Movie Entertainment Review

"A thoughtful, in places chilling, account of the way entertainment values have hollowed out American life." --"The New York Times Book Review From one of America's most original cultural critics and the author of Winchell, the story of how our bottomless appetite for novelty, gossip, glamour, and melodrama has turned everything of importance-from news and politics to religion and high culture-into one vast public entertainment. Neal Gabler calls them "lifies," those blockbusters written in the medium of life that dominate the media and the national conversation for weeks, months, even years: the death of Princess Diana, the trial of O.J. Simpson, Kenneth Starr vs. William Jefferson Clinton. Real Life as Entertainment is hardly a new phenomenon, but the movies, and now the new information technologies, have so accelerated it that it is now the reigning popular art form. How this came to pass, and just what it means for our culture and our personal lives, is the subject of this witty, concerned, and sometimes eye-opening book.

Movies are more than entertainment... They're couples therapy! If you've ever wondered how to meet Mr. Right, boot Mr. Wrong, inspire Mr. Reluctant to propose, or ignite youthful passion in a middle-aged romance, then we've got some good news for you. The help you need is no farther away than your remote control. Sink into your sofa and discover the healing power of movies. From the bestselling duo who brought you Cinematherapy, Advanced Cinematherapy, and Bibliotherapy comes Cinematherapy for Lovers, a video guide guaranteed to help you find the perfect movie prescription to cure all your relationship woes. Trouble in your couple's paradise? "Watch a Rediscovering Your Dream movie like Pollock and rise above. Looking for the key to your guy's psyche? Crack the code with an "Understanding Your Man movie like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and unlock the secrets of your own international man of mystery! Ready to hear those magic words but your summer lover is terminally tongue-tied? "Loosen his lips with a Hook, Line, and Sinker movie like All That Heaven Allows, then find the shortcut to his heart through his stomach with Bev's Culinarytherapy recipe for meat loaf and mashed potatoes just like Mom used to make, and seal the deal. Feeling like a solo singer in a world full of duets? Discover a new happily-ever-after with "a Make Your Own Music movie like Ghost World. Jam-packed with over 150 new reviews of classic and contemporary movies--and warnings about Happily Never After love stories that are recipes for relationship disasters--Cinematherapy for Lovers gives you the tools you'll need to become your own couple's cinematherapist. PLUS:Nancy's Momentous Minutiae, Best Bodice-Ripping Lines, I Do I Do and Elvis Too, "Always a Bridesmaid Never a Bride movies, Bods We Don't Buy, the Shirley MacLaine Trilogy of Terror, Bev's Culinarytherapy, and much, much more...