Does the world need a book-length study by Jonathan Lethem of John Carpenter's 1988 alien invasion film They Live?My answer to that will have to be an unequivocal, Yes.This book is among the first offerings from Deep Focus, a new series from Soft Skull Press that invites literary types to write in depth on popular cinema. (The other volume currently in print is Christopher Sorrentino on Death Wish.) My only disappointment here is that I now know that I am not the only person in the world, outsid...

The first of two in a series of new books in which the publisher Soft Skull puts a bunch of film-fan writers to work on films that the film-critic establishment is less likely to spend time with. The other initial book in the series was Christopher Sorrentino's Death Wish, which I read first. I highly recommend this book. It makes a great companion piece to Lethem's recent novel, Chronic City, as both involve conspiracy-theory-like investigation of works of pop culture that are un(der)acknowledg...

john carpenter -- best to worst:the thingthey livestarmanhalloweenassault on precinct 13escape from NYbig trouble in little chinaghosts of marsvampireschristinein the mouth of madnessvillage of the damnedescape from LAprince of darknessthe fogmemoirs of an invisible manpro-life

I need to watch the movie again. There's a lot I don't remember, apparently.But I do know that Roddy Piper was PERFECT in it, and no one's going to convince me otherwise, including Jonathan Lethem.

A long time ago, I was reading some music criticism on the Beatles, specifically the song "Eleanor Rigby." The author (oh hell no I don't remember who) noted that, when McCartney sings the refrain "look at all the lonely people" he elides the word "lonely" so that, if one so chooses, one could hear it as "lovely." I wanted to shout "YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT THIS TOO MUCH."And so it is with this book/essay/manifesto. Look, I love this movie, but at best it's a great bad movie. It might be worth 128

This book was like nerd heaven for me. A fun and thoughtful deconstruction and re-struction of Carpenter's THEY LIVE, Reagan-era culture, and marxist theory and application. I devoured this book, and look forward to often reheating the left-overs. Yum.

Really funny, thoughtful book on Carpenter's classic. Lethem has plenty of interesting insights, and some hilarious running gags. Worth a read for fans or non-fans of the film, who will likely find equally as much to enjoy in Lethem's take on it.

A quick, thorough, incisive reading of a flawed work of genius. Highly recommended to absolutely everyone.

I really like both Lethem's fiction and Carpeneter's movie, but I guess I don't like them enough to appreciate the former's random musings inspired by the latter.

I read this little book as part of my preparation for a podcast on Carpenter's film. Basically, Lethem tracks the beats of the film and lets you know what he's thinking every few minutes as it all unfolds. The end effect is a sort of cinematic stream-of-consciousness. Some of the reflections are spot-on and thought-provoking, others less so--and overall this is hardly a work of serious film criticism. (And Lethem is completely aware of that.) But reading it is a bit like watching a movie with yo...

Written in a series of essays deconstructing the John Carpenter film, Jonathan Lethem’s wordy, 158 page run-on sentence doesn’t do much more than satisfy his live feed stream of consciousness analysis. I say it’s written as essays, but yeah, stream of consciousness is more accurate. Some of it makes sense, but a lot of it is rambling. If Lethem can’t word his way into convincing you he’s the coolest guy in the room, he’ll settle for being the most pretentious.Three stars. Check it out.

Loved it! A fantastic bit of close reading. A really in depth look at a film that deserves to be talked about more. One day I hope to teach this movie, and this book is a great resource for that, or anyone interested in seeing text analysis/close reading at work.

I have really enjoyed some of Lethem’s fiction and there are some interesting observations here, but overall I found this one gave me the impression of being trapped in a conversation with a superfan who also has a PhD and an unpublished manuscript.

the best kind of junk food.

I was looking for something different.

Patchy but pleasurable cult-film riffing. Chronologically structured, so it feels like you're rewatching the film with a side-tab of live commentary by a boozy professor.

An interesting read but at times, I felt that the author really took Carpenter's metaphors and politics in THEY LIVE-- the prevalent ones and the ones maybe not so prevalent (or even there)--and made cases for or reflections of reasons for scenes that may or may not have been the directors intentions or even were there in the film. Sometimes, a scene is just a scene for entertainment and there is not always a hidden agenda. There were some funny anecdotes and bits of facts and analysis that was

There will be a point in here, I promise.I can count on one hand the scattered tin fragments left over from my literary criticism classes still scratching around in my brain pan, and the strongest of those is Wolfgang Iser’s idea of the repertoire. I’ll refrain from boring you or courting the wrath of all my postgrad friends and readers, but briefly and overly simply: Iser was a reader-response critic who thought readers brought a ‘repertoire’ to a given work, both their own experiences and thei...

A few years ago, one of my favorite writers, Geoff Dyer, wrote a book, "Zona", about one of my favorite movies, Andrei Tarkovsky's philosophical sci-fi classic "Stalker." "Stalker" is not an easy movie. It's slowly paced, densely allegorical and deliberately obtuse. "Zona" was a huge disappointment; it lacked Dyer's trademark wit, and offered little original insight into the film. Dyer's no slouch as a critic; his books "But Beautiful" (about jazz), and "The Ongoing Moment" (about photography) a...

Jonathan Lethem is one of my favorite fiction writers, but he also happens to be a formidable critic and essayist. In this close reading of John Carpenter's eponymous 1988 cult classic, Lethem ranges across film and critical theory, art, politics, ideology, and pop culture to weave a fascinating analysis of a work usually dismissed as an endearingly schlocky sci-fi/horror flick. His scene-by-scene (in some cases shot-by-shot) dissection lingers over visual minutiae, throwaway dialogue, and seemi...

I have a new favorite series of books! Such a great concept; have established authors writing short works of analysis on classic and usually under-celebrated B-movies. I have always found the dissection, discussion and application of academic methods of criticism to popular culture to be more interesting and rewarding than traditional subjects. Popular culture is, after all, still culture and no product of a culture is developed in a vacuum. Anyway, in this book Jonathan Lethem (an author I have...

I remember watching They Live as a teenager. The poster pulled me in. I needed a refresher, and I was glad I watched it before reading Lethem's book-length essay on the movie. (Actually, calling it a book-length essay makes this book sound boring. It's not at all.)Lethem pulled me in right away with his first chapter heading, "What You'll Recall of the Dream in the Morning." The first line of the recollections: "A street preacher's warning and a pirate television broadcast." The last line: "A su...

Another quicky to pass the time. Picked this one up because of Lethem, but it got me to revisit Carpenter's film, so even if it wasn't a good read, I still have it to thank for that. Fortunately Lethem's criticism delivers too. When I first saw They Live, I wrote it off as affable trash, too lacking in subtlety to think much about. Lethem makes a case that the film, while hardly a masterpiece or even one of his desert island films, is worthy of a critical look, naysayers be damned, and I have to...

An awesome reading (slash analysis) of one of my favorite genre and/or cult films. Haven't seen this movie in about a year, but really rank the film high up there and this book brought back many good memories. Also one of the best overt attacks on the establishment I've ever seen in cinema; and a film that effortlessly and recklessly switches tones and genres every few minutes. The movie: 5 stars. The book: 4 stars. The smartest thing about the book: it's use of quotations from both literature a...

This comes from a series of books of authors taking on movies that they love. Lethem, an author who likes to come at genres from odd angles, is obsessed with John Carpenter's They Live. This book amounts to a written-out DVD commentary track for the movie, digging deep into the movie's silliness and its intentions. Lethem is a firm believer that this is a great, great movie. I just wish he thought a little higher of Carpenter - a director that just doesn't get enough respect. Lethem won't even g...

Lovingly obsessive & hilarious exploration of a classic B-movie, made me want to write about all my favorite good bad films. Stay for the pun in the last sentence.QUOTE: "'People are strange when you’re a stranger.' (No one remembers your name, Nada.) Seeing too much means glimpsing the corruptions hidden from ordinary mortals: perhaps, in that case, you’re Sherlock Holmes, uniquely competent to perceive the signs of Moriarty’s evil. The answer, then, is to become a detective. Alternately, you m...

Lethem's in-depth criticism of this bizarre, not-recommended-but-to-film-buffs movie is insightful and thought-provoking, if intermittently cursory. He leans on other criticism a bit too much in some pieces, not fleshing out his own opinions enough. Lethem also has a tendency to give a paragraph or two to a subject I could read much more about. While enjoyable in its quick pace, I would have enjoyed fewer topics more deeply fleshed out, as in his book of essays "The Disappointment Artist." Still...

I always enjoy reading scholarly essays on 'lesser' culture, and this book-length examination of one John Carpenter's goofier movies was a real treat. Lethem has a clear love of the genre, and uses his encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture to make connections that actually made me see this film in a new light. His language does get quite scholarly at times, but seeing this language get applied to a movie like 'They Live' is part of the fun. It's a quite funny book, as well, and Lethem mixes quot...

Lethem is a decent writer and his insights into THEY LIVE are pretty spot on. I was a bit disappointed by his somewhat surface reading of the film. His appreciation seemed steeped less in genre films and more in the higher quality elements of better films (which Carpenter obviously quotes). But I felt that Lethem might have explored more of the science fiction elements and relied less on the low budget techniques and recounting story elements. Still, an excellent quick read with some nice insigh...

Good if you like the movie (I would say I "love" the movie). Perplexing and irrelevant if you've never seen They Live and are just looking for a sip of Lethem from the firehose because this is just academic analysis and speculation of a sci-fi B-movie from the 80's that starred a professional wrestler and has possibly the worst musical score in film history.He gets off one amazing line which I'll butcher: "If you hate the fight scene, you blame the movie. If you love the fight scene, you thank y...