John Powers

Eventually he heads east to college, where he takes a writing class from James Baldwin, the book's implicit hero, of whom he writes wonderfully, and he finds work in a corporate-owned movie business that's a far cry from the one that launched his dad.

Eventually he heads east to college, where he takes a writing class from James Baldwin, the book's implicit hero, of whom he writes wonderfully, and he finds work in a corporate-owned movie business that's a far cry from the one that launched his dad.

Now, like any good Hollywood book, The Golden Hour has its share of movie star stories, from being mooned by Bruce Dern to a hilarious phone message from Marlon Brando. David Lynch pops in to do a nifty cameo. Yet much of Spector's best writing deals with two super-agents turned power brokers, MCA's Lou Wasserman and CAA's Mike Ovitz, whose mere names made other industry big shots quake.

Now, like any good Hollywood book, The Golden Hour has its share of movie star stories, from being mooned by Bruce Dern to a hilarious phone message from Marlon Brando. David Lynch pops in to do a nifty cameo. Yet much of Spector's best writing deals with two super-agents turned power brokers, MCA's Lou Wasserman and CAA's Mike Ovitz, whose mere names made other industry big shots quake.

Now, like any good Hollywood book, The Golden Hour has its share of movie star stories, from being mooned by Bruce Dern to a hilarious phone message from Marlon Brando. David Lynch pops in to do a nifty cameo. Yet much of Spector's best writing deals with two super-agents turned power brokers, MCA's Lou Wasserman and CAA's Mike Ovitz, whose mere names made other industry big shots quake.

Fred worked for both. Taking us fictionally inside their heads, Spector captures how their near-visionary brilliance serves soulless values, transforming Hollywood into a place about making deals rather than about making movies. Still, my favorite parts of the book have to do with Fred and Catherine. He finds in them a mythic dimension we often feel in thinking about our own parents.

Fred worked for both. Taking us fictionally inside their heads, Spector captures how their near-visionary brilliance serves soulless values, transforming Hollywood into a place about making deals rather than about making movies. Still, my favorite parts of the book have to do with Fred and Catherine. He finds in them a mythic dimension we often feel in thinking about our own parents.

Fred worked for both. Taking us fictionally inside their heads, Spector captures how their near-visionary brilliance serves soulless values, transforming Hollywood into a place about making deals rather than about making movies. Still, my favorite parts of the book have to do with Fred and Catherine. He finds in them a mythic dimension we often feel in thinking about our own parents.

Even as we can grasp the shape of their lives, there remains some sort of irreducible mystery. Fred and Catherine feel larger than life, like characters in an old Hollywood movie. By comparison, Spector's chapters about himself, though well-written, feel a tad prosaic, like a low-budget indie. And in a way, this is fitting.

Even as we can grasp the shape of their lives, there remains some sort of irreducible mystery. Fred and Catherine feel larger than life, like characters in an old Hollywood movie. By comparison, Spector's chapters about himself, though well-written, feel a tad prosaic, like a low-budget indie. And in a way, this is fitting.

Even as we can grasp the shape of their lives, there remains some sort of irreducible mystery. Fred and Catherine feel larger than life, like characters in an old Hollywood movie. By comparison, Spector's chapters about himself, though well-written, feel a tad prosaic, like a low-budget indie. And in a way, this is fitting.

You see, for all of Spectre's verve, The Golden Hour tells a story of diminution, about the loss of youthful hopes, the corporatization of Hollywood, the movie's dwindling ability to feed our dreams, and the decline of the egalitarian America, imperfect but promising, that so many of us grew up with.

You see, for all of Spectre's verve, The Golden Hour tells a story of diminution, about the loss of youthful hopes, the corporatization of Hollywood, the movie's dwindling ability to feed our dreams, and the decline of the egalitarian America, imperfect but promising, that so many of us grew up with.

You see, for all of Spectre's verve, The Golden Hour tells a story of diminution, about the loss of youthful hopes, the corporatization of Hollywood, the movie's dwindling ability to feed our dreams, and the decline of the egalitarian America, imperfect but promising, that so many of us grew up with.

It's a book about how the soft golden light of magic hour, which makes everything look so beautiful, eventually makes way for the darkness.

It's a book about how the soft golden light of magic hour, which makes everything look so beautiful, eventually makes way for the darkness.

It's a book about how the soft golden light of magic hour, which makes everything look so beautiful, eventually makes way for the darkness.

And now here's your host, John Mulaney.

And now here's your host, John Mulaney.

And now here's your host, John Mulaney.