The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco, Julie Salamon

I really like books about how books and movies are created. I find it very comforting, somehow, reading about all the things that go wrong for other people, and how stressful the process can be. I like hearing that successful people are crazy or insecure. 

Brian De Palma gave Julie Salamon unrestricted access to the set of Bonfire of the Vanities as he filmed. It's really interesting to see, day by day, how the filming happened and all the decisions that were made. Salamon doesn't speculate as to where it all went wrong, and she's pretty sympathetic toward nearly everyone involved -- except Bruce Willis, who comes off as a huge douche, and the studio executives, who come off as meddling know-nothings. Still, even as a teenager I knew it was a shitty movie. And this is a really interesting look at how it ended up that way.

(Don't ask why I watched it, I can't remember. I must have been 14 or 15 and I made a lot of strange movie-watching decisions. I also read the book. I don't think I understood it, but I was pretty impressed by the writing. (And disturbed. As a sheltered country-living teenager I had no context for Bonfire.))

Grade: A

Originally posted 2010