...a fantastically entertaining memoir that shows the movie business in high definition. It is part how-to guide, peppered with frank lists that crunch hard-won advice into easily digestible bites, and will be useful for young film-makers – but the layperson will inhale it for the gossip and what it reveals about the frankly bewildering systems of power that prop up the entertainment business. Zwick writes briskly and warmly, with a clear eye to keeping things moving. He admits early on that he is pulled between telling a good story and a desire “not to be excommunicated from certain Hollywood parties that I don’t care to attend anyway.' Happily for the reader, the storytelling wins that battle ... The book is at its best when it gently prises the movie-star business away from the business of making movies. Though the two are co-dependent, stardom and storytelling here seem like distinct industries, and Zwick seems as baffled as anyone by the ways in which the movie-star side truly operates. The power dynamics are fascinating ... for all that Zwick reveals, he attempts to give his anecdotes a soft landing, trying to either dull or explain what often reads as rude-to-appalling behavior ... Half the fun of Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions is in reading between the lines. If this is the stuff that won’t get Zwick excommunicated from the parties he doesn’t want to go to anyway, then I’d love to know what he left out.
Zwick has seen things and done things, and he’s reached a stage of his career—and, 15 years after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in his life—where he’s unafraid whom he might offend ... Ultimately, Zwick seems less troubled by the suspicion that his own time may have passed than by the near-certainty that the types of movies he makes — entertainments, but entertainments of weight and substance — have gone extinct, at least at the big studios that funded his.
Not everyone is remembered so fondly, but the author on the whole comes off as humble about his success and charmingly self-deprecating. Writing in an age of superhero franchises and declining theatrical attendance, he observes with a sigh that 'movies for grown-ups on a large scale,' his métier, 'just aren’t being made these days.' There are notable exceptions to that claim, of course, but his memoir still evokes an era of Hollywood that feels different from our own.
Filled with both behind-the-scenes anecdotes, including his difficulties with Matthew Broderick on Glory and his attempts to wrangle a young Julia Roberts for Shakespeare in Love, and his pointed and insightful tips for directing and writing and thoughtful meditations on making a life in the arts, there’s plenty to enjoy here for film buffs and aspiring creatives alike.
The memoir shares plenty of juicy stories about big-name stars and Hollywood execs, but they aren’t there for mere titillation; Zwick focuses instead on how the stressors of filmmaking impact both the creative process and a filmmaker’s personal well-being. He has a disarming way of relating the most glamorous highs of his career, followed by setbacks, disappointments, and lingering self-doubt. Although Zwick’s accomplishments are numerous, he eschews self-congratulation in favor of arguing for the power of storytelling to enrich the lives of both audiences and creators. His disappointment with the current Hollywood preference for profit over artistry is palpable and affecting.
None of the dish Zwick delivers is very spicy or surprising—DiCaprio likes women, Cruise is intense, Brad Pitt has an ego, Shia LaBeouf is mercurial—but it explains how easily personality clashes can derail a project and how a good director manages the difficult dance between art and commerce in an industry overflowing with narcissists.
...a rollicking career retrospective that looks back at temperamental actors, vengeful studio heads, and the mysterious alchemy that governs great filmmaking ... Though Zwick offers rich, funny dissections of Hollywood phoniness...he’s also alive to the emotional truths that can emerge from artifice ... a wildly entertaining portrait of moviemaking that combines wry humor with irrepressible passion. For film buffs, it’s a must-read.
