YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR NEXT ONE Mike Medavoy

YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR NEXT ONE: 100 Great films, 100 Good films, and 100 For Which I Should Be Shot. Mike Medavoy with Josh Young. Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster; 2002.

Once upon a time only major movie stars got to write books about themselves, but now anyone connected to the glamorous industry of Hollywood feels they have a book in them. One thing this book proves is that even comparatively dull behind-the-scenes types can be as self-absorbed as any movie star. Mike Medavoy started out as an agent, moved over to United Artists, became Executive VP in charge of production at Orion, then worked at Tristar, ultimately becoming a producer with -- and CEO of -- a smaller firm called Phoenix. Along the way he settles some scores and there are stories -- some good, some bad -- about Kevin Costner, Robert Redford, Rodney Dangerfield, Francis Ford Coppola and the making of such films as Apocalypse Now; Warren Beatty and Bugsy; Woody Allen and assorted movies. All the while Medavoy insists that he was less concerned with the bottom line than others in the business, and was chiefly concerned with making good pictures (many that he mentions really haven't held up all that well over the years). You're Only As Good still manages to make more interesting reading than you might imagine, mostly because "co-writer" Josh Young has done a smooth job of translating Medavoy's thoughts to paper. The most shocking thing about the book is that Medavoy includes a photo of his trophy wife but makes absolutely no mention of his son, Brian, who is also a producer.

Verdict: Okay for some behind-the-scenes details, but not essential reading. **1/2.

JUDY & LIZA & ROBERT & FREDDIE & DAVID & SUE & ME

JUDY and LIZA and ROBERT and FREDDIE and DAVID and SUE and ME. Stevie Phillips. St. Martin's Press; 2015.

Picture this: The wife of David Begelman, who is having an affair with Judy Garland, knocks on the door of the latter's hotel room, and the two women get into a screaming, hair-pulling, vicious scratch and claw cat-fight while the staff of the prestigious hotel try gingerly to tear them apart. Sounds good; sounds dishy? Did this really happen, or was it wildly exaggerated? Who knows? That's what most readers will be interested in -- the dirt and the hysteria -- and Phillips is only too anxious to deliver. I admit I'm caught in the middle when it comes to this book. On one hand I get a little tired of obsessive fans of any celebrity who get hysterical if an author says anything even the least bit naughty or remotely human about that celebrity. On the other hand, Judy and Liza does tend to seem like one more example of a writer picking apart a corpse. Like other writers before her -- John Carlyle of Under the Rainbow comes to mind --  the essentially unknown Phillips attaches herself to Garland because she knows a book written without her on the cover will sell very few copies.

Stevie Phillips worked for David Begelman and Freddie Fields at their agency, where she was first assigned the difficult task of tending to an often inebriated, drug-addicted Garland as she went on the tour that would eventually lead to her comeback. [The stuff Phillips gleefully digs up on Garland makes the Broadway show End of the Rainbow seem like an old-time Disney movie in comparison.] After she finally parted from Garland, Phillips became an agent for her daughter, Liza Minelli (Robert Redford, Al Pacino, and others soon followed -- for a time), and helped to build up her career until Minelli [Cabaret] ultimately betrayed her. Judy and Liza is in part a memoir of Phillips' "life" with Garland, in part a biography which shows how far she rose in the business despite being a woman. She freely admits that she was in it for herself, not for women in general, but her claim that she later embraced feminism may seem a little hollow what with her first independent producing project being The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Although Phillips admits that Garland had a sense of humor, the author doesn't seem to see the humor in many of the situations she describes, incidents that Garland would probably have heartily chortled over herself. True, some of these situations were hardly amusing and were more pathetic than anything else. Phillips understandably lost patience with Garland's behavior and stayed with her as her lap dog out of blind ambition. Along the way Phillips bashes anyone who might have angered her while saying what wonderful friends they all were. Robert Redford went to another agency -- BAM! he has too many moles on his face. Super-agent Sue Mengers got more press than Phillips did -- BAM! Mengers was practically a fat cow. It's one thing for her to bash former boss, lover and crook David Begelman, but she's absolutely vile about the poor guy who closed down the real whorehouse in Texas that the play and movie were based upon -- apparently he ticked her off as well -- and seems to have it in for lesbians in general. First we're to believe that Garland made a crude pass at Phillips. That Garland may have been gay or bisexual is one thing; that she would have the poor taste to virtually try to molest the rather homely Phillips is something else. In the book's most hilarious and suspect scene, Phillips suggests that a whole bevy of voracious lesbians tried to have their way with her in a dressing room. Maybe this is Phillips' fantasy ...!

Which brings us to the book's credibility. It has already been mentioned by others that apparently Phillips has never been mentioned in any Garland biographies. Some of the anecdotes, such as the aforementioned cat-fight, seem exaggerated if not fabricated. There's probably enough true stuff in the book to make the rest seem plausible, and there's no secret that Garland was hardly the first or last star to be so difficult to deal with as to be nearly monstrous at times. While one can applaud Phillips' becoming successful in a male-dominated profession, she never comes off like a likable person. She admits dumping her first husband, whom she never loved, and marrying two more glamorous types who turned out to be stinkers (according to her); she is now alone in her dotage.

What Judy and Liza and Robert makes clear is that, as Phillips states, there really is no loyalty in Hollywood. While professing her love and admiration for Garland, she drags the woman out kicking and screaming on every other page, illustrating the worst aspects of Garland's character  -- and the author's.

Verdict: Undeniably a good read, and well-written (much of this is quite well-done and entertaining), but it's mostly gossip, and even on that level is not a must-read. **1/2 out of four.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014). Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo.

The spy organization SHIELD is compromised, and the chief, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), attacked. Captain America (Chris Evans) discovers that the evil group HYDRA has been hidden inside SHIELD all the time. With the assistance of the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Sam Wilson, the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Cap takes on HYDRA, the Swiss scientist Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), Batroc (Georges St-Pierre), and a character from his past known only as the Winter Soldier, (Sebastian Stan) who is actually Cap's old partner, Bucky Barnes, now turned assassin. Evans [Fantastic Four] and Johansson [Marvel's The Avengers] give good performances, and there's a nice, well-played part for Robert Redford [Lions for Lambs] as the corrupt Alexander Pierce. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is busy, has some good action scenes and stunt work, but overall is second rate. It is a slight improvement over Captain America: The First Avenger however.

Verdict: Maybe the next one will get it right. **1/2.

DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES

DOWN AND DIRTY PICTURES: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film. Peter Biskind. Simon and Schuster. 2004.

This mostly absorbing book looks at how the business of making independent films grew from small change operations to multi-million dollar deal-making mostly because of the efforts of Miramax, headed by the brother team of Bob and Harvey Weinstein. [Biskind recounts how Nathan Lane joked that he thought the film Monsters Inc. was about the Weinsteins.] Pulp Fiction was the indie that changed the way the world viewed independent films, which once were small and personal and grainy and now became slick, huge, star-driven items with budgets almost as big as a film from the major studios. Biskind also looks at the other independent distributors and producers as well as the independent arms of the big studios, but mostly he focuses on the Sundance Festival, which presented many of these movies and became their first port of call, and on Harvey Weinstein, a colorful, horrible character who seems determined to make people see him like Harry Cohen or Daryl Zanuck or one of the other famous movie moguls of times gone by. The book goes behind the scenes to show how deals are made and discarded, lies are told, fortunes won, careers destroyed, and movies chopped up and ruined by careless distributors and Harvey “Scissorhands” Weinstein. Robert Redford is portrayed as being too busy with his own concerns to make an effective manager of the Sundance Institute and all of its divisions, but most of the quotes about him come from disgruntled ex-employees. Another important part of this book is that it really explains why so many unworthy films and actors are nominated for Oscars, as it's all part of the pressure and wheeling and dealing (and wining and dining) that goes on inside the studios and distribution companies, all of whom use all of their clout to make sure their people better win. Most people watching the Academy Awards couldn't care less which company produced which picture and are unaware that some Oscar nights are merely battles between two or three giant companies trying not to boost art but only to increase their coffers.

Verdict: Quite an eyeful! ***1/2.

LIONS FOR LAMBS

LIONS FOR LAMBS (2007). Director: Robert Redford. NOTE: On occasion Great Old Movies will review more recent films of interest.

Professor Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) talks to an underachieving, disaffected but intelligent student Todd (Andrew Garfield) whom he thinks might muff an opportunity to amount to something. During their conversation Malley brings up two minority, less privileged former classmates of Todd's -- Ernest (Michael Pena) and Arian (Derek Luke) -- who volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces in Afghanistan because they wanted to take a stand and be part of something. Malley doesn't know that these two young men are part of a new military initiative that has begun in Afghanistan, something that is the brainchild of Republican Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise). As the professor and the student converse, so, too, do Irving and veteran TV journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep), who hopes to burrow through Irving's smugness and get some real meat out of him for her interview. She knows, however, that the network will just swallow and report whatever Irving tells them. These discussions are interspersed with scenes from Afghanistan, where Ernest and Arian are trapped by members of the Taliban.

Redford (filming a script by Matthew Michael Carnahan) takes on the media, the Republicans, the war on terrorism, social inequality, societal and personal indifference, the obsession with celebrities, ambitious-driven politicians, and so on in a 90 minutes that moves fairly quickly. It would be easy to dismiss Lions for Lambs as somewhat devoid of plot and action, as well as rather preachy and obvious -- all of which it is -- but it's also well-meaning, makes some good points, and is at least about something, unlike most of the films that are being made today. The scenes with the soldiers in Afghanistan are very moving, as well. Cruise is always at his best playing shallow media-savvy characters, so he's okay in this picture. Redford is effective enough as the professor, and Streep is simply excellent as Roth. Garfield, Pena and Luke are solid as the young men.

Verdict: Not for all tastes, but surprisingly effective. ***.