Rating: 
Summary: You'll Never Be Bored
Review: I liked this book immensely. It's so lively, it's gotta be the meaning of a "fast read!" I just recommended it to a close friend who loved the book jacket and title. Yes, some of the references are esoteric but overall the book is superbly crafted. Like its author, YNELITTA is an acquired tase. Think of haute couture - just not for everyone. But great for film buffs who want real inside Hollywood stories. Served up with wit and flair.
Rating: 
Summary: Lunch in the Fast Lane
Review: I recently picked up "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again" at my local Store ...after all, I like a change from the fantasy of novel reading, to the fantasy of stars and their satelites. If it's cheap enough. I enjoy the irony of the tales of wealth and excesses of people who have (& abuse) so much, while we mere mortals are stressing over the next rent payment, thankful we aren't among the homeless and hungry.I expected standard Hollywood dirt-dishing. I was unprepared for the vengeful & venomous whining from a woman who'd once set a new standard for women in 'the industry', yet never saw she'd helped create the viper's nest she later exposed in over 600 paqes of difficult to read complaining. Yet I read it all. I thought the bitter and mean-spirited texture of the book, with it's raw self-revelation/loathing theme, would have some gentler conclusion, message, or lesson learned by the author. It didn't. As tough as Julia Phillips was, she never beat her addiction...to Hollywood. Julia lost sight of the fact that though she was singular in a particular era of film making, she was not unique in the battle with the temptations of self-medication, or the quest for happiness we all make. This "but I'm so special as a woman" sexist vein is the glue that held this book together, and would have been acceptable to the reader if we could feel at the end that Julia ever really "got it". I found the book drew me into the nastiness, though it seemed obvious the fine details of every deal or friendship were written for insiders. Name- dropping as the weapon of choice. We all love the movies; have our favorite actors and directors; we like to believe there really is some impossible magic, and that true artistry will win out and be noticed in a flood of wannabes. Julia tells us that's not the case. One must admire the uncompromising dog-fight honesty of her book, if not the mercenary sour grapes. Last night, watching the 2002 Oscars, I learned that Julia had died. And I saw Robert Redford's moving speech, with his plea for freedom of expression. I hope that is possible; Julia's book makes me fear it's not. Is Sundance still as unsullied as at its original conception? Julia would not have missed the irony of me finding her book in the [local] store, in barely read condition.
Rating:
Summary: Dishy and Fun
Review: I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I'd read it when it was first published. The references are naturally out of date and I wasn't terribly familiar with a lot of the movies she referenced. Otherwise it was a nice dishy read. At times the author was a little too "oh poor me" for my taste. She chose her own destiny but seemed too quick to blame others which I found a bit annoying. It's also difficult to keep track of the cast of characters through this whole book, but not distractingly so. It's not her fault she knew a lot of people. I would however tell a friend that this book is worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and compelling...
Review: I'll keep it short... I know nothing about Hollywood... nor do I really care... this book, to my mind, if you read it a little closer, isn't just about who's doing who and what in Hollywood... The only shallow thing is the title of the book, which is probably the best synopsis one could opt for given the matters related to inside... good on Julia I say... I found the book compelling... a little sad...funny...and honest; worthy of a talented artist.
Rating:
Summary: A savage, bitter, ultimately tragic self-portrait.
Review: In her Oscar acceptance speech for Best Picture, Julia Phillips described herself as a "nice Jewish girl from Great Neck." Well, she got 2/3 of it right. But nice? No way. This book is one of the greatest acts of literary self-immolation ever published. It's hard not to feel sorry for Phillips at first, suffering as she does from a toxic mother, a workaholic father, insomnia and a Talmudic intellect. But you get over that feeling in a hurry, as Phillips bullies, maneuvers, sleeps and stomps her way to the top, winning an Oscar for The Sting at the unheard-of age of 29. Her motto: overcompensate; overachieve. If you can't be best, be first. As she notes, no young person is ever ready for massive success, and her career crashed just as quickly. After being more or less fired from Close Encounters by Steven Speilberg, her life became a broken record of drug abuse, failed relationships, financial problems and closed doors gleefully slammed by those she used and abused on the way up. Through it all she makes it all seem like a big game, but the human wreckage strewn across the landscape will give the reader pause. It's hard to know whether Phillips' broadsides at anyone and everyone with whom she had contact are simply through spite, or whether we'd all be better off if Hollywood simply disappeared in the next big quake. Phillips claims that she's just being honest, but snide remarks about a crewmember's physical deformity make her seem only nasty. Hate it as she did, Phillips revelled in the politics, the backstabbing, the lies and shallowness, the feeling of power that came with the title of Producer. She learned fast ("Always negotiate the height and WIDTH of your [on-screen] credit," she advises, after her on-screen credit for The Sting is "willow thin.") Her films (Taxi Driver, The Sting, Close Encounters, among others) were good, though one gets the sense it was in spite of her take-no-prisioners approach. One wishes at the end that Phillips would "get it," but instead she reaps what she sews. There was to be no Hollywood redemption for her. Phillips' death this january was untimely, but no human being could possibly survive for long carrying around so much bile. Very much worth the read, even only as a cautionary tale.
Rating:
Summary: A savage, bitter, ultimately tragic self-portrait.
Review: In her Oscar acceptance speech for Best Picture, Julia Phillips described herself as a "nice Jewish girl from Great Neck." Well, she got 2/3 of it right. But nice? No way. This book is one of the greatest acts of literary self-immolation ever published. It's hard not to feel sorry for Phillips at first, suffering as she does from a toxic mother, a workaholic father, insomnia and a Talmudic intellect. But you get over that feeling in a hurry, as Phillips bullies, maneuvers, sleeps and stomps her way to the top, winning an Oscar for The Sting at the unheard-of age of 29. Her motto: overcompensate; overachieve. If you can't be best, be first. As she notes, no young person is ever ready for massive success, and her career crashed just as quickly. After being more or less fired from Close Encounters by Steven Speilberg, her life became a broken record of drug abuse, failed relationships, financial problems and closed doors gleefully slammed by those she used and abused on the way up. Through it all she makes it all seem like a big game, but the human wreckage strewn across the landscape will give the reader pause. It's hard to know whether Phillips' broadsides at anyone and everyone with whom she had contact are simply through spite, or whether we'd all be better off if Hollywood simply disappeared in the next big quake. Phillips claims that she's just being honest, but snide remarks about a crewmember's physical deformity make her seem only nasty. Hate it as she did, Phillips revelled in the politics, the backstabbing, the lies and shallowness, the feeling of power that came with the title of Producer. She learned fast ("Always negotiate the height and WIDTH of your [on-screen] credit," she advises, after her on-screen credit for The Sting is "willow thin.") Her films (Taxi Driver, The Sting, Close Encounters, among others) were good, though one gets the sense it was in spite of her take-no-prisioners approach. One wishes at the end that Phillips would "get it," but instead she reaps what she sews. There was to be no Hollywood redemption for her. Phillips' death this january was untimely, but no human being could possibly survive for long carrying around so much bile. Very much worth the read, even only as a cautionary tale.
Rating:
Summary: Telling it like it is...
Review: Julia Phillips died today of cancer, aged 57. The Los Angeles Times Obituary had this to say, in addition to her history: "Friends said she was surprisingly sensitive to the criticism. Ten years later, they said, she was pondering whether to respond to negative reviews that appeared on the amazon.com Web site."
Interesting to say the least. If you want further tales of Hollywood woe in the 70's (as well as the superficial good times seemingly had by all the "beautiful people" of Hollywood in the "Golden Age of Cinema" check out Bob Woodward's book on John Belushi as many of the same names (and some incidents) appear).
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable
Review: Julia Phillips' prose sticks with you long after you've put the book down (not an easy feat.) Sometimes I find myself rereading certain passages over and over again, not only for their wisdom and humor, but just for the sheer style and cadence. She is a writer unlike any other.
Her fast-paced, no-nonsense style isn't for some readers. For those looking for a stale, run-of-the-mill bio, this work could certainly be considered confusing. But for those who want a harsh, honest and humorous look at the dark side of Hollywood, this book is indispensable and a must-have for all serious filmgoers.
Julia died this week after a short battle with cancer. We're fortunate to have this brilliant work to revisit even though she's no longer with us.
Rating:
Summary: Just regular folks ..gone wrong
Review: Not all HOllywood high rollers are born cool and ultra-confident. This book documents that fact and proves it, as it walks us through the rise and fall of one of Hollywood's finest. This book gets down to earth and tells the story of a young woman born into a middle class family in NY (where else?!) who rapidly rises to the heights of success and fame in her profession and spirals down, almost as rapidly. Truth is always more intersting than fiction and this book proves it.
Rating:
Summary: Just regular folks ..gone wrong
Review: Not all HOllywood high rollers are born cool and ultra-confident. This book documents that fact and proves it, as it walks us through the rise and fall of one of Hollywood's finest. This book gets down to earth and tells the story of a young woman born into a middle class family in NY (where else?!) who rapidly rises to the heights of success and fame in her profession and spirals down, almost as rapidly. Truth is always more intersting than fiction and this book proves it.
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