Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good came to us a while back, maybe shortly after Kevin Smith’s TV “reality” show Comic Book Men began airing. I liked Kevin Smith’s movies, but I didn’t like the show. It was supposed to be unscripted but was obviously and boringly scripted.
So anyway, I figure after seeing that I must have plopped the audiobook into the bottom of a box and forgot about it or something.
But then, just recently, I was thinking about one of his terrific podcasts appearances (on a 2009 /Filmcast review of the Watchmen movie |MP3| that really is excellent) and that got me thinking about how good Smith can be when he’s good and so I went and found the audiobook, and so, now, here it is.
Posted by Jesse Willis
I never understood the Kevin Smith phenomenon. He seems talentless and bad mannered. Eventually I figured he must a appeal to an age group I was never in.
Many do complain about him still being juvenile.
It’s definitely strange, he’s under-talented compared to somebody like Tarantino or Fuller. I think film is a medium that can allow the under-talented to succeed, and succeed wildly sometimes.
Take George Lucas, my current idea is that Star Wars (the first movie) was mostly a fluke. The evidence for that grows every year.
Still, Smith has an almost unique voice in film, there had been nothing on film like Clerks before Clerks. Even Red State, his last, has something – maybe only his attitude – which is a kind of sarcastic, cynical, with crude humor. He’s a rebel, but the kind that stands in the back and makes comments. Still, if you hear him talking about Watchmen in that podcast, in between the crudities, he’s a bit of a thinker.
I just can’t take him in large doses.
I do agree entirely on your assessment of Lucas and Star Wars as being a fluke (at least with regard to the screenplay and directing – I credit him for the concept and story). Harrison Ford was pretty vocal on what he thought of the Star Wars screenplay. American Graffiti was by far the best Lucas film in my opinion.
But unlike Smith, I get the sense George is a really good hearted human being and for that I forgive almost everything… except maybe the Greedo thing.. :)