was like having someone you think you know pretty well start telling you stories and then you realize that you had zero clue how smart that person was or how well he could do words. And also that your own encyclopedic knowledge of films is pretty much strictly relegated to that of the toilet humor variety. So while some things definitely went over my head and I had heard/watched about 50% of the films referenced, I was still completely enraptured despite that fact and the tale of this addiction/superstition reaching such epic levels was laugh-out-loud funny when I was able to track WTF he was talking about.
ARC provided by NetGalley FOUR YEARS ago that I still haven’t read because I opted for the audio instead. That is shameful.
3.5 Stars
Let me begin by saying I was waaaaaaaay not smart enough for this book. I am 100% unapologetically a pop culture aficionado and most certainly not a “sprocket fiend” . . . .
I also have to admit that I have only watched a couple of episodes of The King of Queens (and there’s a WHOLE lot of baggage about the why on that one in the form of “why does the woman in these couple comedies always have to be portrayed as some shrieking bitch harpy even though she’s married to a slug of a dude who totally gets a pass and I'm supposed to find simply chaaaaaaarming?” – but that’s a discussion for a different time and place).
That being said, I am a rabid fan of Parks and Rec and Reno 911 and Brooklyn 99 and A.P. Bio and Drunk History and Archer and I have come to simply adore this man. He has the most pleasant voice, he’s cute as a dang button and he steals every scene he’s in. It was like having an old friend talk to me in the car this week . . . .
Okay, okay, I’ll dial it back and try not to make it weird. Anyway, what I was trying to say was that it was like having someone you think you know pretty well start telling you stories and then you realize that you had zero clue how smart that person was or how well he could do words. And also that your own encyclopedic knowledge of films is pretty much strictly relegated to that of the toilet humor variety. So while some things definitely went over my head and I had heard/watched about 50% of the films referenced, I was still completely enraptured despite that fact and the tale of this addiction/superstition reaching such epic levels was laugh-out-loud funny when I was able to track WTF he was talking about.
ARC provided by NetGalley FOUR YEARS ago that I still haven’t read because I opted for the audio instead. That is shameful.
August 23, 2015
This was a fun, manic memoir about Patton Oswalt's obsession with movies in the 1990s. I wanted to read this because I like Patton's comedy and I thought it would be a humorous audiobook. Which it was.
The films that got Patton started on his movie addiction were Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole, both by Billy Wilder. After seeing those, Patton started regularly attending the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, which showed classic films. Patton had decided he wanted to be a director, but instead of going to film school he was going to learn by watching a bunch of movies.
Patton spent a good portion of the next four years inside movie theaters. He was working on his standup career at the time, so often he would see a movie and then head straight to a comedy club. Also in this time he got a few small roles, and there are some funny stories about learning to act. But he admitted his movie obsession was taking up much of his time, often to the detriment of his relationships.
Patton said he was finally able to break his addiction in 1999 after seeing Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which he found incredibly disappointing, and realized he needed to take a break from watching so many movies.
While reading this memoir, I compared Patton's film obsession with my book obsession, and could see some parallels. I think we all have hobbies and passions that take up space in our lives, and it can be easy to neglect other things as we feed our addiction.
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to movie buffs and fans of Patton Oswalt.
The films that got Patton started on his movie addiction were Sunset Boulevard and Ace in the Hole, both by Billy Wilder. After seeing those, Patton started regularly attending the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, which showed classic films. Patton had decided he wanted to be a director, but instead of going to film school he was going to learn by watching a bunch of movies.
Patton spent a good portion of the next four years inside movie theaters. He was working on his standup career at the time, so often he would see a movie and then head straight to a comedy club. Also in this time he got a few small roles, and there are some funny stories about learning to act. But he admitted his movie obsession was taking up much of his time, often to the detriment of his relationships.
Patton said he was finally able to break his addiction in 1999 after seeing Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which he found incredibly disappointing, and realized he needed to take a break from watching so many movies.
Movies — the truly great ones (and sometimes the truly bad) — should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life. A fuel that should include sex and love and food and movement and friendships and your own work. All of it, feeding the engine. But the engine of your life should be your life. And it hits me, sitting there with my friends, that for all of our bluster and detailed, exotic knowledge about film, we aren't contributing anything to film.
While reading this memoir, I compared Patton's film obsession with my book obsession, and could see some parallels. I think we all have hobbies and passions that take up space in our lives, and it can be easy to neglect other things as we feed our addiction.
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to movie buffs and fans of Patton Oswalt.
July 28, 2016
A bipolar memoir on two of my favorite subjects, comedy and film.
Comedian Patton Oswalt loves film. There was a period in his life when he was on the fence as to which career path to take. Would he become a comedian or perhaps a director? Silver Screen Fiend takes us down his memory lane of movie binge watching and stand-up routine crafting in a sometimes odd and erratic autobio read.
This book probably only deserves three stars, but I'm going with four, because of my love for the topics, but also Patton spends many a page recalling awesome films in Los Angeles movie houses during the mid-90s, the time that I'd just moved to LA. Call it a nostalgia star.
The book starts a bit rough, almost schizophrenic-like. It felt like he was intentionally setting the bar, trying to see who was willing and able to keep up and put up with his esoteric references and the flip-flopping from movies to comedy. This was well within my wheelhouse and even I was somewhat put off.
However, once you get through the beginning, Patton settles down into some solid soliloquy on silver screen gems and personal anecdotes relating to stand-up. He details his early-years struggle and takes the reader through the start of his career in comedy, including some slap-in-the-face moments when he realized he needed to hone his craft or call it quits.
I remember seeing Patton in the '90s on Comedy Central specials and shows like Dr. Katz. He was an "angry comedian" back then in the vein of Sam Kinison or Lewis Black. Time has mellowed him some. Time and a whole lot of work has given him success. It was nice to watch his transformation and I was happy for him. Then in the spring of 2016 (FUCK YOU 2016!!!) he lost his wife. She died in her sleep and left him to care for his daughter without her. I doubt we'll see much comedy or any new books from Patton for a while. So, I'll be going back and reading his old stuff and hoping he can pull himself through these tough times.
Comedian Patton Oswalt loves film. There was a period in his life when he was on the fence as to which career path to take. Would he become a comedian or perhaps a director? Silver Screen Fiend takes us down his memory lane of movie binge watching and stand-up routine crafting in a sometimes odd and erratic autobio read.
This book probably only deserves three stars, but I'm going with four, because of my love for the topics, but also Patton spends many a page recalling awesome films in Los Angeles movie houses during the mid-90s, the time that I'd just moved to LA. Call it a nostalgia star.
The book starts a bit rough, almost schizophrenic-like. It felt like he was intentionally setting the bar, trying to see who was willing and able to keep up and put up with his esoteric references and the flip-flopping from movies to comedy. This was well within my wheelhouse and even I was somewhat put off.
However, once you get through the beginning, Patton settles down into some solid soliloquy on silver screen gems and personal anecdotes relating to stand-up. He details his early-years struggle and takes the reader through the start of his career in comedy, including some slap-in-the-face moments when he realized he needed to hone his craft or call it quits.
I remember seeing Patton in the '90s on Comedy Central specials and shows like Dr. Katz. He was an "angry comedian" back then in the vein of Sam Kinison or Lewis Black. Time has mellowed him some. Time and a whole lot of work has given him success. It was nice to watch his transformation and I was happy for him. Then in the spring of 2016 (FUCK YOU 2016!!!) he lost his wife. She died in her sleep and left him to care for his daughter without her. I doubt we'll see much comedy or any new books from Patton for a while. So, I'll be going back and reading his old stuff and hoping he can pull himself through these tough times.
December 16, 2015
"Van Gogh entered a room in his mind when he painted The Night Cafe. He acknowledged his damaged (and worsening) psyche and, in acknowledging it, made a deal. He would be able to take newer, more original artistic conceptions out, would be able to capture them in paintings. His psyche found the deal acceptable. It let Vincent leave the room - the Night Cafe - with vistas and visions he hadn't come close to in his career. But something followed him out, and latched on to him like a virus, and he was never the same.
He was a better painter. A transformed one.
...I still have both ears. My chest cavity is bullet-free.
But the concept of the Night Cafe - the room you enter, and then leave having been forever changed - is abiding, repeated event in my life. Six times, so far, it's happened to me. All of them had to do with my creativity, and my imagination, and how I saw the world and my place in it."
It might seem like an odd choice to open what is supposed to be a comedy memoir about movies by talking about a painting from the 1800's. But Silver Screen Fiend is an odd book. It's not quite an in-depth look at how movies and pop culture shaped Patton Oswalt when he was starting out as a comedian in the 1990's, and it's not quite a straightforward memoir about how Oswalt went from a struggling comic in '90's Los Angeles to the genre-spanning icon he is today. (yes, I called Patton Oswalt an icon. Fight me.)
People who go into this book expecting it to be these things will be disappointed. There aren't nearly enough details about either Oswalt's stand-up career (although there are plenty of great stories about the LA comedy scene in the '90's), and his obsession with movies is framed more by the iconic New Beverly Cinema where he saw the films, instead of the movies themselves.
With Silver Screen Fiend, Oswalt is trying to do something bigger than just share how he got his start in comedy, or talk about his favorite movies - although there's plenty of that. Instead, he's trying to make a statement about how he progressed from an obsession with watching what others created, to creating something himself. He uses the idea of a "Night Cafe" - an experience you have that affects you so deeply it changes the course of your life and remains imprinted on your soul - to show how his obsession with seeing classic films at the New Beverly made him the artist he is today:
"I'm in Los Angeles, with a steady writing job on weekdays at MADtv, a dozen 'alternative comedy' spaces to go up in and work on material - and now this, the New Beverly, my $5-a-night film school.
Pretty good trio of films to start off my education with, right? Sunset Boulevard - a cynical, heartbroken writer, dragged to his doom by a true believer in the illusion of film. Ace in the Hole - a satanic, exploitative reporter who picks apart a dying man at the bottom of a pit in the hope that his career will rise back into the sun. And The Nutty Professor - an ignored nerd who's tempted by popular monstrosity. Obsession, darkness, and magical thinking. Sitting in my apartment late in the night, penciling the star, date, and venue name next to The Nutty Professor in two film books, I will have no idea I've entered my fourth Night Cafe.
It will be four years before I pull myself out of it."
Loving movies and pop culture is not a bad thing - Oswalt's book proves that films can be just as rich and legitimate forms of art as paintings and literature. But this book acts as a warning to obsessive fans of any medium: it's good to study the masters who came before you, and loving their work is fine, but you have to create something of your own. Oswalt describes hanging out with friends and spending hours criticizing The Phantom Menace, and he realizes he's, "angry at George Lucas for producing something that doesn't live up to my exacting, demanding, ultimately non-participating standards, and failing to see that four hours of pontificating and connecting and correcting his work could be spent creating two or three pages of my own."
It's easy to criticize (I say, in the text of a book review on a site where I've made a minor name for myself by doing exactly that). It's hard to create.
"Movies - the truly great ones (and sometimes the truly bad) - should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life. A fuel that should include sex and love and food and movement and friendships and your own work. All of it, feeding the engine. But the engine of your life should be your life. And it hits me, sitting there with my friends, that for all our bluster and detailed, exotic knowledge about film, we aren't contributing anything to film. ...And then, once the group of us who moved down to Los Angeles got there, there was more bitching - about not getting bigger roles or better opportunities to pitch shows for ourselves. And we'd piss and moan and get comfortable - fuck, some of us built whole careers - pointing out how unfair and whimsical and chaotic the entertainment business was, how it rarely rewarded the truly talented. None of us could see how it never rewarded the inert."
He was a better painter. A transformed one.
...I still have both ears. My chest cavity is bullet-free.
But the concept of the Night Cafe - the room you enter, and then leave having been forever changed - is abiding, repeated event in my life. Six times, so far, it's happened to me. All of them had to do with my creativity, and my imagination, and how I saw the world and my place in it."
It might seem like an odd choice to open what is supposed to be a comedy memoir about movies by talking about a painting from the 1800's. But Silver Screen Fiend is an odd book. It's not quite an in-depth look at how movies and pop culture shaped Patton Oswalt when he was starting out as a comedian in the 1990's, and it's not quite a straightforward memoir about how Oswalt went from a struggling comic in '90's Los Angeles to the genre-spanning icon he is today. (yes, I called Patton Oswalt an icon. Fight me.)
People who go into this book expecting it to be these things will be disappointed. There aren't nearly enough details about either Oswalt's stand-up career (although there are plenty of great stories about the LA comedy scene in the '90's), and his obsession with movies is framed more by the iconic New Beverly Cinema where he saw the films, instead of the movies themselves.
With Silver Screen Fiend, Oswalt is trying to do something bigger than just share how he got his start in comedy, or talk about his favorite movies - although there's plenty of that. Instead, he's trying to make a statement about how he progressed from an obsession with watching what others created, to creating something himself. He uses the idea of a "Night Cafe" - an experience you have that affects you so deeply it changes the course of your life and remains imprinted on your soul - to show how his obsession with seeing classic films at the New Beverly made him the artist he is today:
"I'm in Los Angeles, with a steady writing job on weekdays at MADtv, a dozen 'alternative comedy' spaces to go up in and work on material - and now this, the New Beverly, my $5-a-night film school.
Pretty good trio of films to start off my education with, right? Sunset Boulevard - a cynical, heartbroken writer, dragged to his doom by a true believer in the illusion of film. Ace in the Hole - a satanic, exploitative reporter who picks apart a dying man at the bottom of a pit in the hope that his career will rise back into the sun. And The Nutty Professor - an ignored nerd who's tempted by popular monstrosity. Obsession, darkness, and magical thinking. Sitting in my apartment late in the night, penciling the star, date, and venue name next to The Nutty Professor in two film books, I will have no idea I've entered my fourth Night Cafe.
It will be four years before I pull myself out of it."
Loving movies and pop culture is not a bad thing - Oswalt's book proves that films can be just as rich and legitimate forms of art as paintings and literature. But this book acts as a warning to obsessive fans of any medium: it's good to study the masters who came before you, and loving their work is fine, but you have to create something of your own. Oswalt describes hanging out with friends and spending hours criticizing The Phantom Menace, and he realizes he's, "angry at George Lucas for producing something that doesn't live up to my exacting, demanding, ultimately non-participating standards, and failing to see that four hours of pontificating and connecting and correcting his work could be spent creating two or three pages of my own."
It's easy to criticize (I say, in the text of a book review on a site where I've made a minor name for myself by doing exactly that). It's hard to create.
"Movies - the truly great ones (and sometimes the truly bad) - should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life. A fuel that should include sex and love and food and movement and friendships and your own work. All of it, feeding the engine. But the engine of your life should be your life. And it hits me, sitting there with my friends, that for all our bluster and detailed, exotic knowledge about film, we aren't contributing anything to film. ...And then, once the group of us who moved down to Los Angeles got there, there was more bitching - about not getting bigger roles or better opportunities to pitch shows for ourselves. And we'd piss and moan and get comfortable - fuck, some of us built whole careers - pointing out how unfair and whimsical and chaotic the entertainment business was, how it rarely rewarded the truly talented. None of us could see how it never rewarded the inert."
July 28, 2021
Patton Oswalt is a national treasure!
Nothing like a heartfelt comedian's audiobook, narrated by the comedian himself, which isn't so much laugh out loud funny (although it is sometimes. My favorite is The Day the Clown Cried story) as much as a personal memoir about a classic film addiction overlapping with coming up in the 90s comedy scene. The personal growth, the Hollywood stories both about his contemporaries and about his deep love of 20th century film.
He never did make it as a director, but Patton should be proud of his contribution to American culture with this book and with his many iconic performances. He is of course more stand-up icon than actor, but that's the point. He's the perfect vessel for nerds of all kinds: movie buffs, legitimate comic book fanboys, general pop culture aficionados, and even literary memoirists.
Nothing like a heartfelt comedian's audiobook, narrated by the comedian himself, which isn't so much laugh out loud funny (although it is sometimes. My favorite is The Day the Clown Cried story) as much as a personal memoir about a classic film addiction overlapping with coming up in the 90s comedy scene. The personal growth, the Hollywood stories both about his contemporaries and about his deep love of 20th century film.
He never did make it as a director, but Patton should be proud of his contribution to American culture with this book and with his many iconic performances. He is of course more stand-up icon than actor, but that's the point. He's the perfect vessel for nerds of all kinds: movie buffs, legitimate comic book fanboys, general pop culture aficionados, and even literary memoirists.
January 3, 2023
Movies, to him and the majority of the planet, are an enhancement to a life. The way a glass of wine complements a dinner. I’m the other way around. I’m the kind of person who eats a few bites of food so that my stomach can handle the full bottle of wine I’m about to drink.
Silver Screen Fiend is, like Patton Oswalt himself, short and extremely funny. The theme is pretty simple—obsession bad, moderation better—but the execution is solid. An extremely fast read, and worth reading, especially if you’re a fan of Patton Oswalt’s comedy.
May 11, 2016
I strongly recommend listening to this book in its audio format if possible. Oswalt narrates, of course. If you're familiar with any of his work, you'll use his voice, anyway, to narrate this as you read it but he does a better job. Trust me.
True story: I've got a crush on Patton Oswalt. I have for years. Yeeeeeaaaars. I don't even find all his comedy funny. There's just something about him. Maybe it's that he's kind of a pretentious shit sometimes but he knows he's a shit and he both plays that up and calls himself out; it's like the weirdest humble arrogance ever, yet it's so endearing. Well, to some. To me. Maybe I've just got a thing for short, round men. Some of you have seen my husband...who, actually, reminds me a lot of Oswalt and that may be why I married him. Goodness knows it wasn't for love, as I am on a quest to kill the man (the husband, not the author of this book)
In this biographical piece, Oswalt discusses his passion for movies which became an addiction for four years. All movies but especially the indies, the unknowns, and the old ones that had passed from the public eye. He had five movie guides he'd use to steer his movie-watching choices, checking each title off in each book after viewing. He went a little insane over the whole thing and is left wondering whether or not his dreams of becoming a director via intense movie-watching research stunted his life for a time or helped him become the well-rounded (not a fat joke, people) persona he is now.
Ok, that's not what he says, that's what I interpreted. He probably would have made the fat joke.
I had a strange thing happen in my psyche while listening to this book. I was hyper-aware that I felt like I should, I dunno, be respectful in some way? Not laugh at the funny things because it wasn't a laughing time? But then, this book is designed to be amusing and it would be mean to withhold my laughter during the times I wanted to laugh just because I have a misplaced sense of propriety (which never exists when I actually need it) because we all know Patton Oswalt monitors people who are listening to his audiobooks in their cars and can totally see if they're being solemn out of respect for his family's grief or being offensive by not laughing at his jokes. Ok, so I have a problem. Acknowledged. Let's move on.
I did get a bit of an ego boost when I realized how many of the movies he talked about I had seen. Not a lot, not even 10% but I don't see many movies anymore, maybe 4 a year. I was surprised that, for the most part, it wasn't the big movies like "Casablanca" (never seen it), "It's a Wonderful Life" (never finished it), or "Gone with the Wind" (tried 3 times, fell asleep twice and gave up about an hour in the last time) but strange little titles, the weird black and white horror flicks and spaghetti westerns, things that used to be on TV when I was a kid and I somehow watched. Also there was that moment of solidarity when he started trash-talking that fake Star Wars movie. It felt good.
I loved his thoughtful exploration into both his need to fill his mind with other people's stories via a celluloid format and his understandings of the movies, themselves which would then all turn on a dime when he started quipping about his insufferable rhetoric. It was delightful.
It's a fun book and an interesting look inside the messy-but-not mind of Patton Oswalt. If you don't like him, you probably won't enjoy this book. If you don't know who he is but you love movies, you'll probably like this book quite well. And if you're me, you'll really like it for all the reasons listed above.
Again, I cannot say this strongly enough: Listen to the audiobook if you can.
True story: I've got a crush on Patton Oswalt. I have for years. Yeeeeeaaaars. I don't even find all his comedy funny. There's just something about him. Maybe it's that he's kind of a pretentious shit sometimes but he knows he's a shit and he both plays that up and calls himself out; it's like the weirdest humble arrogance ever, yet it's so endearing. Well, to some. To me. Maybe I've just got a thing for short, round men. Some of you have seen my husband...who, actually, reminds me a lot of Oswalt and that may be why I married him. Goodness knows it wasn't for love, as I am on a quest to kill the man (the husband, not the author of this book)
In this biographical piece, Oswalt discusses his passion for movies which became an addiction for four years. All movies but especially the indies, the unknowns, and the old ones that had passed from the public eye. He had five movie guides he'd use to steer his movie-watching choices, checking each title off in each book after viewing. He went a little insane over the whole thing and is left wondering whether or not his dreams of becoming a director via intense movie-watching research stunted his life for a time or helped him become the well-rounded (not a fat joke, people) persona he is now.
Ok, that's not what he says, that's what I interpreted. He probably would have made the fat joke.
I had a strange thing happen in my psyche while listening to this book. I was hyper-aware that I felt like I should, I dunno, be respectful in some way? Not laugh at the funny things because it wasn't a laughing time? But then, this book is designed to be amusing and it would be mean to withhold my laughter during the times I wanted to laugh just because I have a misplaced sense of propriety (which never exists when I actually need it) because we all know Patton Oswalt monitors people who are listening to his audiobooks in their cars and can totally see if they're being solemn out of respect for his family's grief or being offensive by not laughing at his jokes. Ok, so I have a problem. Acknowledged. Let's move on.
I did get a bit of an ego boost when I realized how many of the movies he talked about I had seen. Not a lot, not even 10% but I don't see many movies anymore, maybe 4 a year. I was surprised that, for the most part, it wasn't the big movies like "Casablanca" (never seen it), "It's a Wonderful Life" (never finished it), or "Gone with the Wind" (tried 3 times, fell asleep twice and gave up about an hour in the last time) but strange little titles, the weird black and white horror flicks and spaghetti westerns, things that used to be on TV when I was a kid and I somehow watched. Also there was that moment of solidarity when he started trash-talking that fake Star Wars movie. It felt good.
I loved his thoughtful exploration into both his need to fill his mind with other people's stories via a celluloid format and his understandings of the movies, themselves which would then all turn on a dime when he started quipping about his insufferable rhetoric. It was delightful.
It's a fun book and an interesting look inside the messy-but-not mind of Patton Oswalt. If you don't like him, you probably won't enjoy this book. If you don't know who he is but you love movies, you'll probably like this book quite well. And if you're me, you'll really like it for all the reasons listed above.
Again, I cannot say this strongly enough: Listen to the audiobook if you can.
June 1, 2024
For a few weeks now, I had been meaning to listen to some more podcasts and watch some more videos that Patton Oswalt had been involved in. I have been rip roaring through films, trying to bring my personal knowledge of cinema up to scratch. I knew that Oswalt was a massive film nerd, having seen certain clips of his talking about them at length. Fate intervened, and I found out about this book two days ago.
After a lifetime of reading, I am still shocked when I find words on a page that describe my life situation or shine light on a deeply held belief that I have been avoiding. Reading this book (and listening to it simultaneously, so I could not help but think of Remy being on top of my head), I kept stopping to take in what exactly he was telling me: about his journey with excess, the lessons he learnt from it, but also the utter beauty of an obsession that taught him so much. 2-3 films a day at various 90s theatres in LA, seen through the lenses of an in-form, pretentious snob. Oswalt also discussed van Gogh’s The Night Café:
He talked about how seeing this picture kicked him into another dimension, providing one of several “kicks” that he would receive throughout his life. The others would come in the form of spots to perform standup comedy or seemingly innocuous remarks from friends – the owner of a theatre in LA once jokingly told him that Patton had been talking about writing a script and directing a movie for 4 years now… so where was it? Kick.
I am as obsessive as obsessives get. Right now, I am in the fast lane of the highway with films and I am continuing that for a while, but I am painfully aware that I am just intaking, absorbing, not creating, putting out into the world. And the book is also a painful reminder that if I don’t do the latter, I will not be satisfied with myself.
After a lifetime of reading, I am still shocked when I find words on a page that describe my life situation or shine light on a deeply held belief that I have been avoiding. Reading this book (and listening to it simultaneously, so I could not help but think of Remy being on top of my head), I kept stopping to take in what exactly he was telling me: about his journey with excess, the lessons he learnt from it, but also the utter beauty of an obsession that taught him so much. 2-3 films a day at various 90s theatres in LA, seen through the lenses of an in-form, pretentious snob. Oswalt also discussed van Gogh’s The Night Café:
He talked about how seeing this picture kicked him into another dimension, providing one of several “kicks” that he would receive throughout his life. The others would come in the form of spots to perform standup comedy or seemingly innocuous remarks from friends – the owner of a theatre in LA once jokingly told him that Patton had been talking about writing a script and directing a movie for 4 years now… so where was it? Kick.
I am as obsessive as obsessives get. Right now, I am in the fast lane of the highway with films and I am continuing that for a while, but I am painfully aware that I am just intaking, absorbing, not creating, putting out into the world. And the book is also a painful reminder that if I don’t do the latter, I will not be satisfied with myself.
July 3, 2015
3.5 stars
Prerequisites for enjoying Patton Oswalt's Silver Screen Fiend: either be a big Oswalt fan (I'm not; I've never seen a single episode of "The King of Queens", never seen his standup comedy routine, wasn't even aware until reading this book he had a small part in one of my fave movies, PT Anderson's "Magnolia") or be, like Oswalt, an addicted cinephile. Bonus enjoyment points if you're from Los Angeles and are familiar with the "rep" and indie theaters Oswalt frequents, like the Nuart, the Vista (with the ever-so-generous leg room and owner who often dresses up like characters from the movie screened), the Sunset 5, and of course, the cinephile's dream venue, the New Beverly (with a rotating-every-other-day double bill of classics and acclaimed recent features to make "completists" mouths water, along with awful squeaky seats and an assortment of weirdos who provide color commentary throughout the movie).
Although I didn't really quite "get" Oswalt's movie-going addiction as described here from 1995-'99 (something to do with his as of yet unfulfillled dreams of becoming a film director), this was a fun nostalgia trip for me as I was similarly addicted to movie-going about the same time as Oswalt was, devouring much of my free time and disposable income (not unlike my reading addiction today). Less compelling were (as my GR friend Larry indicates) the disjointed parts of the book when Oswalt digresses from the theme of the book and talks more about his stand-up comedy and sketch writing (for "MadTV") careers. Still, this was a fun (and funny) look at a cinephile's obsession, and is definitely worth a read.
Prerequisites for enjoying Patton Oswalt's Silver Screen Fiend: either be a big Oswalt fan (I'm not; I've never seen a single episode of "The King of Queens", never seen his standup comedy routine, wasn't even aware until reading this book he had a small part in one of my fave movies, PT Anderson's "Magnolia") or be, like Oswalt, an addicted cinephile. Bonus enjoyment points if you're from Los Angeles and are familiar with the "rep" and indie theaters Oswalt frequents, like the Nuart, the Vista (with the ever-so-generous leg room and owner who often dresses up like characters from the movie screened), the Sunset 5, and of course, the cinephile's dream venue, the New Beverly (with a rotating-every-other-day double bill of classics and acclaimed recent features to make "completists" mouths water, along with awful squeaky seats and an assortment of weirdos who provide color commentary throughout the movie).
Although I didn't really quite "get" Oswalt's movie-going addiction as described here from 1995-'99 (something to do with his as of yet unfulfillled dreams of becoming a film director), this was a fun nostalgia trip for me as I was similarly addicted to movie-going about the same time as Oswalt was, devouring much of my free time and disposable income (not unlike my reading addiction today). Less compelling were (as my GR friend Larry indicates) the disjointed parts of the book when Oswalt digresses from the theme of the book and talks more about his stand-up comedy and sketch writing (for "MadTV") careers. Still, this was a fun (and funny) look at a cinephile's obsession, and is definitely worth a read.
January 6, 2015
Lots of filler. Around 30% of this book is a list of the movies he watched over a period of time in the 1990s. That's it. Just a list. If you care that Patton Oswalt watched The English Patient in 1997 at the Vista Theater then you should definitely read this. If you don't care that he watched Swingers in Encino in '95, then you're all set and can move along.
I fell into the second category. I just didn't care. There are touches here and there about his career and friends but for the most part it's just a long list of old movies in theaters you've never heard of before. I love lists as much as the next gal but if I had paid money for this book I would've been very disappointed.
Otherwise enjoyable stories are bogged down with movie and other pop culture references that take away from the book rather than add to it. Oswalt is a funny and talented guy. Sadly, little of that comes across on this piece.
I fell into the second category. I just didn't care. There are touches here and there about his career and friends but for the most part it's just a long list of old movies in theaters you've never heard of before. I love lists as much as the next gal but if I had paid money for this book I would've been very disappointed.
Otherwise enjoyable stories are bogged down with movie and other pop culture references that take away from the book rather than add to it. Oswalt is a funny and talented guy. Sadly, little of that comes across on this piece.
March 3, 2015
I'm a cinephile and I've been known to enjoy this guys standup routines and his more serious acting too, it seemed like a no brainer the moment I saw it on the shelf in my favourite bookshop. And you know what? It's fun, it's interesting, it's on a subject that I can connect with in a very real way and it's a story told in such a way that I can hear his standup voice coming through with each pause and punctuated anecdote. It's exactly what I thought it would be and more - the creative process and the day to day life of a comedian is touched on for example, something I'd not even considered before - and yet it's also a little lightweight and at a measly 180+ pages left me wanting more substance from it.
February 2, 2015
I'd rate this 3.5 stars.
I've been a big fan of Patton Oswalt for some time now. I think he's a pretty good actor (he particularly gave a terrific performance in Charlize Theron's Young Adult a few years back), and I love his comedic observations as well. One friend of mine says that Oswalt and I share a similar sense of humor, although clearly only one of us is making a living off of it.
One thing I didn't know I shared with Oswalt was an obsession with the movies. Those of you who know me well know I've been a huge movie fan for almost my entire life, and at the very least, see everything nominated, or in contention, for Oscars each year. And thanks to a year-long American film class in college, I consumed a healthy diet of classic movies as well.
Oswalt's Silver Screen Fiend isn't your typical celebrity memoir, although it does chronicle a period of his life when he dealt with a serious addiction--to going to the movies. From 1995-1999, while focusing on his career as a stand-up comic and dreaming of one day acting and directing, Oswalt went to the movies at least several times a week, often at the New Beverly Cinema, watching classics and lesser-known films as well as new releases. While watching movies brought him pleasure, expanded his cinematic horizons, and stimulated his creativity and his desire to one day see his work on the big screen, it also caused him a great deal of stress, as he planned comedy sets and other work, as well as social obligations (when he had them) around movie times. (And the constant diet of movie concessions wasn't good for his waistline either.)
"Movies&--the truly great one (and sometimes the truly bad)--should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life."
And if just seeing that many movies each week and planning his life around them wasn't enough of an obsession, he also compulsively felt the need to "check off" each movie he saw in one or more of five film reference books, chronicling the location, date, and time he saw each film. This action became a routine he couldn't shakeit's almost as if seeing the movies didn't count if he didn't record seeing them.
As Oswalt provides background on each movie he saw, and places it in the context of his personal and professional life, he also chronicles the evolution of his career, from first getting the comedy bug while doing an internship in Washington, DC, to dealing with the ups and downs of good and bad performances, to his time both as a writer for MADtv and his tenure on television in The King of Queens . He struggles with jealousy of other comedians who achieve the success he craves, and worries about being able to realize his ambitions.
I enjoyed this book very much, as Oswalt did a great job informing, entertaining, and making me think. While I had heard of many of the movies he mentions in the book, there are a number I wasn't familiar with, so I enjoyed his perspective on those films. I did feel that the book was a little disjointed at times, as he occasionally shifts from one subject to another rather abruptly. But in the end, I found this tremendously appealing. (My favorite part of the book was a tribute to the late owner of the New Beverly Cinema, in which Oswalt imagined a month-long film festival, creating twists on popular movies with classic actors and directors.)
If you're more than simply an occasional movie watcher, or interested in the path some comedians follow toward success, you'll enjoy Silver Screen Fiend . Oswalt writes with humor, heart, and a whole lot of film trivia.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at .
I've been a big fan of Patton Oswalt for some time now. I think he's a pretty good actor (he particularly gave a terrific performance in Charlize Theron's Young Adult a few years back), and I love his comedic observations as well. One friend of mine says that Oswalt and I share a similar sense of humor, although clearly only one of us is making a living off of it.
One thing I didn't know I shared with Oswalt was an obsession with the movies. Those of you who know me well know I've been a huge movie fan for almost my entire life, and at the very least, see everything nominated, or in contention, for Oscars each year. And thanks to a year-long American film class in college, I consumed a healthy diet of classic movies as well.
Oswalt's Silver Screen Fiend isn't your typical celebrity memoir, although it does chronicle a period of his life when he dealt with a serious addiction--to going to the movies. From 1995-1999, while focusing on his career as a stand-up comic and dreaming of one day acting and directing, Oswalt went to the movies at least several times a week, often at the New Beverly Cinema, watching classics and lesser-known films as well as new releases. While watching movies brought him pleasure, expanded his cinematic horizons, and stimulated his creativity and his desire to one day see his work on the big screen, it also caused him a great deal of stress, as he planned comedy sets and other work, as well as social obligations (when he had them) around movie times. (And the constant diet of movie concessions wasn't good for his waistline either.)
"Movies&--the truly great one (and sometimes the truly bad)--should be a drop in the overall fuel formula for your life."
And if just seeing that many movies each week and planning his life around them wasn't enough of an obsession, he also compulsively felt the need to "check off" each movie he saw in one or more of five film reference books, chronicling the location, date, and time he saw each film. This action became a routine he couldn't shakeit's almost as if seeing the movies didn't count if he didn't record seeing them.
As Oswalt provides background on each movie he saw, and places it in the context of his personal and professional life, he also chronicles the evolution of his career, from first getting the comedy bug while doing an internship in Washington, DC, to dealing with the ups and downs of good and bad performances, to his time both as a writer for MADtv and his tenure on television in The King of Queens . He struggles with jealousy of other comedians who achieve the success he craves, and worries about being able to realize his ambitions.
I enjoyed this book very much, as Oswalt did a great job informing, entertaining, and making me think. While I had heard of many of the movies he mentions in the book, there are a number I wasn't familiar with, so I enjoyed his perspective on those films. I did feel that the book was a little disjointed at times, as he occasionally shifts from one subject to another rather abruptly. But in the end, I found this tremendously appealing. (My favorite part of the book was a tribute to the late owner of the New Beverly Cinema, in which Oswalt imagined a month-long film festival, creating twists on popular movies with classic actors and directors.)
If you're more than simply an occasional movie watcher, or interested in the path some comedians follow toward success, you'll enjoy Silver Screen Fiend . Oswalt writes with humor, heart, and a whole lot of film trivia.
See all of my reviews (and other stuff) at .
January 7, 2015
Patton Oswalt is one of my top five all-time favorite stand-up comedians. That said, most of this book isn’t funny, so don’t expect this to be a few hours of belly laughs. However, all the things Patton is passionate about I am also passionate about. In that way, this was like listening to a monologue of someone I’d consider a friend because of our similar interests and because I respect his opinion and insight. Obviously, given the name of the book, he talks a lot about film, but also art – art in general and the kind hung on museum walls. And of course, comedy. I love reading about people who stick it out and ultimately make it in the arts. My favorite quote is from when he’s describing a group who’d moved to LA to see if they could make it in TV and film: “We’d piss and moan ... pointing out how unfair and whimsical and chaotic the entertainment business was, how it rarely rewarded the truly talented. NONE OF US COULD SEE HOW IT NEVER REWARDED THE INERT.” (Emphasis mine.)
I wish he wrote more about what he did to make it on the King of Queens. Was it just an audition? Had he met Kevin James doing stand-up before that? I love the stories of failures and successes. I wished he’d included more details in that area, but this is a quick, fun read. I have some classic movies added to my must-watch (or must-watch again) list after reading this!
I wish he wrote more about what he did to make it on the King of Queens. Was it just an audition? Had he met Kevin James doing stand-up before that? I love the stories of failures and successes. I wished he’d included more details in that area, but this is a quick, fun read. I have some classic movies added to my must-watch (or must-watch again) list after reading this!
January 28, 2015
Not sure what Patton was after with this; it struggles as both memoir and film history/analysis. His writing is compulsively readable but the book winds up being way too brief (with filler galore! Many of the pages are simply lists) yet seems to retread the same points over and over.
On a related note, I hope the culture and/or comedians develop some self-awareness about how, in 2015, it has become increasingly dull for non-comedians to wax on about every last detail about "the biz."
On a related note, I hope the culture and/or comedians develop some self-awareness about how, in 2015, it has become increasingly dull for non-comedians to wax on about every last detail about "the biz."
March 17, 2025
Road trip audiobook!
Patton Oswalt tries to persuade us that watching too many classic movies in the 1990s was a problem for him, a passive addiction that kept him from being creative. Or something like that.
After listening to him weave some anecdotes about his stand-up and acting career between his thoughts on a few different movies, I gotta say, I don't think it was the movies. I think Oswalt was just a pretentious jackass and spending his time doing something else would not have changed that.
More than 30 pages in the end matter of the print edition of the book are given over to a list of all the movies he saw during the four years covered by this book. At least he didn't read that aloud for the audiobook. Maybe if we're lucky his next book be his even more exciting checked-off grocery lists from the same period.
Boring and more than a little bit irritating at times.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter One. Movie Freaks and Sprocket Fiends: The New Beverly Cinema, May 20, 1995 -- Chapter Two. My First Four Night Cafés: Arles, France, September 1888 -- Chapter Three. The Largo: Los Angeles, 1996 -- Chapter Four. No Small Actors: Down Periscope, 1995 -- Chapter Five. Meat and Potatoes: Los Angeles, August 1995 -- Chapter Six. Overdosing: Los Angeles, October 21-22, 1995 -- Chapter Seven. You Can, Unfortunately, Go Home Again: Sterling, Virginia, Thanksgiving 1996 -- Chapter Eight. The Day the Clown Didn't Cry: The Powerhouse Theatre, January 27, 1997 -- Chapter Nine. Amsterdam: January 7-13, 1998 -- Chapter Ten. The Knave of Queens: March 26-27, 1998 -- Chapter Eleven. Killer Burger and the Myth of the Largo: March 4-20, 1999 -- Chapter Twelve. The End of the Addiction: Thursday, May 20, 1999, the Vista Theatre -- First Epilogue. Whistling in the Dark -- Second Epilogue. The Second-to-Last Night Café: April 15, 2009 -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix. Four Years of Films
Patton Oswalt tries to persuade us that watching too many classic movies in the 1990s was a problem for him, a passive addiction that kept him from being creative. Or something like that.
After listening to him weave some anecdotes about his stand-up and acting career between his thoughts on a few different movies, I gotta say, I don't think it was the movies. I think Oswalt was just a pretentious jackass and spending his time doing something else would not have changed that.
More than 30 pages in the end matter of the print edition of the book are given over to a list of all the movies he saw during the four years covered by this book. At least he didn't read that aloud for the audiobook. Maybe if we're lucky his next book be his even more exciting checked-off grocery lists from the same period.
Boring and more than a little bit irritating at times.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter One. Movie Freaks and Sprocket Fiends: The New Beverly Cinema, May 20, 1995 -- Chapter Two. My First Four Night Cafés: Arles, France, September 1888 -- Chapter Three. The Largo: Los Angeles, 1996 -- Chapter Four. No Small Actors: Down Periscope, 1995 -- Chapter Five. Meat and Potatoes: Los Angeles, August 1995 -- Chapter Six. Overdosing: Los Angeles, October 21-22, 1995 -- Chapter Seven. You Can, Unfortunately, Go Home Again: Sterling, Virginia, Thanksgiving 1996 -- Chapter Eight. The Day the Clown Didn't Cry: The Powerhouse Theatre, January 27, 1997 -- Chapter Nine. Amsterdam: January 7-13, 1998 -- Chapter Ten. The Knave of Queens: March 26-27, 1998 -- Chapter Eleven. Killer Burger and the Myth of the Largo: March 4-20, 1999 -- Chapter Twelve. The End of the Addiction: Thursday, May 20, 1999, the Vista Theatre -- First Epilogue. Whistling in the Dark -- Second Epilogue. The Second-to-Last Night Café: April 15, 2009 -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix. Four Years of Films
February 28, 2015
A tedious and rambling affair, somewhat redeemed by the fact that the audio book was narrated by the author himself. Patton's self-diagnosed film addiction seems like a false premise designed to support several auto-biographical stories about his start in the comedy scene during the 90s. The name-dropping is fun at times, and the film-related tidbits are mildly interesting, but the whole narrative floats around the central premise without really ever attacking it, leaving the reader overall un-satisfied.
November 16, 2017
If you’ve ever been addicted to some form of media like books or movies (and heaven knows we’re on 카지노싸이트, so…) you need to read this book.
I love “behind the scenes” books about film or writing processes. This book is beautiful scene in the life of a comedian, struggling actor and movie-OBSESSED man. Patton Oswalt watched almost a movie (or a double feature) every night for a year and ticked it off in five books of his concerning cult classics. I LOVE this book. I love the writing and I love Patton Oswalt’s narration in the audio book. Besides all this, there’s something deeper to Silver Screen Fiend that resonates with people who love escapism. (that’s me, anyway. And probably a lot of us here on the community).
“As I’ve been cramming fewer films into my head, my memory has brought into focus moments in films that pierce me – that will stay with me without ever having to draw a star or a check mark next to a title. And for every one of those moments a human in a collaborative fit of struggle or passion, brought into being, I’m more attune to moments of my everyday life with friends and family and even sometimes – especially - strangers. Faces are scenes, people are films…my love of watching movies has turned into a love of savouring them.”
I don’t think there’s anyone wrong with reading anything between 5 and 500 books a year or doing the same with movies. I don’t think quantity is the problem – it’s about getting so deeply involved into something that you feel isolated whenever you’re ripped from it. It’s so easy to fall into that trap with all the crap we have to go through in our lives – reading and movies are such an easy way out. But that’s why we share with people. I think a balance is all about what you lift from those books and movies and how you still interact with all those lovely and sometimes crazy people and moments in your life - so go hug a puppy or a loved one or just compliment a friend’s review. That person, puppy or fellow Goodreader might need some appreciation. You never know.
(Also, this book is great for people who love film trivia. Patton Oswalt goes into a whole chapter rant about movies he wishes had been made. It’s great.)
I love “behind the scenes” books about film or writing processes. This book is beautiful scene in the life of a comedian, struggling actor and movie-OBSESSED man. Patton Oswalt watched almost a movie (or a double feature) every night for a year and ticked it off in five books of his concerning cult classics. I LOVE this book. I love the writing and I love Patton Oswalt’s narration in the audio book. Besides all this, there’s something deeper to Silver Screen Fiend that resonates with people who love escapism. (that’s me, anyway. And probably a lot of us here on the community).
“As I’ve been cramming fewer films into my head, my memory has brought into focus moments in films that pierce me – that will stay with me without ever having to draw a star or a check mark next to a title. And for every one of those moments a human in a collaborative fit of struggle or passion, brought into being, I’m more attune to moments of my everyday life with friends and family and even sometimes – especially - strangers. Faces are scenes, people are films…my love of watching movies has turned into a love of savouring them.”
I don’t think there’s anyone wrong with reading anything between 5 and 500 books a year or doing the same with movies. I don’t think quantity is the problem – it’s about getting so deeply involved into something that you feel isolated whenever you’re ripped from it. It’s so easy to fall into that trap with all the crap we have to go through in our lives – reading and movies are such an easy way out. But that’s why we share with people. I think a balance is all about what you lift from those books and movies and how you still interact with all those lovely and sometimes crazy people and moments in your life - so go hug a puppy or a loved one or just compliment a friend’s review. That person, puppy or fellow Goodreader might need some appreciation. You never know.
(Also, this book is great for people who love film trivia. Patton Oswalt goes into a whole chapter rant about movies he wishes had been made. It’s great.)
January 19, 2015
Oswalt is my favorite type of fellow English major -- constantly searching for the connections between experiences, events, and people, but without being twee, self-serving, or overly theoretical. Instead, he roots out these connections (often across time, space, and medium) and makes thoughtful insights as to those beneath-the-surface ties that bind us. The fact that he does so humbly and hilariously makes his company even more enjoyable. Chapter 8 made me laugh so hard that I woke my husband up from a sound sleep -- and it still makes me laugh now, just thinking about it.
May 4, 2016
UPDATE: Given what has happened with Patton's wife since I wrote this review, it all seems a bit petty now. I'm only leaving it here because there are a few comments, and if I delete it they won't make sense. TL;DR of the review: I wound up reading this book for a weird reason, and it was alright.
----
Why did I read Patton Oswalt's "Silver Screen Fiend"? To answer that, I have to first tell a bit of a story.
A few years back I wrote a blog post introducing a new order for watching the Star Wars films. I named it "Machete Order" after my blog ("Absolutely No Machete Juggling", don't ask) and published it randomly without much of a thought. A year or so after publishing it, Wired.com linked to it in an article, and for the remainder of the year after that it sort of "went viral". I was interviewed on a local news station as well as NPR, the post was mentioned in various magazines, it got a shout-out in an episode of The Big Bang Theory and King of the Nerds, and was even mentioned on CNN. Clearly this was to be my fifteen minutes.
But by far, the absolute coolest mention of my dumb Star Wars post was on an , in which Patton Oswalt mentioned the order as an "amazing" way of watching Star Wars. I went through the roof, I've listened to every single comedy album Oswalt has ever released, and seen every special he's ever taped. He has been one of my favorite comedians for years and the very notion that his eyeballs were looking at my dumb blog utterly floored me. To date, this is still the highlight of my fifteen minutes of fame, which have since subsided after the release of Episode VII.
Shortly after the Seth Meyers plug, I saw that Patton was touring and would actually be in Denver a few months later. I bought tickets simply because I'd never seen him live, and then I was struck by a silly idea. What if I messaged him on Facebook, told him I was the Machete Order guy, and asked if I could meet him when he comes to town? "No," I thought, "it's too presumptuous, it's awkward and weird. I'm just some guy on the internet, why the fuck would he want to meet me?"
But my own curiosity got the better of me and I convinced myself, hey, I'm nothing to sneeze at, after all HE'S the one who referenced ME. Hell, maybe he'd be a little excited to meet me like I would be to meet him. So I worked up the nerve to message him on Facebook and asked if he'd like to meet me after his Denver show. I assured him "I'm not some rabid, crazed fan - just a hello and a cell phone pic or something would be awesome." I told him I'd understand if he didn't feel comfortable with it, that I understood the internet is full of weirdos and I'm just a name on the internet to him. I thanked him for the shout-out on Seth Meyers either way, and pressed send.
To my immense surprise, Patton responded within minutes. "Sure! This should be no problem." Holy shit. I'm going to meet Patton Fucking Oswalt! He followed up with "You + 1 will be on the backstage visit list!" I was beside myself with excitement.
But then panic set in. What the hell would I say to him? I'm just some guy with a blog, what can he and I possibly talk about? Okay, one, Star Wars for sure. I didn't want to talk about Machete Order itself, that seemed to self-absorbed. But the date of his show was actually AFTER the release of Episode VII, so I figured I could ask him what he thought of the new movie, we could chat about that a bit. Two, cell phone picture. My wife can take it, and that'll take a little time too. Or wait, what if he wouldn't want that since I'm so much taller than him? Oh, I know, I could get him to sign something! Oh but shit, what would he sign? A comedy album? Who even owns physical CDs anymore, plus he's not a rock star so that's weird. "Wait," I thought, "I've got it! He just recently published a book called Silver Screen Fiend, I'll buy a copy and he can sign that!"
So I ordered a hardcover copy of the book. I honestly had no intention of reading it. I've read a few autobiographies by comedians and frankly haven't enjoyed them much, they're always too young to have enough life experiences to impart wisdom, and the funniest life experiences they've had are already part of their comedy routines, so the books always just seem like extremely long and watered-down sets. Patton's book in particular didn't interest me as it looked, from the cover and description, like it was mostly about movies he liked, and I hadn't seen a lot of the older films he seemed to discuss. But I figured, hell, I don't have to tell the dude I'm not gonna read his book, I really just want to meet him and it'd be nice if I had something he can sign. The book signature would just be a neat memento of what would definitely be the biggest celebrity encounter of my life.
The date of the show, the wife and I drove downtown and sat down in our seats - pretty far in the back, unfortunately. By this point, my wife was actually pregnant with our first baby, a girl. I knew Patton also had a young daughter from listening to his comedy, so I figured if I ran out of things to say my obviously-very-pregnant wife could be a topic to end any awkward silences. I was feeling pretty good, I just had to keep telling myself not to act like an insane gushing fanboy and treat the man like an ordinary person.
Patton came out on the stage in Denver's Paramount Theatre and bellowed "Hello Dallas!" Oof. Not a great start. The crowd was nearly silent, some people nervously laughing trying to figure out if he was messing with them. Patton then made some jokes about the local Dallas area, which were met with almost total silence from the audience. He seemed taken aback by the reaction, like he knew that normally name-dropping attractions gets the locals riled up. There was an awkward pause and I heard someone in the front row say something to him. Then Patton jumped, "oh fuck, am I in Denver?" - big laughs. Patton had a pretty good show that night, he rescued the set and won the audience over eventually, but I could tell the Dallas flub rattled him, he even made another crack about it and called himself an idiot later on. He talked about Star Wars Episode VII and shared his thoughts on the film as well. I tried hard to focus on the show and enjoy myself, but the thoughts of meeting him kept creeping in. When he made the Dallas flub, I wondered if it would put him in a bad mood after the show. When he mentioned Episode VIII, I realized it would no longer be a viable conversation starter.
When the show ended, I looked around and tried to figure out where to go or what to do. I'm not a famous person, I have no idea what the procedure is to go backstage because you're "on the list" - I've never been on a list before. The best I could tell was, up front near the stage were some curtains with guards standing in front of them. Me and my pregnant wife tried to make our way to the curtains, but struggled against the force of the crowd moving in the other direction to exit the theater. I could hear people muttering about me, snickering. One guy laughed when his girlfriend asked what I was doing, to which he responded "he thinks he's going to be able to go backstage." Yeah, I get it. I looked like some douchey nerd fan, holding my stupid Patton Oswalt book like an idiot. But little did that guy know, I'm on the list, motherfucker!
I finally pushed my way past everyone and got to the front. I walked up to the security guard and said "hey, I'm Rod Hilton, I should be on the list." He looked me up and down, then replied, "we weren't given a list." My face fell. I thought there might be some kind of mistake. "Can you just go ask--" I started, but he interrupted "nope, sorry, can't do that. You can feel free to call him yourself though" he said, smirking. Well, shit. I didn't have his number, we only talked on Facebook. I pulled out my phone and tried to show the guard my conversation with him, but when I held my phone out he pushed my arm back down and said "sorry, can't use that, he has to actually come out here and get you."
So I messaged Patton on Facebook. "Hey Patton I don't know if you're still here but they say they don't have a list..." I knew every minute that ticked by made it more likely Patton had already taken off for the evening. And now I was asking for so much more than being a name on a list, he'd actually have to walk all the way back out of the dressing room and come get me to let me come backstage, it seemed like a lot to ask. I quickly followed up with "I won't keep you or anything just wanted a quick signature" desperate to salvage the whole endeavor. And then I stood there, against the wall. All of the people I had to push past were still glancing back, seeing if Patton was going to show up to sign books or something. But they saw no Patton, just me and my wife, standing against the wall, waiting, having been completely rejected by a few large security guards. I felt my face flush with embarrassment as I tried to think of things I could say to the security guard to convince him to let me go back stage, but I realized everything I could think of saying only made me seem even more like a crazed fan, which to a security guard likely meant security risk.
Minutes went by, feeling like hours while I waited. I kept refreshing my Facebook messages over and over, hoping Patton would respond. After some time, the entire auditorium was empty aside from the guards, a few ushers picking up trash, my wife, and me. Eventually they told me they needed us to leave the room so they could close up, so we did. I stood in the lobby for a bit instead - there were a handful of other fans there, also holding books for him to sign. I guessed they were all fans who thought Patton might show up after to greet folks, but who didn't have the audacity to actually try and get backstage like I did. I stood there until the staff indicated that Patton had "probably already left" and other fans started filing out, their unsigned books in hand.
My wife and I walked back to the parking garage very quietly. She could tell I was upset, but she had no idea what to say. I kept flashing between feelings of intense disappointment and embarrassment. The faces of all the friends and family I told I was going to meet Patton Oswalt flashed in my mind as I imagined having to tell them all one by one I didn't actually get to meet him. I mentally rehearsed how to say it in a way that played it cool like it didn't bother me and was no big deal.
We drove home in near-silence as I thought about what happened. I found it odd that the security guard hadn't told me that my name wasn't on the list, but instead that there was no list at all. If Patton had simply forgotten to add me to the list, then him remembering would have meant that I was the *ONLY* person on the list. How awkward would that have been for him? No entourage of people drinking and mingling, just him, me, and my wife. No celebrity would put himself in that kind of situation. It doesn't seem possible that he could have intended for me to be the only person on this list. Hell, that's not even a list, you can't have a list with one item on it.
And then it dawned on me. The problem wasn't that my name wasn't on the list. The problem wasn't even that the guard hadn't been given a list. The problem was, there never was a list.
I finally realized what you probably realized twelve paragraphs ago, that "You + 1 will be on the backstage visit list!" was actually just a nice way of saying "no" without making a fan think you're a jerk. This way, Patton could say yes and keep a fan, and just rely on that fan to blame the security guards for being stupid. This way, there was no risk of a disgruntled ex-fan taking a screenshot of his Facebook conversation and posting about a famous person telling the fan to fuck himself. He gets to stay cool, but also doesn't have to meet some random guy on the internet. It was the equivalent of an attractive person giving an unattractive person a fake phone number in a bar. I realized, I was just some random noncelebrity bothering a famous person and being told he'd have his people call my people. I was the waiter who tries to give Steven Spielberg his screenplay, the limo driver who tries to hand Dr. Dre his demo tape. I was a sucker.
I walked through the door of my house at the end of a very disappointing evening and looked down at my hands. There it was. "Silver Screen Fiend". A hardcover copy of a book I never had any intention of reading - purchased only so I'd have something that one of my favorite comedians could sign - completely unsigned. A rectangular object whose purpose for existence now seemed to only be to serve as a reminder of a humiliating experience, a totem of my commoner status. And there it would sit, on my bookshelf, untouched by black sharpie, mocking me for entertaining the thought that my fifteen minutes of fame was the same as actual fame, just shorter.
So I read it.
I figured, if I at least read the book then it served some purpose other than mocking me. Its placement on my bookshelf would be germane to it being a book that I read like everything else on it, rather than a waste of money that I bought too long ago to return to Amazon. And hey, maybe it would completely suck and I could give it one star on goodreads.
But in fact, the truth is that it's pretty good. It's not a terribly funny book, but it's an honest one. And though it does START with a huge stress on Patton's goal of watching classic films, that's pretty much done by the end of the first chapter, with only occasional callbacks later on. The rest of the book mostly deals with his career, covering his early start as a stand-up comedian, talking about his first acting gig on Down Periscope, and his time as a staff writer on MADtv. These sections of the book were weirdly fascinating and extremely honest - I particularly enjoyed Patton's self-introspection as he recounted his first-ever speaking line on film and how he overanalyzed all the ways he might say it. It reminded me of my own thoughts working through what I'd say to him when I met him.
Given the personal experience I've recounted in this review, you can imagine how hollow Patton's words rang for me when he discussed meeting Jerry Lewis, or how nerve-wracking it was sharing a stage with his "idols" like David Cross, Dana Gould, and Laura Kightlinger. Imagining Patton as a giddy youngster meeting celebrities he admired was difficult while also imagining him as an A-lister callously dismissing a fan by telling him that his name would be on a nonexistent list.
Overall though, and particularly for anyone who wasn't personally cast aside by Patton Oswalt, Silver Screen fiend is actually (unfortunately) a really good book. Entertaining without being "jokey," and very honest. It's a great look "behind-the-scenes" at show business, and it offers a lot of insight into Patton as a person and what made him who he is today. If you're into Patton Oswalt's comedy, don't let the title or even the book's description turn you off the book, I think you'll enjoy it.
Patton eventually responded to me on Facebook, long after I'd already given up and gone home. He assured me "you were supposed to be on the list" doubling down on the fiction. He asked me what I wanted signed, and offered to mail it to me. I told him no thanks.
----
Why did I read Patton Oswalt's "Silver Screen Fiend"? To answer that, I have to first tell a bit of a story.
A few years back I wrote a blog post introducing a new order for watching the Star Wars films. I named it "Machete Order" after my blog ("Absolutely No Machete Juggling", don't ask) and published it randomly without much of a thought. A year or so after publishing it, Wired.com linked to it in an article, and for the remainder of the year after that it sort of "went viral". I was interviewed on a local news station as well as NPR, the post was mentioned in various magazines, it got a shout-out in an episode of The Big Bang Theory and King of the Nerds, and was even mentioned on CNN. Clearly this was to be my fifteen minutes.
But by far, the absolute coolest mention of my dumb Star Wars post was on an , in which Patton Oswalt mentioned the order as an "amazing" way of watching Star Wars. I went through the roof, I've listened to every single comedy album Oswalt has ever released, and seen every special he's ever taped. He has been one of my favorite comedians for years and the very notion that his eyeballs were looking at my dumb blog utterly floored me. To date, this is still the highlight of my fifteen minutes of fame, which have since subsided after the release of Episode VII.
Shortly after the Seth Meyers plug, I saw that Patton was touring and would actually be in Denver a few months later. I bought tickets simply because I'd never seen him live, and then I was struck by a silly idea. What if I messaged him on Facebook, told him I was the Machete Order guy, and asked if I could meet him when he comes to town? "No," I thought, "it's too presumptuous, it's awkward and weird. I'm just some guy on the internet, why the fuck would he want to meet me?"
But my own curiosity got the better of me and I convinced myself, hey, I'm nothing to sneeze at, after all HE'S the one who referenced ME. Hell, maybe he'd be a little excited to meet me like I would be to meet him. So I worked up the nerve to message him on Facebook and asked if he'd like to meet me after his Denver show. I assured him "I'm not some rabid, crazed fan - just a hello and a cell phone pic or something would be awesome." I told him I'd understand if he didn't feel comfortable with it, that I understood the internet is full of weirdos and I'm just a name on the internet to him. I thanked him for the shout-out on Seth Meyers either way, and pressed send.
To my immense surprise, Patton responded within minutes. "Sure! This should be no problem." Holy shit. I'm going to meet Patton Fucking Oswalt! He followed up with "You + 1 will be on the backstage visit list!" I was beside myself with excitement.
But then panic set in. What the hell would I say to him? I'm just some guy with a blog, what can he and I possibly talk about? Okay, one, Star Wars for sure. I didn't want to talk about Machete Order itself, that seemed to self-absorbed. But the date of his show was actually AFTER the release of Episode VII, so I figured I could ask him what he thought of the new movie, we could chat about that a bit. Two, cell phone picture. My wife can take it, and that'll take a little time too. Or wait, what if he wouldn't want that since I'm so much taller than him? Oh, I know, I could get him to sign something! Oh but shit, what would he sign? A comedy album? Who even owns physical CDs anymore, plus he's not a rock star so that's weird. "Wait," I thought, "I've got it! He just recently published a book called Silver Screen Fiend, I'll buy a copy and he can sign that!"
So I ordered a hardcover copy of the book. I honestly had no intention of reading it. I've read a few autobiographies by comedians and frankly haven't enjoyed them much, they're always too young to have enough life experiences to impart wisdom, and the funniest life experiences they've had are already part of their comedy routines, so the books always just seem like extremely long and watered-down sets. Patton's book in particular didn't interest me as it looked, from the cover and description, like it was mostly about movies he liked, and I hadn't seen a lot of the older films he seemed to discuss. But I figured, hell, I don't have to tell the dude I'm not gonna read his book, I really just want to meet him and it'd be nice if I had something he can sign. The book signature would just be a neat memento of what would definitely be the biggest celebrity encounter of my life.
The date of the show, the wife and I drove downtown and sat down in our seats - pretty far in the back, unfortunately. By this point, my wife was actually pregnant with our first baby, a girl. I knew Patton also had a young daughter from listening to his comedy, so I figured if I ran out of things to say my obviously-very-pregnant wife could be a topic to end any awkward silences. I was feeling pretty good, I just had to keep telling myself not to act like an insane gushing fanboy and treat the man like an ordinary person.
Patton came out on the stage in Denver's Paramount Theatre and bellowed "Hello Dallas!" Oof. Not a great start. The crowd was nearly silent, some people nervously laughing trying to figure out if he was messing with them. Patton then made some jokes about the local Dallas area, which were met with almost total silence from the audience. He seemed taken aback by the reaction, like he knew that normally name-dropping attractions gets the locals riled up. There was an awkward pause and I heard someone in the front row say something to him. Then Patton jumped, "oh fuck, am I in Denver?" - big laughs. Patton had a pretty good show that night, he rescued the set and won the audience over eventually, but I could tell the Dallas flub rattled him, he even made another crack about it and called himself an idiot later on. He talked about Star Wars Episode VII and shared his thoughts on the film as well. I tried hard to focus on the show and enjoy myself, but the thoughts of meeting him kept creeping in. When he made the Dallas flub, I wondered if it would put him in a bad mood after the show. When he mentioned Episode VIII, I realized it would no longer be a viable conversation starter.
When the show ended, I looked around and tried to figure out where to go or what to do. I'm not a famous person, I have no idea what the procedure is to go backstage because you're "on the list" - I've never been on a list before. The best I could tell was, up front near the stage were some curtains with guards standing in front of them. Me and my pregnant wife tried to make our way to the curtains, but struggled against the force of the crowd moving in the other direction to exit the theater. I could hear people muttering about me, snickering. One guy laughed when his girlfriend asked what I was doing, to which he responded "he thinks he's going to be able to go backstage." Yeah, I get it. I looked like some douchey nerd fan, holding my stupid Patton Oswalt book like an idiot. But little did that guy know, I'm on the list, motherfucker!
I finally pushed my way past everyone and got to the front. I walked up to the security guard and said "hey, I'm Rod Hilton, I should be on the list." He looked me up and down, then replied, "we weren't given a list." My face fell. I thought there might be some kind of mistake. "Can you just go ask--" I started, but he interrupted "nope, sorry, can't do that. You can feel free to call him yourself though" he said, smirking. Well, shit. I didn't have his number, we only talked on Facebook. I pulled out my phone and tried to show the guard my conversation with him, but when I held my phone out he pushed my arm back down and said "sorry, can't use that, he has to actually come out here and get you."
So I messaged Patton on Facebook. "Hey Patton I don't know if you're still here but they say they don't have a list..." I knew every minute that ticked by made it more likely Patton had already taken off for the evening. And now I was asking for so much more than being a name on a list, he'd actually have to walk all the way back out of the dressing room and come get me to let me come backstage, it seemed like a lot to ask. I quickly followed up with "I won't keep you or anything just wanted a quick signature" desperate to salvage the whole endeavor. And then I stood there, against the wall. All of the people I had to push past were still glancing back, seeing if Patton was going to show up to sign books or something. But they saw no Patton, just me and my wife, standing against the wall, waiting, having been completely rejected by a few large security guards. I felt my face flush with embarrassment as I tried to think of things I could say to the security guard to convince him to let me go back stage, but I realized everything I could think of saying only made me seem even more like a crazed fan, which to a security guard likely meant security risk.
Minutes went by, feeling like hours while I waited. I kept refreshing my Facebook messages over and over, hoping Patton would respond. After some time, the entire auditorium was empty aside from the guards, a few ushers picking up trash, my wife, and me. Eventually they told me they needed us to leave the room so they could close up, so we did. I stood in the lobby for a bit instead - there were a handful of other fans there, also holding books for him to sign. I guessed they were all fans who thought Patton might show up after to greet folks, but who didn't have the audacity to actually try and get backstage like I did. I stood there until the staff indicated that Patton had "probably already left" and other fans started filing out, their unsigned books in hand.
My wife and I walked back to the parking garage very quietly. She could tell I was upset, but she had no idea what to say. I kept flashing between feelings of intense disappointment and embarrassment. The faces of all the friends and family I told I was going to meet Patton Oswalt flashed in my mind as I imagined having to tell them all one by one I didn't actually get to meet him. I mentally rehearsed how to say it in a way that played it cool like it didn't bother me and was no big deal.
We drove home in near-silence as I thought about what happened. I found it odd that the security guard hadn't told me that my name wasn't on the list, but instead that there was no list at all. If Patton had simply forgotten to add me to the list, then him remembering would have meant that I was the *ONLY* person on the list. How awkward would that have been for him? No entourage of people drinking and mingling, just him, me, and my wife. No celebrity would put himself in that kind of situation. It doesn't seem possible that he could have intended for me to be the only person on this list. Hell, that's not even a list, you can't have a list with one item on it.
And then it dawned on me. The problem wasn't that my name wasn't on the list. The problem wasn't even that the guard hadn't been given a list. The problem was, there never was a list.
I finally realized what you probably realized twelve paragraphs ago, that "You + 1 will be on the backstage visit list!" was actually just a nice way of saying "no" without making a fan think you're a jerk. This way, Patton could say yes and keep a fan, and just rely on that fan to blame the security guards for being stupid. This way, there was no risk of a disgruntled ex-fan taking a screenshot of his Facebook conversation and posting about a famous person telling the fan to fuck himself. He gets to stay cool, but also doesn't have to meet some random guy on the internet. It was the equivalent of an attractive person giving an unattractive person a fake phone number in a bar. I realized, I was just some random noncelebrity bothering a famous person and being told he'd have his people call my people. I was the waiter who tries to give Steven Spielberg his screenplay, the limo driver who tries to hand Dr. Dre his demo tape. I was a sucker.
I walked through the door of my house at the end of a very disappointing evening and looked down at my hands. There it was. "Silver Screen Fiend". A hardcover copy of a book I never had any intention of reading - purchased only so I'd have something that one of my favorite comedians could sign - completely unsigned. A rectangular object whose purpose for existence now seemed to only be to serve as a reminder of a humiliating experience, a totem of my commoner status. And there it would sit, on my bookshelf, untouched by black sharpie, mocking me for entertaining the thought that my fifteen minutes of fame was the same as actual fame, just shorter.
So I read it.
I figured, if I at least read the book then it served some purpose other than mocking me. Its placement on my bookshelf would be germane to it being a book that I read like everything else on it, rather than a waste of money that I bought too long ago to return to Amazon. And hey, maybe it would completely suck and I could give it one star on goodreads.
But in fact, the truth is that it's pretty good. It's not a terribly funny book, but it's an honest one. And though it does START with a huge stress on Patton's goal of watching classic films, that's pretty much done by the end of the first chapter, with only occasional callbacks later on. The rest of the book mostly deals with his career, covering his early start as a stand-up comedian, talking about his first acting gig on Down Periscope, and his time as a staff writer on MADtv. These sections of the book were weirdly fascinating and extremely honest - I particularly enjoyed Patton's self-introspection as he recounted his first-ever speaking line on film and how he overanalyzed all the ways he might say it. It reminded me of my own thoughts working through what I'd say to him when I met him.
Given the personal experience I've recounted in this review, you can imagine how hollow Patton's words rang for me when he discussed meeting Jerry Lewis, or how nerve-wracking it was sharing a stage with his "idols" like David Cross, Dana Gould, and Laura Kightlinger. Imagining Patton as a giddy youngster meeting celebrities he admired was difficult while also imagining him as an A-lister callously dismissing a fan by telling him that his name would be on a nonexistent list.
Overall though, and particularly for anyone who wasn't personally cast aside by Patton Oswalt, Silver Screen fiend is actually (unfortunately) a really good book. Entertaining without being "jokey," and very honest. It's a great look "behind-the-scenes" at show business, and it offers a lot of insight into Patton as a person and what made him who he is today. If you're into Patton Oswalt's comedy, don't let the title or even the book's description turn you off the book, I think you'll enjoy it.
Patton eventually responded to me on Facebook, long after I'd already given up and gone home. He assured me "you were supposed to be on the list" doubling down on the fiction. He asked me what I wanted signed, and offered to mail it to me. I told him no thanks.
August 10, 2022
An improvement over
, Silver Screen Fiend is similarly scattershot, but somewhat more anchored by the overarching theme of the relationship between Patton Oswalt's love of film and his work as both stand-up comic and aspiring big-screen actor. I also loved the story of Ted Richman, who saw in Oswalt's success a blueprint for his own rise to stardom, and promptly failed spectacularly. If only all the vignettes which comprise Silver Screen Fiend were so memorable and funny. I just hope that Oswalt someday teams up with a decent editor to write a proper memoir.
February 22, 2020
I kept wavering between rating this book 2 or 3 stars, and finally settled on 3 just because I love . This is a memoir covering Oswalt's rise to fame in the comedy circuit. There's nothing really new here. He did stand up over and over and over until he was able to meet the right people who offered him TV and movie roles. He talks about his love of movies as well, and there are a few funny anecdotes, but as far as celebrity memoirs go this is pretty forgettable.
December 30, 2014
I figured this book would be jam-packed with geeky jokes, but it is more of a self-deprecating memoir of a time in Patton Oswalt's life when he was addicted to movies and thought he was going to be an amazing film maker. He does talk some film nerdery in this book, but the majority is him discussing the mistakes he made in his early years. I think it's great that he is so comfortable talking about his past mistakes and failures, and he does it in such a way that it's entertaining to read about. I think all artists have to fail an awful lot before they make the good stuff, and this book deals with that part of art.
This book might not be what I expected, but it made me think a lot, and I enjoyed it immensely.
This book might not be what I expected, but it made me think a lot, and I enjoyed it immensely.
February 7, 2020
Some celebrity memoirs, you can just tell, were ghostwritten. Not this one. Every line of 's comes across in his own unmistakable voice, which I kept hearing even though I read the print version, and every line speaks volumes about his four-year-long deep dive into watching movies every chance he got—to the detriment of his work, his relationships, and the safety of Los Angeles' occasional pedestrians.
His own subtitle calls this period, which lasted from May 20, 1995 to May 20, 1999, an "addiction," and I get that. I worked for a movie-theater company for a few years, back in the 1980s, and during that time I watched every film that played in our small town, no matter how terrible. (Curse you, !)
It's a pity that didn't reach a wider audience, but I get that too—the intensity of Oswalt's film addiction comes across as a little scary sometimes, and the level of detail he pulls from his memories and film-watching diaries can be overwhelming. Either keep a search window open while you read this book, or accept that you're going to miss a lot of Oswalt's references to movies, fellow comedians, L.A. geography, and even French painters.
Oswalt's ambivalence about his subject also undermines his own project to some extent. In that way reminded me of a film I'm sure very few of you have ever seen, (warning: Amazon link), which is a lifelong coffee-hater's full-length documentary about... coffee. Except that Oswalt loved film. Still does, you can tell.
In short, is not nearly as accessible as , which I read back in 2012. But it's still pretty great.
I get the feeling that Oswalt really wanted to call this book Sprocket Fiend—which would have been a much better title, to my mind—but that Marketing objected.
After the main narrative ends, Oswalt adds a whole appendix full of fictitious films—titles, directors, stars and summaries for movies that don't even exist—that would have been filmed, if there were any justice in the universe, that might have been winning awards in the next universe over. Paging 's James Stark (Sandman Slim), whose L.A. video store Max Overdrive occasionally imports such transuniversal treasures as:
Oswalt has this one directed by Hal Ashby, and starring John Belushi, Richard Pryor and Lily Tomlin...
, directed by Michael Reeves (p. 180).
, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel...
I'd pay good hard cash to see any one of these.
ends with another list: "Four Years of Films," detailing exactly what Oswalt watched, when, and where. Oh, yes, I get that too; I've got my own list. And... I laughed out loud when I read the name of the film (a real one, this time, on p.158) that finally cured Oswalt of his fiendish addiction.
Maybe you will, too.
His own subtitle calls this period, which lasted from May 20, 1995 to May 20, 1999, an "addiction," and I get that. I worked for a movie-theater company for a few years, back in the 1980s, and during that time I watched every film that played in our small town, no matter how terrible. (Curse you, !)
It's a pity that didn't reach a wider audience, but I get that too—the intensity of Oswalt's film addiction comes across as a little scary sometimes, and the level of detail he pulls from his memories and film-watching diaries can be overwhelming. Either keep a search window open while you read this book, or accept that you're going to miss a lot of Oswalt's references to movies, fellow comedians, L.A. geography, and even French painters.
Oswalt's ambivalence about his subject also undermines his own project to some extent. In that way reminded me of a film I'm sure very few of you have ever seen, (warning: Amazon link), which is a lifelong coffee-hater's full-length documentary about... coffee. Except that Oswalt loved film. Still does, you can tell.
In short, is not nearly as accessible as , which I read back in 2012. But it's still pretty great.
I get the feeling that Oswalt really wanted to call this book Sprocket Fiend—which would have been a much better title, to my mind—but that Marketing objected.
After the main narrative ends, Oswalt adds a whole appendix full of fictitious films—titles, directors, stars and summaries for movies that don't even exist—that would have been filmed, if there were any justice in the universe, that might have been winning awards in the next universe over. Paging 's James Stark (Sandman Slim), whose L.A. video store Max Overdrive occasionally imports such transuniversal treasures as:
Oswalt has this one directed by Hal Ashby, and starring John Belushi, Richard Pryor and Lily Tomlin...
Ashby refused to "contain" human hurricanes like Belushi and Pryor in his heat-haze adaptation of Dunces. Instead, he reportedly played them against each other, expanding the character of Burma Jones from the novel for Pryor to inhabit, and letting Belushi create his own interpretation of Ignatius, which was miraculous for how close it ended up being to 's vision without Belushi's ever reading the novel. Lily Tomlin, fresh off The Late Show, is hilarious as Ignatius's mother. And that's a very young Frances McDormand as Myrna Minkoff. Sublime.
—p.172
, directed by Michael Reeves (p. 180).
, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel...
Scorsese's poisoned love letter to the sixties, The Hawkline Monster is as darkly hilarious as Raging Bull, as well as an elegaic ode to the unrealized, childlike mysticism of the Summer of Love, turned sour and mirrored in De Niro and Keitel's hit-men duo Cameron and Greer (stand-ins for every Nixonian dirty trickster who smirked behind mirrored sunglasses and went unpunished).
—p.183
I'd pay good hard cash to see any one of these.
ends with another list: "Four Years of Films," detailing exactly what Oswalt watched, when, and where. Oh, yes, I get that too; I've got my own list. And... I laughed out loud when I read the name of the film (a real one, this time, on p.158) that finally cured Oswalt of his fiendish addiction.
Maybe you will, too.
December 30, 2014
Touching, compulsively readable. Devour it in one sleepless night and be hungry for more.
November 18, 2017
*3.5 stars*
Enthusiastically and eloquently narrated and written with a surprising amount of poetry, was an interesting listen for me. I like , and I was willing to pay for the audio to hear him in a more intimate setting, but, truly, this book is for movie geeks only. If you are like me, a total movie non-snob and commercialized cinema embracer, most of the references will fly right over your head.
March 31, 2022
This is a book about Cinema, and the process of learning to appreciate older films to enhance one's worldview. In Oswalt's case, he took an organized and mechanical approach to the task, using five books on cinema as a guide for keeping track of everything he saw that was worth seeing, according to those authors.
The review below references 29 different films, if you include I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK, which is a docuseries that has nothing to do with this book except that it features Oswalt prominently and serves as an adaptation of a book that came out of the same household. Without having read it, I can pretty confidently state that it is better than this, and I imagine Oswalt would agree. Make no mistake: there are beautiful and sublime moments in this--but as many comedians' memoirs are wont to do, there is often a greater emphasis on the punchline than the profound statement.
While I really enjoyed the entire book, I had one idiosyncratic criticism: Oswalt should have gone "full Sontag" and completely pretended he had no stand-up comedy career. His work in film is relevant to this book, so that could stay, but the material on stand-up makes the book into something else, a statement on the discovery of his own r'aison d'etre, a reflection upon the different spaces and phases of life that exert powerful influences upon us. Oswalt studied film because he wanted to be a great director. In the process he became a great actor (and a more successful stand-up). Perhaps one day he may still be a great director. I know that this book could have been much more arch and snobby, and while it certainly has those moments, it doesn't have enough of them.
I also wrote this review in the wake of Peter Bogdanovich's death, nearly three months ago, and I have yet to watch those two films of his referenced below. I did, however, watch LA JETEE shortly after finishing this. It made slightly more sense to me this time, yet I still found the experience jarring and less impressive (it seems a bit easier to make a film like this, essentially comprised of still photographs, though few of us may be as imaginative as Chris Marker). Regardless, I was very glad I did it, and I wouldn't have without this book. Like AGAINST INTERPRETATION, it would be hard to read this book without getting turned onto something else, and so going "half Sontag" is good enough, most of the time.
The review below references 29 different films, if you include I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK, which is a docuseries that has nothing to do with this book except that it features Oswalt prominently and serves as an adaptation of a book that came out of the same household. Without having read it, I can pretty confidently state that it is better than this, and I imagine Oswalt would agree. Make no mistake: there are beautiful and sublime moments in this--but as many comedians' memoirs are wont to do, there is often a greater emphasis on the punchline than the profound statement.
While I really enjoyed the entire book, I had one idiosyncratic criticism: Oswalt should have gone "full Sontag" and completely pretended he had no stand-up comedy career. His work in film is relevant to this book, so that could stay, but the material on stand-up makes the book into something else, a statement on the discovery of his own r'aison d'etre, a reflection upon the different spaces and phases of life that exert powerful influences upon us. Oswalt studied film because he wanted to be a great director. In the process he became a great actor (and a more successful stand-up). Perhaps one day he may still be a great director. I know that this book could have been much more arch and snobby, and while it certainly has those moments, it doesn't have enough of them.
I also wrote this review in the wake of Peter Bogdanovich's death, nearly three months ago, and I have yet to watch those two films of his referenced below. I did, however, watch LA JETEE shortly after finishing this. It made slightly more sense to me this time, yet I still found the experience jarring and less impressive (it seems a bit easier to make a film like this, essentially comprised of still photographs, though few of us may be as imaginative as Chris Marker). Regardless, I was very glad I did it, and I wouldn't have without this book. Like AGAINST INTERPRETATION, it would be hard to read this book without getting turned onto something else, and so going "half Sontag" is good enough, most of the time.
January 8, 2015
I ordered Patton Oswalt's latest memoir from Amazon several weeks ago. It arrived on Tuesday January 6, 2015. I began reading it that very day. By the time I retired for the evening I had devoured half the book in several sittings. The next day I finished reading the rest. A fantastic read as compulsive and addictive as the all-consuming passion for cinema that ruled Oswalt's life for years and nearly derailed his every ambition, Silver Screen Fiend documents the famed actor, writer, and stand-up comedian's journey from rabid film geek searching for his future at 24 frames per second to a committed, well-adjusted professional artist who accepts that movies should be a part of life and not a way of life in exquisite prose. Four years earlier I had read Oswalt's first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, and within its pages were harrowing passages taken from his own life and career etched onto the printed page with the acidic wit and bruising honesty of the greatest authors. I knew then that he had the makings of a great American novel somewhere in the depths of his bustling imagination. Silver Screen Fiend is far from a work of fiction, but it's that rarest of books that not only entertains but also might compel its readers to re-evaluate their own passions and priorities. It certainly did for me. I have a lot of thinking to do now.
November 11, 2016
A joyless, mirthless experience. Page after page of nothing, just Oswalt turning a story that should be a paragraph at best into a whole chapter. And his final revelation about cinema "addiction" is as underwhelming as they come. And for you cinephiles out there thinking, "Well at least he's going to write about some good films" don't bother. He just lists them and maybe occasionally gives a plot synopsis.
If you want to see a real great piece of art about cinema addiction, check out the doc Cinemania. There's more insight and humour in any given frame of the film than in this whole book.
If you want to see a real great piece of art about cinema addiction, check out the doc Cinemania. There's more insight and humour in any given frame of the film than in this whole book.
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