Confessions of a Movie Addict
Betty Jo Tucker
Paperback, 6x9 in, 256 pages
Hats Off Books, December 2001
ISBN:
1587360853
Description
Film Stars! Dancing! Popcorn!
At last, a life story with everything but the movie stuff edited out.
CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT chronicles a love affair with film from the 1930s through the beginning of the new millennium. In addition to revealing personal movie-related experiences, film critic Betty Jo Tucker describes encounters with such veteran actors as Mickey Rooney and Charlton Heston, as well as with current stars like Angelina Jolie, Billy Crudup, Guy Pearce, and Brendan Fraser. This amusing memoir also contains the following ADDED ATTRACTIONS: a Movie Addiction Checklist; a compendium of books and Web sites for movie fans; selected interviews; photos; and reviews (as posted on KOAA Online) of more than 70 films released during 2000 and 2001 A.D.
Warren Epstein, film critic for The Gazette in Colorado Springs, writes, “I hate Betty Jo Tucker. As a fellow Colorado film critic, I’ve loathed her for years. Sure, you can call it professional jealousy. But see it from my perspective. We all go to a film festival. Most of us get an article or two out of it. Betty Jo gets an adventure. She ends up being served dinner by the filmmakers, for heaven’s sake! Well, now I have to put up with her new book, Confessions of a Movie Addict, and, believe me, it’s about as Betty Jo as it can be. She takes us behind the scenes of the entertainment industry, sharing her favorite celebrity interviews and revealing her personal connections and passions for the movies. As if we care. (OK, the mishap at her first porn film had me laughing. But just a little.) You’ll probably read this book and fall in love with Betty Jo. Fine! See if I care.”
Liz Larrabee, author of Random Pieces: Vignettes from the Thirties and Liz Larrabee’s Book, says, “Betty Jo’s passion for movies, the insights she brings to her reviews and interviews, and her marvelous talent for taking you right along with her into the theater make Confessions of a Movie Addict a must-read—even for non-addicts.”
Reviews
Confessions of a Movie Addict is funny look at movies.
James Colt Harrison, Editor
National PreVue Film Magazine
If Oscars were given for the funniest book of the year, then Confessions of a Movie Addict by Betty Jo Tucker would win hands down! Film critic Tucker is as star-struck today as she was as a little girl when she was frightened out of her wits by Frankenstein and later in high school when she did impersonations of Rita Hayworth singing “Put The Blame On Mame.” She fell hopelessly in love with movies and movie stars. The affection she developed warped her mind from that point on to her present day success as a film critic. It has been said you have to be nuts to be a movie critic, and Tucker would probably agree.
Tucker takes us through her life in a chatty, gossipy way that serves the book’s topic well. She makes everything seem like fun as she journeys through her years as an educator, culminating in becoming Dean of Humanities at a San Diego College. Her 20 years in the halls of Ivy did not dampen her love of Hollywood. After retirement, she launched her career in film criticism, gaining success in the print media and the new-fangled Internet. Tucker regales us with her hilarious personal encounters with movie stars and directors and includes interviews in the book. Her personal friends are counted among Annette Bening, Anjelica Huston and her special favorite, Billy Crudup. Her unique and jolly way of looking at films is sampled in the reviews that are also included in the book.
If you love movies as much as I do, you’ll love Confessions of a Movie Addict. I haven’t had so much fun since I watched a Laurel and Hardy comedy. Short of doing pratfalls, Tucker and her tales will set you laughing out loud.
CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT by Betty Jo Tucker
Book Review by Jill Cozzi, online film critic (www.cozzifantutti.com) and Cinemarati Webmaster (www.cinemarati.org).
Recently I received a press release announcing a Malcolm McDowell retrospective at the Walter Reade Theatre. I forwarded it to a friend, along with a message:
"Gee, do you think I should go to this, walk up to
Malcolm McDowell and say, 'I saw A CLOCKWORK
ORANGE at my college auditorium and three weeks later
was deflowered by a guy who looked an awful lot like
you did then'"?
Now, of course I would never do such a thing, because such an occasion would reduce me to a babbling idiot. But then, I'm not Betty Jo Tucker.
If I WERE Betty Jo Tucker, however, it wouldn't even be an issue, for she would just walk up, make her confession without batting an eye, and two hours later walk away with notes from a truly killer interview. That's just the way she is.
Tucker is arguably the most unique presence among the many film critics on the Web today. In a world dominated by snarky teenagers and twenty-something self-anointed cineastes, Betty Jo Tucker is a gleeful, unabashed movie-lover; not a film buff, but someone who loves the experience of filmgoing. At seventy-plus, she retains the same joy in moving pictures projected on a screen as she did that first time she walked into the "picture show" to see FRANKENSTEIN--in its first run. A critic who came into the business late in life after raising two children, one divorce, one remarriage (to the same husband), and a distinguished academic career, she is an anomaly among Web critics in that she does NOT subscribe to the Alice Roosevelt credo of "If you can't say something nice, come sit by me."
In her new book Confessions of a Movie Addict, Tucker shares her infectious joy in the moviegoing experience with the rest of us. It is truly "a life story with everything but the movies edited out." Written in a breezy tone, CONFESSIONS is truly a snark-free zone. Tucker, who has set herself up as the premier lobbyist for the Return of the Movie Musical has even managed
to find the good in such crap-fests as the Britney Spears vehicle CROSSROADS. She doesn't love everything put on film, but you've got to love a critic who's eligible for Social Security but can still laugh her way through the likes of the surrealistically sophomoric Cabin Boy and who reacts to the ghastly The Princess Diaries by remembering to call her granddaughters and tell them how terrific they are just as they are.
Where Confessions of a Movie Addict falls short is in Tucker's underestimation of our interest in the journey of a woman through academia, homemaking, and into film criticism at an age when most of us have long since given up our dreams. This may be "a life story with everything but the movies edited out", but many of us would love to see what’s left on the cutting-room floor.
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