Movie Game

The death of his girlfriend is the catalyst for the young man. I love how he stalks the talkers in movie theaters. It is so rude and annoying. Him and his friends play Movie Game where you name a movie- next person has to name actor in that movie- next another movie with that actor- then another actor. I want to remember this and play it myself. This book was enjoyable!

'The Movie Game' by Michael Ebner is at times reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk and Steve Martin with a dash of Raymond Chandler thrown in for good measure.

Ebner's work is comic, subversive, mysterious and altogether engaging; the first person narrative of seventeen year old Joe blurs the lines between reality and silver-screen fiction as he searches for his missing father.

This would certainly be a good addition to a school library for more mature teen readers, as it explores a range of issues relating to questions of identity and belonging. There is a smoothness, a lightness to Ebner's style which makes this highly readable.

One of those books you enjoy reading, but find it hard to explain to someone what it is actually about (so – watch out!)

Movie Game tells the story of Joe, a young man who likes films, and girls, and isn’t particularly bothered about anything else. He isn’t even a particularly likeable character, although you do follow his story with interest.

The narrative twists between Joe and his life of trying to sneak in free to the cinema, winning ‘The Movie Game’ in the bar against his friends, and generally being a lad, with the policeman trailing him in the hope of him contacting his criminal father, and various other viewpoints thrown in. There is a lot going on in this book and I think the reader would benefit from reading it in a chunk, rather than in bits (so, like a film then). It starts off in quite a shallow way, but as the book progresses, all the other layers start piling in and you realise the writer is doing something quite clever.

Michael Ebner is a great writer and I would happily read other things by him. He really gets us inside Joe’s head, and uses wonderful descriptions of what is happening to set the absurd tone of some of Joe’s misadventures. One of my favourites is

“The twelve-year-old daughter threw a can of beans at his head while the psychotic mother pulled at Joe’s hair, until her amused husband warn that he had three seconds to escape”.

He is also good at explaining everyday things in a memorable way:

“Grief… worked in unpredictable ways where the world was a machine gun and the griever a target. Then the world was a target and the greiver was a rocket launcher.”

According to one of my Lyft drivers when in Boston for the ALA Midwinter conference, the movie game is a real thing. One person says the name of a movie, and the next person has to name an actor who was in that film. The 3rd player then has to name a different movie that said actor has been in; the actors and films alternate until someone gets stuck. It seems that this relies on most of the players knowing most of the films, and liking to feel smug.

I am sure that this book has a ton of movie references that passed me by – it seems to like being clever about films and does mention a good few that I did notice. Joe views his own life (which is a story in a book for us) as a storyline in a film.I love though, the irony of a book about films, a book about someone who loves films and hates books, who ends up not only being forced to read to impress a girl, but then gets a book written about his endeavours. Wrap your brain around that meta situation. And then, if they make a film of the book…

Thanks to Net Galley for my ebook review copy.

The Movie Game is firstly what a movie buffs favorite type of book would be. The plot is well enough in that despite its jumble-gamble of misunderstandings and messes that the characters get themselves into, they were all interesting and real. And for the movie fans, the book has a lot of movie references -both old and new, which isn’t all that necessary to the plot but is entertaining to read. the book is fast paced and the writing is not heavy but sharp and sometimes witty.

So, there are a lot of plot-lines that resemble famous movie themes. The “movie game” in itself kinda being like fight club; what with the rules and all.
1) first rule of movie game, you do not talk about movie game.
2)second rule of movie game, you are allowed in by invitation only.
3) third rule, the loser must pay…yada yada yaa..

It had all the classic movie plot devices all jammed into one book- you have your romance, police chases, family problems, death, cheating, drugs, terrorists etc. but it somehow ties together neatly in the end. Its definitely not something that can possibly happen in real life. That’s why we have our movies and our fiction books and this book was a form of escape for me too. The movie references and fast plot progression got me out of my reading slump.

And unlike in fight club, i could sympathize with Joe’s character. I got why he was doing the things he was doing. He was seriously depressed and going to the movies was his form of escapism. his life had a taken a complete turn and who doesn’t want to just throttle the neck of those annoying movie goers who talk too loudly, or eat too noisily.And it was these parts of the book that were really funny and relatable coming from Joe’s perspective..

And obviously, any book about movies absolutely HAS to include a Pulp Fiction reference…which made me love the ending!!

The MOVIE GAME by Michael Ebner is the story of Joe, a 17 year old young man meandering through life who constantly escapes reality by watching movie after movie and when he is not watching movies, he is playing the movie game with his friends. The reality he is escaping is absentee parents, the death of his girlfriend three years earlier, and a sister who feels obligated to be there for him but that he wants her to go live her life how she wants without obligations.
The beginning of the book hooked me in, with the very fun movie game Joe plays with his buddies, but I found than the story then slowed down a lot, with Joe bouncing between two girls he is into, and also trying to help his sister. It seemed that all of the parts of the book where slowly moving along, but towards the end, all storylines wrapped up, along with another line of story teased early on that comes to fruition. It didn't flow like most books do, but to say it flowed more like a movie seems appropriate to me.
A fun, quick read that would appeal to the younger generation. It often reminded my of PERKS OF A WALLFLOWER (the movie, not the book), but in the end it had it's own identity. I did like the movie game described in the book and plan on playing with my friends in the future.

I'd rate this 3.5 stars.

The story of a teenager who spends much of his life watching or thinking about movies, Michael Ebner's Movie Game reads kind of like a blockbuster movie. There's action, intrigue, mystery, romance, violence, sex, and even a little drama. But like many popular blockbusters there's so much shoehorned into the plot it veers off the rails from time to time, but its charm ultimately keeps you reading.

It's the summer before Joe's senior year of high school. He spends nearly every waking moment watching or thinking about movies, or playing the rapid-fire Movie Game with his buddies, which he usually wins. He considers himself the defender of distraction-free movies, and often follows offenders home after the movie has ended. Joe also has late-night encounters with Nikki, who keeps their relationship a secret from her real boyfriend, and he's a big fan of dark dipping, or swimming in neighborhood pools late at night.

Joe and his older sister have been keeping up appearances since their father disappeared three years ago and their mother left to live with her new boyfriend, afraid if authorities find out Joe is without parental supervision, social services may step in. While Joe is a cinephile, his sister is an excessive reader. But what Joe doesn't realize is that government agents have him on constant surveillance, because their father isn't quite who he said he was.

"Their excessive consumption of fiction was an essential distraction from their broken home."

Suddenly Joe's life seems more and more like a movie—his new college-aged girlfriend may have hidden motives for their relationship, the stories he's been telling his sister to push her to live her own life are actually less elaborate than the truth, and then there's the increasingly annoying presence of the federal agents, who want his help tracking down his father, who has apparently become a terrorist. All that, and he's still dealing with the trauma of his high school girlfriend's tragic death three years earlier.

Will Joe choose the bonds of family over the long arm of the law? Will he finally get the girl he deserves? Will he be able to continue winning at the Movie Game, or will a new competitor supplant him? And most importantly, will they all live happily ever after?

Ebner's book is a little wacky and far-fetched (I can't tell you how often I had to remind myself that Joe was supposed to be entering his senior year in high school given his level of sophistication), but it's fun, funny, and even a little bit moving. There is a lot going on in this book—too much, I think—so the plot really goes all over the place, and you sometimes don't know what scenario you're in at a particular moment. But Joe is a fascinatingly charming yet flawed character, and you're compelled to keep reading to see where his story goes.

Summer movie season may be over, but Movie Game is like a summer movie in book form. All you need is the popcorn.

A funny, sometimes touching, tale of how we deal with loss, how we all use deception to hide our true selves – indeed play roles, and how we can become so immersed in things that real life starts to pass us by.