Synopses & Reviews
As a child in 1950s Brooklyn, Kenneth Turan often turned to television programs like Million Dollar Movie” on WOR-TV. Featuring a much-loved theme song from
Gone with the Wind, Million Dollar Movie” would run one feature film twice a day, every day, all week. It was there that he developed a life-long love of the world of the movies.
One of the most discerning critics writing today, Kenneth Turan offers insights that are sure to delight and inspire movie-lovers of all kinds in his latest book, Not To Be Missed. As sophisticated and illuminating as the films they discuss, Turans sketches are a blend of cultural analysis, historical anecdote and sordid Hollywood controversy, astute critical appraisals, all suffused with his abiding love for the silver screen.
Turan's favorite films range across all genres, low and high. From All About Eve to Seven Samurai to Spirited Away, these are now timeless filmsclassic and contemporary, familiar and obscure, with big budgets and smalleach as interesting as the lives of the authors and actors that made the usually two-or-so-hour-long cinematic experience itself.
Ernst Lubitsch loved to act out the scenes he was shooting in front of his cast. Laurence Oliviers torrid love affair with Vivien Leigh was the only reason he agreed to play the part of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. John Boorman once said that watching film is very like dreaming,” and truly, the highly-stylized violence of Point Blank dares its audience to reconsider what they've seen on the screen.
Review
"A collection full of surprises and Turan's great insight, Not to Be Missed is a treasure chest -- essential reading for anyone who loves movies."
Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and The Orchid ThiefA veteran critic offers a decade-by-decade list of the films that have been like friends whove enriched my life. Film lovers will eagerly swoop in to see if their favorites are present, and there are certainly some surprises. [Not to Be Missed] will surely ignite debate, disdain and delight.” Kirkus
Review
We would be hard pressed to disagree with Turan's premise about what makes for a favorite movie, or to write more eloquently about the things we love.
San Francisco ChronicleKenneth Turan
presents an enticing blend of Hollywood controversies, historical context, and crisp analysis in Not to be Missed
Cinephiles will find plenty to devour and to debate.”Boston Globe
[Turan] offers up tidbits of Hollywood history and behind-the-scenes drama, as well as his critical analysis of some of the world's greatest movies some familiar, some obscure.”NPR's Morning Edition
The books real value
may lie in the oddities that Turan has unearthed over a lifetime of viewing: connections between films and cultures that showcase influences and enhance reputations.”Washington Post
"A collection full of surprises and Turan's great insight, Not to Be Missed is a treasure chestessential reading for anyone who loves movies."Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and The Orchid Thief
What makes this book stand out is how each film is put into context of the time period it was made and Turans reasons why each one sticks out as memorable and deserving of watching more than once. This collection is a worthwhile companion to similar books of the best in film,” e.g., Roger Eberts The Great Movies and Gail Kinn and Jim Piazzas The Greatest Movies Ever. Recommended for the casual movie fan as well as the serious film student.”Library Journal
A veteran critic offers a decade-by-decade list of the films that have been like friends whove enriched my life. Film lovers will eagerly swoop in to see if their favorites are present, and there are certainly some surprises. [Not to Be Missed] will surely ignite debate, disdain and delight.” Kirkus
[Turans] comments about the movies are always insightful
his writing is fluid and accessible. Richly deserving of shelf space alongside Eberts The Great Movies (2002), Pauline Kaels For Keeps (1994), and Turans own Never Coming to a Theater Near You (2004).”Booklist
Turan's thoughtful list will inspire readers to rent some of his all-time favorites, and they can have the utmost confidence in Turan's wise and enthusiastic recommendations.” Shelf Awareness
The never-condescending Turan, another fine prose stylist, shares his faves so enthusiastically one gets caught up in the excitement of visiting or revisiting movies like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” or Howards End” or even Hayao Miyazakis Spirited Away” to see what Turan saw in them
A great little listing of some great films, which may inspire its readers to make their own lists -- and then watch them.”Book Buzz column
Wholly compelling
For the last several decades, Turan himself has been a not-to-be-missed” film critic for the Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio, but now he has cast his memory back to his own formative experiences watching movies. The result is more than a collection of reviews, however; rather, Turan offers an enchanting blend of memoir, cultural and social history, Hollywood intelligence-gathering, and, of course, the testimony of an ardent and exceptionally well-informed aficionado of the movies
.Here is a critic and writer at the height of his powers, fully himself and speaking in his unique voice, wholly immersed in a body of knowledge that he has mastered with the gravitas of a talmudic scholar, and yet, at the same time, fully alive with the sheer joy that the movies have inspired in him and so many others.”Jewish Journal
Synopsis
The images and memories that matter most are those that are unshakeable, unforgettable. Kenneth Turanand#8217;s fifty-four favorite films embrace a century of the worldand#8217;s most satisfying romances and funniest comedies, the most heart-stopping dramas and chilling thrillers.
Turan discovered film as a child left undisturbed to watch Million Dollar Movie on WOR-TV Channel 9 in New York, a daily showcase for older Hollywood features. It was then that he developed a love of cinema that never left him and honed his eye for the most acute details and the grandest of scenes.
Not to be Missed blends cultural criticism, historical anecdote, and inside-Hollywood controversy. Turanand#8217;s selection of favorites ranges across all genres. From All About Eve to Seven Samurai to Sherlock Jr., these are all timeless filmsand#151;classic and contemporary, familiar and obscure, with big budgets and smalland#151;each underscoring the truth of director Ingmar Bergmanand#8217;s observation that and#147;no form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.and#8221;
About the Author
Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the
Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the
Washington Post and
TV Guide, and served as the
Times' book review editor. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he is the co-author of
Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. Turan teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC and is on the board of directors of the National Yiddish Book Center. His most recent books include
Free for All: Joe Papp, The Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told and
Never Coming To A Theater Near You. Turan lives in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @KennethTuran.