- Nathan Rabin
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Nathan Rabin IPA: /neɪˈðɨn ʁɑːˈbiːn/ (born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic.[1] A graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Rabin was the first head writer for The A.V. Club, a position he continues to hold today.[2]
He coined the phrase manic pixie dream girl as a cinematic type.[3] He was a panelist on the short-lived basic cable show "Movie Club with John Ridley" on American Movie Classics.[4] In 2007, he began "My Year of Flops" on The A.V. Club, where he re-evaluated films that were shunned by critics, ignored by audiences, or both, at their time of release.[5] As of January 2008, the year was finished, but he continues the project as a bi-monthly feature. Other ongoing features Rabin writes for The A.V Club include Dispatches From Direct-To-DVD Purgatory, a tongue-in-cheek look at DVD premieres, Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club[6] a humorous exploration of trashy books about entertainment and Ephemereview, which offers critiques of sub-reviewable pop-culture detritus.
Rabin released his memoir in 2009, The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought To You By Pop Culture, (2009, ISBN 1-4165-5621-3) which was published by Scribner.[7] The Washington Post gave the book a negative review, calling it a "...failed project is brought to you by pop culture."[8] while The New York Times wrote, "[Rabin] has packed [The Big Rewind] like a cannon, full of caustic wit and bruised feelings" in its more positive review.[9] The book uses novels such as The Great Gatsby, musical recordings such as The Charm of the Highway Strip by The Magnetic Fields and other pop culture items as a springboard to discuss its author's tragi-comic adolescence as a guest of a mental hospital, a foster family whose patience and generosity he jokes "knew only strict, unyielding boundaries" and the Jewish Children's Bureau group home system as well as his career with The A.V. Club and the short-lived film review show Movie Club With John Ridley which he appeared on.[9] The book ends with a chapter about Rabin's unsuccessful audition to fill in for Roger Ebert as a guest critic on At the Movies. Scribner also published a book version of My Year of Flops (2010, ISBN 1-4391-5312-4).[10]
Sources
- ^ http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1909930,00.html
- ^ Articles by Nathan Rabin at the AV Club
- ^ Manic Pixie Dream Girls: A Cinematic Scourge? All Things Considered, October 9, 2008
- ^ Nathan Rabin's IMDB page
- ^ 'Onion' writer Nathan Rabin rewinds big-time for memoir USA Today, July 6, 2009
- ^ Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club at the AV Club,
- ^ The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought To You By Pop Culture promo page at Simon & Schuster
- ^ The Layers of a Pungent Life The Washington Post
- ^ a b Memories of a Train Wreck Diverted The New York Times, July 21, 2009
- ^ "My Year of Flops" promo page at Simon & Schuster
Categories:- The Onion people
- American film critics
- 1976 births
- Memoirists
- Jewish American writers
- American humorists
- University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
- Living people
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