Customer Reviews

Fast Forward: Confessions of a Porn Screenwriter (Future Tense)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Faaaaaantastic! I enjoyed every hilarious page. This writer knows how to make a woman feel good.

For anyone who has ever watched a porno and stopped to wonder who
could possibly end up writing such a thing, let alone attempt to make a
successful career out of, Spitznagel's 'Fast Forward' is a
both an enlightning and highly entertaining book which gives a
hilarious first hand account of what working for one of Hollywoods' most infamous
and notoriously dirty little industries is like.
Everything you could have possible wanted to know
about the porn industry, from the script to the directors,
to the naked models themselves is described in
larger that life detail in a sincere and humorous way
that only Spitznagel could have brought to life.

Definately worth checking out!!

I read this book last week while I was on vacation and laughed hysterically the entire book. I've always sort of wondered, you know, what it was like behind the scenes, and this book really gives the reader a wonderful glimpse in such a humorous way. Thanks!

You may not think of a book about an aspiring porn screenwriter as exactly what you want to cuddle up to by the sea this summer, but Eric Spitznagel's book was the kind of page turner that could put Jackie Collins to shame. Jackie Collins with a dildo that is...
There are so many books to sift through on the marketplace out there that wax the same theme over and over... not this book. It is unique and funny. Definitely worth a purchase so you can say you read one of Spitznagel's first when he is famous.

I found myself on a crummy date being dragged to Spitznagel's reading in Seattle a couple of weeks ago. The crummy date left and I stayed. The book, I later found, was hilarious and wonderful and make-a-spectacle-in-the-employee-lunchroom-while-laughing funny, but the readings? Oh man, treat yoursef to one of this guy's readings and get ready to pee yourself. He is a riot. (And, he seems to have a hoard of punk rock looking women following him around. Not a bad scene, my friends.)

Sure, you hear the word "porn" and you think raunch, and while this book has it's share of filthy good times, it's delivered with humor, the sometimes author-shared hilarious creeps and a certain endearing honesty. It wonderfully depicts the author's amazement with his adventure in porn screenwriting. I loved it!!

The book was quite funny, featuring the experiments of a desperate writer to pay his bills by writing a porn movie. Eric Spitznagel and his wife originally went to Hollywood to write screenplays, however when the stark realities of making it start to creep up a fellow writer friend suggested getting some quick cash by writing porn. He took up the idea and from then on a colorful variety of people stared accumulating around him. I liked the book for it's quasi-exposer of the porn writing world except for two reasons; it's semi-non-fictional which dilutes some of the up close encounters with that world and he seems to think porn actors and porn work is all very below him. He even tries to play the psychologist a couple of times. For example on page 57 he writes;" in the end money has very little to do with why so many wayward souls turn to porn. More than just a source of income, it's also a safe haven from an outside world that either has no use for them or openly despises them" and on page 84, "These men who made their living in porn somehow felt they had the right to judge me.....so what if my car was a piece of sh__ I was still higher on the evolutionary food chain than they could ever hope to be." Chapter 4 is particularly filled with a little too much judgements even being a bit blunt such as, "as much as I pretended not to care, it really bothered me. It was one thing to stand at a safe distance and feel superior to the poor, pitiful rabble who make their living performing in pornos.It's quite another thing to be openly shunned by them." I think he even severely exaggerates their ineptitude at being able to recite lines in the same chapter. This constant (though certaintly not overbearing and incessant, just a little too much for my liking) embarrassment from the porn industry, exaggerating the deviancy of the actors and psycho-analysing the people around him make him seem a bit harsh and little minded. I like to think of my characters as a little more adventureous but the constant judging didnt really endear me much.

What did I think of the book? As humor it tried too
hard, for my taste, and I can't say I got more than a
laugh or two out of it. As non-fiction it had a
certain compelling drive, evidenced by the fact that I
did finish the book, despite my doubts about it. For
me the book found its feet in the party when the
narrator is suddenly among a crowd of writers rather
than the porn directors and stars. That's the real
heart of the book - he flees Los Angeles not because
of what he makes fun of, he flees because of these
people, his peers, who have taken the option of not
trying anymore. Right there the non-fiction voice
overcomes the cheap comedy voice and there is a
convincing plainness to the writing. The screenplay
encounter with Jerry Stahl is fine but the book has no
real ending. I liked the denouement exchange with the
agent, but still did not have a last page kick to take
away with me. Though I did think about that exchange
with his agent a day or two later so, hey, technical
quibbling aside, the book had its points.

This is one of the funniest books I've read about the industry. It read it in one day and had a smile on my face the whole time. Mr. Spitznagel can really cram a lot of weirdness into a simple story of a man trying to get into the movie biz. I like how the odyssey drives him a little crazier as the book goes on. The scene with Jerry Stahl is hilarious. And that bonus screenplay at the end is a nice touch.

Eric Spitznagel's book is full of hilarious incidents, so many that I was crying--I was laughing so hard. From his lofty goals to his ultimate realization, this book had me rolling on the floor. I loved the characters he meets and the way that he is drawn into the spectacle of it all. Read it and then hear him speak--he's as funny in person as he is on the page.