The Unkindest Cut

by Joe Queenan and Joseph Queenan

Book Overview

Following in the maverick mold of Quentin Tarentino, Spike Lee, and Richard Rodriguez, Joe Queenan becomes an auteur and, in the process, funnier than ever, as he tries to master the art of writing,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786860901
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Hyperion
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

a Great insight!

This book is good for anyone intrested in going into the film or television business, its funny, fanscinating and addictive. you can learn with out even realising it!

Hilarious

I get very excited whenever there's a new release by Joe Queenan. I don't think there's a funnier writer. I just love his dry, cynical view of the world. This one's the tale of Joe making his own movie - how I ache to see the end result. Buy it. You'll love it.

sadly not available currently

Joe Queenan has a gift for writing. I have read one reviewer saying his writing is, perhaps, pretentious -- and.. sometimes it is. But, come on... he's really funny. He's meanly sarcastic. It's so great. And who can meld wicked sarcasm with big words?Oh, ok. I guess some other authors can too. But I still choose Joe Queenan over anyone else. This book, I must say, is either his finest or one of them.As of 10/17/01, "The Unkindest Cut" is not available. Thank God I have a resonable library. I found this accidentally.. while looking for something else by Joe Queenan, "Balsamic Dreams"(which is also good). I took the book off the shelf, sat down at an empty table, and started reading.Fifty pages later, I was more than ready to check "Unkindest" out.Reading this was such a pleasure. I went through the adventures of Joe Queenan for a long time span. And since I'm an aspiring director, this was already an instant classic for me.If you like Joe Queenan, you will most definetly love this book. Yeah, currently it's not available, but buy one used. They should be available here. It's worth it. It's touching, funny, dead serious sometimes, and just overall one of the better reads I've had the pleasure for a long time.

Interesting, Funny but the strikes at Rodriguez fail

This project was designed as a parody of 'Rebel without a Crew' by Robert Rodriguez. Robert produced a movie for $ 7,000, taking numerous shortcuts along the way, so sarcastic writer Joe Queenan, having $7,000 to spare, decided to join him. R's fundemental idea is that you become a director by doing everything from holding the camera to dressing the sets. Which is very good, but Joe - by his own admission - didn't even know how to use an Instamatic. So he needed help, and, well, help never comes cheap when your contacts are among the over-30 set instead of enthusiastic film school types. As a result, even the proposed budget was seriously out of control. Why Joe continued despite this is a complete mystery to me, and - I think - to his readers as well. It was already clear from the start that Joe was not the type of person who could actually make a $ 7,000 film. (To put this in perspective, $ 7,000 was about what the film and developing cost on Rodriguez' picture). But he did. I must warn those interested in this book: The script is ghastly. It's not that it's not politically correct; that I can surely deal with. But the truth is that there are NO sympathetic characters. NONE. The supposed hero is a tough, mean-spirited cop who spends most of his time insulting his partner. The villain is an evil shrink who taunts his patients. And his patients are annoying too, although their level of annoyance is pretty much built into the concept. I recommend the book highly because it's side-splittingly funny, and because the lessons that should be learned from it are obvious: Don't try to make a film if you haven't got a few videos under your belt and have learned some lessons from them. Incidentally, despite the ending, Joe Queenan has since made another film. Guess filmmaking ruined neither his finances or his marriage, despite claims to the contrary in the book. Or is he a closet masochist?

hatchet this

I've long been a fan of Joe Queenan's biting prose...back as far ago as when he used to write stinging commentary for Forbes and other business pubs. Now that he's shifted to become a movie writer, no one in the entertainment industry is safe from his slings and arrows. The Unkindest Cut, the story of Queenan's attempt to make a movie for under $7,000, is a wonderful romp through the mind of an observant, creative, delightful miscreant of a man who takes as great a joy in dishing it out to others as he does in deprecating himself. The story is truly a compelling one and had Queenan his wits about him, he would have made this story the subject of his film rather than the one he ultimately chose. Good writing, good reading, great fun