What kind of collection could possibly find common ground among The Son of Kong, Platoon, and Pink Flamingos? What kind of fevered minds could conceive of such a list? What are the unheard-of qualities that tie them all together?The answers: This book.
The National Society of Film Critics.
And the far-reaching enticements of the B movie itself.
Once the B movie was the Hollywood stepchild, the underbelly of the double feature.
Today it is a more inclusive category, embracing films that fall outside the mainstream by dint of their budgets, their visions, their grit, and occasionally--sometimes essentially--their lack of what the culture cops call good taste.
The films in The B List are offbeat, unpredictable, and decidedly idiosyncratic.
And that's why we love them.
About the Author David Sterritt is chairman of the National Society of Film Critics and a film professor at Columbia University.
He lives in Baltimore.
John Anderson writes regularly for Variety, the New York Times, and Newsday.
He lives in Los Angeles.
Da Capo Press The b list: the national society of film critics on the low-budget beauties, genre-bending mavericks, and cult classics we love, paperback/david sterritt
