Off-Hollywood Movies : A Renter's Guide to Independent and Foreign Films

In 1988, 70 percent of the movies introduced in the United States were NOT released by a major studio, and there are thousands more that can be seen on video, cable, and revival house screens that never had the benefit of a big Hollywood send-off. Video store clerks aren't familiar with them, film guides seldom mention them, and critics outside New York and Los Angeles rarely review the. Yet among these films are many of the best ever made - cinematic gems that, lacking big studio hype, are unknown to most moviegoers. "Off-Hollywood Movies" is a film lover's gold mine. Here at last is a book that reviews and rates more than 440 old and new movie treasure that even the most fanatic film lover may not have seen.

The latest in the parade of movie guides is devoted to classics (including foreign films), independent features, and "unusual" and "cult" American movies. The 445 alphabetically arranged entries include video availability, rating, credits, synopsis, and review, and there are indexes for directors, actors, cinematographers, and country of origin. While all of this is available elsewhere, the information level is decent; one may quibble about the choices, the necessity for a rating system in a volume this limited, critical views, etc. While Skorman indicates dubbed/subtitled video release, he does not give the distributor, and most glaring of all, does not evaluate the quality of the tape (a gross failure of all the one-shot video guides). The usefulness of this volume is questionable: except for some of the foreign titles, other guides (Leonard Maltin's annual, the annual Video Sourcebook ) include all these films and hundreds (thousands) more. Vital, perhaps, for bookers (like Skorman) of college film societies and repertory/revival houses, and they're a vanishing breed.
- David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.