The Fractured Mirror: Nathan Rabin's Happy Place's Definitive Guide to American Movies About Filmmaking Paperback – November 19, 2025

From Nathan Rabin, former staff writer for The A.V. Club and The Dissolve and the author of Weird Al: The Book, You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me, and The Weird Accordion to Al, comes The Fractured Mirror, an exhaustively researched exploration of American movies about filmmaking. This loving deep dive chronicles, with humor, wit, and affection, a solid century of cinema about cinema, with illustrations from Felipe Sobreiro (The Return of the Blues Brothers) and a foreword from legendary filmmaker Joe Dante (Gremlins, Matinee). As an homage to The Golden Turkey Awards, which included a fake movie along with a plethora of real-life stinkers, Rabin got bad movie luminaries like How Did This Get Made's Paul Scheer, Dan McCoy of The Flop House, Andrew Jupin of We Hate Movies and Author/Humorist Mike Sacks to create blurbs for movies that exist only in their imaginations.The Fractured Mirror covers over 500 movies, from internationally beloved classics to notorious flops. It documents Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Starand Burden of Dreams,and everything in between. Movie history has never been so much fun!Praise for The Fractured Mirror “Nathan Rabin doesn’t just write about Hollywood, he rewires how you watch it. The Fractured Mirror channels the same brilliance he brought to My Year of Flops and points it straight at showbiz itself. Every chapter left me itching to rewatch movies I’d written off, this time with brand-new eyes.”—Paul Scheer“In this sparkling and essential compendium, one of America’s all-time greatest cultural critics turns his keen eye and full heart to movies about American filmmaking, and thank goodness. This “casual epic,” to paraphrase Rabin on Tarantino, deserves a spot on your shelf between Kael’s FOR KEEPS and Peary’s CULT MOVIES.” —Julie Klausner, “The Fractured Mirror is an absolute feast for movie lovers, especially movie lovers who enjoy movies about making movies. And man, is it comprehensive! Possibly obsessive. But so much fun. Rabin’s writing is smart, witty, and lively throughout.”—Bill Corbett"The Fractured Mirror is such a fun, engaging read. Nathan’s work always has a certifiable uniqueness and introspection that delivers laughs and deeper ways to rethink our views on film and pop culture."—Greg Sestero“Nathan Rabin’s “The Fractured Mirror” sent me down a Proustian memory hole, bringing to mind not only how many of these titles our Tenna-Rotor (tm) brought in from distant New York, but of how films about filmmaking planted the absurd dream in my mind that I could someday join that crazy circus, myself. Hats off to Nathan — and to the next generation of filmmakers, his lovingly curated list will inspire!”—Steven E. DeSouza, screenwriter, 48 Hours, Commando, Die Hard Read more