Readers may not know the name Ed Zwick, but they'll certainly know his work: he has produced, directed, and/or written many lauded films (Shakespeare in Love; The Last Samurai) and TV series (thirtysomething; My So-Called Life). Zwick's jauntily written and unstintingly frank Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood is as much a light-shedding industry critique as it is a well-earned victory lap.
Zwick, a self-described "rube from the Midwest," is a fine story editor: he forgoes the memoir's customary childhood-memories chapter, instead integrating the pertinent bits from his formative years into later sections. The book begins as recent college graduate Zwick, in Paris on a fellowship to study experimental theater, lands a job assisting Woody Allen, who's in town making a movie. Galvanized, Zwick applies to the American Film Institute's director's program; he's accepted, and it's been green lights alternating with waylaying yellow and demoralizing red ever since.
Zwick is generous with praise for his favorite collaborators (Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio) and just as willing to show other Hollywood darlings in unfavorable light (Matthew Broderick, Julia Roberts). With avuncular authority, Zwick recaps his hard-won wisdom in themed sidebars ("Eight Helpful Hints for Young Directors"; "Ten Tall Tales from the Makeup Trailer") and snappy aphorisms ("no movie is better than the worst actor in it"). Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions is a seasoned insider's invaluable assessment of making "movies for grown-ups on a large scale" just before superheroes swooped in and changed Hollywood forever. --Nell Beram, author and freelance writer