Rating: 
Summary: Too much fat and gristle
Review: This documentary is like a filet mignon that's been cut by a blind butcher. You get a lot of fat and gristle but not much meat. The meat is there, but the director has no clue where. You lose your appetite with all that fat, i.e the director's dull, meandering search for an A.W.O.L. writer. The gristle is the witless, self-absorbed personal story that leaves you wondering why the director bothered going through the motions. The meat is the interviews with publishing types. To get to it, the butcher makes you chew on indigestible scraps.
Really folks I've had better meals at Dennys.
Rating: 
Summary: Adding my voice to the positives
Review: After recently viewing this film, I logged onto Amazon to put it on my wish list and read the reviews. This, then, is my first ever review and I am writing to express my extreme shock at the negative reviews and the references to homosexuality ( what film were those people watching??). I had some of the same reactions to the director and interviewer, but I quickly realized that most of us who are passionate about a book can be, at times, obnoxious in our excitement. We feel that we own ,( and maybe even created ), a book that we love and that speaks for us. As for the interjection of the film maker's life into the film - that MADE the film - much like reading an honest memoir can be more powerful than reading fiction - I loved it! My husband watched this movie with me ,(and he is not an obsessive reader), and he was so caught up in it - he looked at me and said, " I understand how you feel now". For those of us who don't belong to book clubs because we think our feelings are often too personal to be shared, this movie is heart- expanding. I have long held the belief that there is unmined gold in old books and prefer them to new ones hyped by talk show hosts. I will own this DVD and look forward to exploring the titles mentioned in the film that I haven't read. I don't expect to totally agree, but then, that is the beauty of reading. A book meets you where you are.
Rating: 
Summary: Self-indulgent? Yes. Homosexual? No.
Review: I have no idea where these people come up with this stuff, but to insinuate that there are homoerotic undertones in this film is to lay bare one of the most unsophisiticated interpretations I've ever read. I shake my head in visceral astonishment at the utter profundity of several of these reviewer's stupidity. Truly.Anyway, the story behind the film is interesting. Unfortunately, the filmmaker, at some point, decided the story wasn't good enough and basically made a home movie of his quest without much thought as to why he was doing this or if perhaps his brazen (sometimes rude) approach would translate well onto the screen (it didn't). All that said, it's better than 95% of the crap out there right now. Perhaps that isn't saying much.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised...
Review: I was hesitant to watch this film as it seemed to be a shameless marketing ploy by Barnes & Noble to promote a book they brought back into print. It just seemed too corporate and packaged. I suppose to an extent it is but that is merely a metaphor for the publishing world today. Not quite sure what the whole email thing is about either. Not sure about all the hostility either. Seems the film itself is getting lost amidst all this personal controversy stuff. As for the film itself it shines brightly in places enough to free it from the director. The basic premise is a search to find an author of a book that has touched the director's life. It would be like me seeking out Robert Pirsig, of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance legend, whose book saved my life at a certain period of time. I understand the director's obsession. Perhaps that is why I hung in there. It paid off. It's really a great opportunity to listen to writers discuss their passions about the art of writing (and reading). There are some valuable lessons to be learned here about the entire process. This includes not only the drive of the writers themselves but a chance to listen to editors and others involved in the business of books. As the author goes on about his search for this elusive writer, the words of wisdom and reflections of those he interviews are moving and inspiring. This is the payoff. I didn't care much for the director. He's a bit pompous and doesn't really listen well. He often has a look as if he's bored and if the speaker doesn't have the answers he's looking for what they have to say isn't that important. In retrospect, he may have been able to find the writer in ten minutes but, in doing my own research projects, sometimes we take the long road to reach our destination. I've done research and it took me weeks, months even, to find something that, in hindsight, was right in front of me and I didn't know it. The one question left lingering was the reason for this obsession. He makes a reference to it in passing but never follows through. Sure it's interesting to want to speak to an author about a book that touched your life and the mystery as to why he disappeared so suddenly but why this obsession in the first place? We never really know. Maybe if we understood, we'd find his personality less grating. That being said, it's worth the visit if you're passionate about books and writing.
Rating: 
Summary: the naysayers have a good point
Review: Don Y is right that you can't trust any of the good reviews here. I can't tell which ones were made up and which ones were not. I can't understand why a director would pull an email stunt like that. The only reason I can think of is he can't he take criticism. My criticism is that I couldn't sit through the movie even though I love books and I'm a voracious reader. Stone Reader could have been good if it concentrated more on the book people, but most of it was about the director and his problems. Whenever he talked I just thought about doing my laundry.
Yawn.
Rating:
Summary: Please hear me out before you get to the apologists
Review: Please bear me out for this is my first time blogging on Amazon. I enter this discussion as someone who has watched the Stone Reader DVD, including the post-film discussions the film's director, Mark Moskowitz. I did not receive one of the thousands of e-mails he sent out begging people to post favorable reviews for Stone Reader even if I had not seen the DVD. My personal feeling is that if this was intended as a joke, it was not a funny one and that most of the people who received it did not take it as such. This feeling is seconded by a previous viewer who did receive such an e-mail and did take it seriously. I assume many of Mark Moskowitz's apologists who posted favorable reviews below did so in response to his e-mail. My thinking is too bad for the rest of us. Who can you trust? I'm afraid not Mark Moskowitz's defenders. The waters have been muddied by his hamhanded attempt to manipulate critical reaction. In my view the interesting thing about the e-mail is how it shows his cavalier attitude toward people and filmmaking. If a story does not conform to his preconceptions, for example the disappearance of Dow Mossman when he was in front of his nose the whole time, he forces a square peg into a round hole, for example making Dow Mossman seem to be hiding. The failure of this film is not that its director doesn't know what to do with the literary people he parades around for his own glorification, but that he could care less about them. I agreed with the reviewer that called Stone Reader a vanity project. Stone Reader tries to appear weighty and thoughtful but all I was left with was vanity.
Rating:
Summary: Getting back to the dvd....
Review: As fascinating as it is to wade through endless reviews shreiking about an email supposedly from the director (yawn), it might be nice to actually discuss the movie and, notably, the dvd. First off, you will not like this movie if you are NOT really turned on by books AND authors. I don't think this is necessarily a movie for all passionate readers. For some, it is enough to read a book and enjoy (or not), for others of us, we want know to all sorts of details about a book's author. What does he write with? When does he write? What is his process? What sorts of books does the author read? This is a movie really for that last set of readers, us nosey ones. Second, you will probably not like this movie if you are sensitive to/get annoyed easily by self-referential directors. Moskowitz wants to tell us a story only partially about Dow Mossman. He wants to tell you how he feels about books, what they mean to him, and how they fit into his personal life. You see his mom, who is funny, you see his wife, his really cute kids, and probably entirely too much of Moskowitz. For those of us who are less affronted at this...it can be charming. Moskowitz does not come off as a likable guy; he can be brusque. But there is lingering sweetness about his honest affection for the subjects he takes into his lense, whether these are the books on the shelves, his kids, his friends, mom, authors, or ferris wheels. I never really viewed this as documentary per se. It was more like a personal essay on film rather than any sort of fact-finding mission. A guy with camera, keeping a book journal for awhile and sharing his enthusiasms with the audience. He gets a bug about wanting to find an author, and we go on that meandering stroll, too. The movie was too long to support this format. The interviews with the book jacket designer, some of Mossman's acquaintances, some of Mossman's more rambling sequences...these could have gone to the cutting room floor. Easily. And much of the material included on the DVD deserved to be cut out of the movie, and really are not worth including in the dvd. Alternatively, there are few gems in the effluvia included on the DVD set: the interview with Mossman's first editor would have been nice in the film. All that said, I'm not sure that the extra disks add much that the film does not. Is it worth the money? I thought so. There are a few true geniuses on the film talking about authors/writing: Frank Conroy, Bob Gottlieb--these are guys worth listening to over and over again. Bruce Dobler's discussion about the harsh mentoring he received at the Iowa's Writer's Workshop is another great part. Robert Downs is gentleman and very good writer, and frankly not enough people in the younger generation know who Leslie Fielder is, and this little glimpse of him is good for us who have loved his work over the years. Perhaps the best scene in the film is the one where Moskowitz's little boy is tearing into an Amazon book for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Doesn't matter to me if the scene was staged; I've seen kids do it often enough off camera to have it tug at my heart in remembrance of all those glorious childhood hours with beloved books. Finally, if you pay attention there are enough books suggested throughout the film to keep an interested viewer in reading material for a good long time, and with excellent books to boot even if you find Stones of Summer (the book that inspired the movie) not to your liking. Postscript: Since posting this first time, there has more whining about the director. Gad this is weird. Frankly, the *negative* reviews that focus on the email and homosexuality--of which there is nothing in the film--make me wonder more seriously if the *negative* reviews--not the positive-- are not the result of a coordinated smear effort MUCH more so than any email from the director. This is ironic then for them turn around and accuse those of us who don't share their knee-jerk reaction AND their taste in movies of participating in some grand promotional conspiracy. CAN WE DISCUSS THE MOVIE ALREADY????
Rating:
Summary: Not a joke
Review: I am one of the 3,000 people who received an e-mail from director Mark Moskowitz. The e-mail asked me to post a positive review at amazon. In the e-mail Moskowitz wrote that it didn't matter if I had seen Stone Reader so long as my review was positive. If his e-mail was a joke it was lost on me and the 4 other people I know who got it. My sense is that it was VERY serious. The New York Times believed it was serious too. Why else would Moskowitz send it out? How creepy!
I can't understand the Amazon reviewers who write that the search for Dow MossMan was meaningless. If there was no search there would be no movie. So why did I only give this movie one star. Because i was really put off by Moskowitz's posturing and intellectual pretensions. I bought the book Stones Of Summer and enjoyed parts, but it was not worth a 3 hour movie.
Rating:
Summary: The "Stone Reader" I saw...
Review: I saw Stone Reader in the theater, and I"ve recently watched it again on DVD. This is a great movie to own, because there is so much to absorb from the conversations about various books discussed in the film. The DVD contains even more of these fascinating dialogs. When I came back to the Amazon site to write a review, I had to wonder if some of the other reviewers had seen the "Stone Reader" I saw. I suppose it's possible that someone wouldn't like this film (or that they had some agenda which would cause them to write a negative review), but personally I can't find much not to like. Yes, the search for Mossman seems "roundabout" at times, but it's thoroughly engaging along the way. I think people who see this film sometimes get caught up in the idea that the search for the "missing" author is what the film is about. The "search" is really a vehicle...a device...that the filmmaker employs so that we have the opportunity to explore the real message(s) of the film: the intensity and passion of the creative process; the difficulties of "getting published"; the personal sacrifice that artists make in pursuit of their craft. Those are the real messages of the film, so if you are interested in the creative process, writing, or the publishing business you'll probably love this film. This is a well done documentary that took me into a world I hadn't seen before. Unless you're looking for an action picture (which this is not), I doubt you would be disappointed by "Stone Reader". If you're interested in some more objective reviews, I suggest checking out http://www.rottentomatoes.com
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film - Do not trust the naysayers
Review: This is really a terrific film. It was quite obvious (to those with an iota of intelligence at least) that Mark was joking. To make such a big deal of it is absolutely ridiculous, but wholly believable in this country. For anyone interested at all with books, in any way, shape or form, please get this dvd; you will not be sorry.
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