Rating: 
Summary: For book lovers and indie fans
Review: What I like most about this doc is that it celebrated something that I love - books. As an avid reader since I could read, it was fun for me to go on this journey in search of an author. After seeing the movie, I bought the book. I haven't read it yet, so I dont' know yet whether I'll share Mark's enthusiasm for the book - but I guess that would be another revew.
I also read some of the other reviews and a few of them puzzle me. A couple mention the "staged" nature of some of the events. You think Ken Burns never stages anything? You've never seen re-creations in a documentary? It's a standard storytelling technique so I don't see why some make it a big issue.
Overall, the movie kept my interest until the very end and I was expecially pleased to find out the happy ending the film created for the author.
Rating:
Summary: Stone Reader will touch you emotionally.
Review: I'll start by saying this is a totally honest review. The reason I even say that is because I met one of the people involved in the making of Stone Reader - after it had been completed. In truth I purchased the Special Limited Edition just to look at the film making aspect. I wasn't sure the search for the author of a book that was out of print was going to make a movie I would be interested in but the video aspect my friend was involved in did interest me. I thought the movie got off to a little bit of a slow start. As I continued to watch I started to really wonder if the author would ever be found. I think there are two stories going on. One story is about the search for Dow Mossman. The other story is about something I have never given much thought to but probably should. It's about the kind of energy and committment it takes for an author to start and actually complete the writting of a book. I started to think about all the books that are written and have merit but never really seem to make it and what happens emotionally to those authors. To my surprise I really started to get excited about the search for Dow Mossman. I'm not going to tell you the story but the movie does reach a climax and I found my self pretty excited about what was about to happen. This is not an adventure movie - but really a journey into the thoughts and the world of writer's. It is also about one man's quest to understand how someone who wrote such a good book could just vanish. At the end of the movie I understood why it had won several awards at the Slamdance Film Festival. If you are looking for a film that is relaxing to watch, touches your senses and leaves you with a warm feeling - you'll enjoy Stone Reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Literary Detective
Review: Moskowitz's quest for a one hit wonder, turns into a real life drama as he uncovers the path one man's life took, after it looked as though it would go in another direction. The search for the main character takes time, but has a big payoff. Glad to have the disc in my collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Homosocial, not Homosexual
Review: (...)I saw the DVD version of this film last night and most of its special feature clips, of which there are quite a few (on a second DVD). I thought the film was an enjoyable ramble by an obviously passionate lover of books. Dow Mossman, once found, proves to be a delightful thinker, and I'm intrigued enough by the whole project to seek out his one novel, The Stones of Summer. After awhile, though, it became evident to me that Moskowitz has bought into a very old-fashioned notion of "great literature," a notion handed down to us from a time when Euro-American men filled nearly every academic, publishing, and book reviewer position. The tendency of such men to universalize their perspectives, that is, to avoid labeling their conceptions of great art as THEIR OWN conceptions, is all over this film. This film is homosocial in that every "great" book and author mentioned in it, and every smiling, ecstatic reader and reviewer interviewed, is a man (and with the tokenized exception of Ralph Ellison, white). So, (...). I'm a big enough lover of books to have read most of the great white-guy (and Jewish-guy) lit referenced throughout this film, but I've also read many other great non-white and female writers who never get mentioned here. The macho exclusivity of this film would've probably turned me off more it I were not a white guy myself; as such, I've been lucky enough to realize something that I hope Moskowitz isn't too old to learn: that there's a lot more great art out there than the stuff I can "relate to" because I somehow see myself in it. On other thing--you and some of your buddies should rethink your tendencies to fetishize books as collectible objects (like this film's no-doubt-priceless baseballs on their own little display pedestals). It's what a book does in your head that counts, not how much money it's worth.
Rating: 
Summary: Phony-feeling docu-movie-ad
Review: I've been watching this DVD for the past three nights, trying to get through it (and that's just the feature part). What really bothers me about this film is how I continually find myself thinking, "How stupid. He's saying in his voiceover that he sent the book to his friend, while we're looking at the friend opening the package and feigning surprise. No one believes this friend didn't know the book was coming or why there would be a camera in his face as he opens his mail. Far too much of this film is obviously staged. As I watch this film, I told my husband that "this guy's a dweeb." He's got an obsession like a high schooler. We all knew someone like him. I remember going to England in college, and a bunch of guys in our group just HAD to make a pilgrimage to JRR Tolkien's grave in Oxford. Lordy. One would think a 40-something man would be past this sort of thing. OK, be obsessed, but don't involve us in it. No wonder his wife didn't want to be in the film. There's a dreadful phoniness about this film, which really disappoints the viewer. I can't believe the filmmaker was unable to track down Dow Mossman faster than he did, but then I guess he'd have realized he would have had less of a film and more of a cocktail party anecdote. Anecdotes don't make you famous, I guess. Save your money. Rent this thing at the library if you must, but don't bother buying it. This filmmaker's prior filming experience apparently is in making commercials for politicians, and this film feels as phony as those politicians. It, too, has no heart.
Rating: 
Summary: Catch-22 excited him, and fit in his back pocket.
Review: The Turkey Vulture flying around with a Red-tailed Hawk soundtrack tipped me off to watch for affects. He said he could turn right-to-the-page of the periodical guide to literature in seconds when he was in 3rd grade. Clever lad, and fast. He could fit paperbacks in his back pockets [his wife's jean's pockets are made too small, so she couldn't read as much, hence, couldn't appreciate The Stone Summer and didn't want to be filmed]. Catch-22 excited him, Joseph Heller he imaged was the friend whom he could never find in life. He didn't wear a wedding ring. The shots at peeking at other people's books was interesting. I wished he spend more time with Dow Mossman, he had some immediate dimension to him. And I did enjoy looking up some of the books I never read. Overall, I found the filmmaker too erudite and plucky and flat. I'm not a fast reader and envy those who can, so I could not appreciate it on that level, but the possible subplots I imagined were fun while I watched this movie that was a little different.
Rating:
Summary: Literacy is Alive!
Review: I have seen this in the theatre and now own it thanks to one of my daughters who gave the DVD to me at Christmas. It made me feel really good that something like this was out there for the public to enjoy. The crowded theatre made me feel proud to be a reader and this feeling was amplified by the DVD. Some of the literary allusions were over my head, I majored in History, but others made me smile, if not chuckle aloud. I also felt that this was too literate to be considered for an Oscar, unfortunately, I was right. I have leant my copy of the DVD to several in our book club and all have agreed that it was an exceptional film.
Rating:
Summary: Pull down thy vanity
Review: I am one of the 3,000 people who received e-mails from the director of Stone Reader asking to post a favourable review, whether I had seen the film or not. (Viz.: the Feb. 08 story in the New York Times). As much I would like to oblige, I cannot in good conscience. The tragedy of this unthinking exercise in self-love is that it swells with marginal scenes that do not move the action along and a concomitant storyline that bogs things down even more. The director may have intended the secondary story as comedy, personal revelation or merely filler, but it does not work on any level. Time and again he demonstrates an unwillingness to listen to any of the people he is interviewing. People are mere props for him. This did not really bother until the staged scene in which he made a prop of his own son, posing the boy tearing open a package and then reading a Harry Potter book. From that moment on I was repelled. Pull down thy vanity
Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail
A swollen magpie on a fitful sun
Half black half white
Nor knowst'ou wing from tail
Pull down thy vanity
Rating:
Summary: A Passion for Books
Review: If you don't have one--a passion for books, that is--you probably should avoid this film. But if you love to read, and especially read good books, this film is like an unanticipated gift of something you treasure. (If your reading doesn't extend beyond the King/Grisham/Clancy/Steele boundaries, you should stop right here and perhaps purchase a Jerry Bruckheimer DVD--possibly something with Ben Affleck.) Political campaign commercial director Mark Moskowitz communicates his own life-long love of reading through a search for the author (Dow Mossman) of a book ("The Stones of Summer") long out of print but hailed upon release thirty years ago. Along the way, he talks to all manner of book people--writers, editors, agents, critics. I saw the film twice in theatrical release and loved it: it's very funny, sweet, sad in spots, and intelligent. The DVD uses outtakes of several of the best interviews to provide much more footage, most of it terrific. (See esp. the Leslie Fiedler interview, particularly valuable since Fiedler died shortly after.) BTW, "The Stones of Summer" is now available in a reprinted edition, thanks to Moskowitz and the popularity of the film, published by Barnes and Noble. A great testament to the powers and joys of literacy.
Rating:
Summary: Unless you are uptight and obnoxious, you'll like this movie
Review: This movie is a kick. I must say that I was facinated by the erstwhile author of the book, who is the subject of the film: Dow Mossman. Here's a guy who wrote a book that got a "great" review in the NYTimes Book review 30 years ago; then, (may or may not have) had a nervous breakdown, worked as a welder for 19 years, took care of his dying mother for 4 and, at the time of the film, was working for a newspaper in Iowa bundling the morning papers. There are a lot of odd little interviews in the film, but their awkwardness is far outshone by their authenticity and the nuggets of wisdom that they contain. For example, an author who was part of the Iowa Writers Project who said that his time in the project was almost, but not quite, as tough as his time writing a series of articles on a maximum-security prison. The commentary on the DVD (with Mossman and the director) is full of insight and truly funny commentary about books they have both read (such as Mossman's observation that "Gone With The Wind" is not a civil war book but is really about a flapper in the 20s. Think about that one for a few minutes). Don't get me wrong about this, like any kind of movie that is intensely personal, it can be a bit self-conscious and pretentious, but generally it is a kind of sweet little statement on the power of books in a person's life and the ephemeral nature of fame, as well.
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