I would rate this on two aspects. One is that it was very engaging and well written. I have not read a"fun" book in quite awhile. Usually I read something serious and something along the lines of self help. This kept me very interested. I especially liked the way he related the movies to the situation at hand such as what the author and his son were going through. I also learned quite a bit about the movies.

I was not so enamoured by the author's parenting decisions. I feel as though I am fairly progressive. I would not have been an enabler for underage drinking of the son and his son's bedroom guests. Maybe he did not have much of a choice. He did develop a stronger communication and bond with his son and his former wife was on board also. I would give the book a 3 for this and a 5 for the manuscript itself.

This guy should be embarrassed to share his naivety and utter inadequacy as a friend, much less a father. It was excruciating to wade through anecdotes that demonstrated his ridiculous attitudes about parenting. Some of the movie ideas were entertaining.

I was disappointed by this book. The discussion of the films the father and son watched together was interesting, but the relationship between the two was painful to read about. The son was childish and spoiled, and the father was the enabler. Unfortunately, the interesting parts of the book, (film discussion)were too few, and the creepy parts (the son's love life, Dad's "counsel,")way too many - and they were not related. I suppose that it is my own fault for assuming that the film club would have some effect on the boy's life. The only thing that seemed to tie the two together was that father exposed son to Chungking Express, so he had something to watch while he pined away for an Asian ex-girlfriend.

This book is appalling. Rather than dealing with a tough parenting issue, the author invites his slacker son to quit school (without consulting the kid's mother) on the featherweight condition that they watch a few films together each week, thus giving both a free pass at facing up to life's hard challenges.
The poor overindulged 15-year-old is obviously in need of some major discipline and direction in his life, but instead he is allowed to smoke, drink, snort coke, stay out all night & sleep until noon. He's a borderline stalker too, and the inappropriateness of the passages in which the father advises his child (emphasis on child) on his love life will make your skin crawl.
As for the film club "education," the author's selected filmography (appended to the book for the reader's edification) is soaked with testosterone and violence, is heavy on horror, and generally reeks of male chauvinist sexism.
The fact that this miserable excuse for a father and mentor even presented this pathetic parenting tale for public consumption reveals the author to be the absolute worst sort of smug pseudointellectual poseur.

I was looking forward to reading this book after hearing about it on NPR.
I found it quite disappointing. While there are some touching moments and certainly real honesty between the father and son, I become more and more uneasy with the father's parenting style and his way of advising the son about his casual sexual experiences, drinking and cocaine use. They live in a different world than most families is all I can think and I consider myself a fairly liberal parent. So do my kids. I'm glad things turned out well for them and I did love the comments on films and the different ways they experienced them. If only the book had a great deal more film discussions and a lot less discussion of the son's love life. It could have been so much better.

Enjoyed the book and the list of films. Am certain that other film critics would have totally different lists, although some named in the book would probably be on many lists. The father took a huge chance, letting his son drop out of school, but all's well that ends well.

I have not read this book, but I saw this father and son team interviewed on TV this morning. I have not seen more arrogant and irritating people on TV in some time, and of course that's saying a lot. For just one example, this father appears to dismiss the importance of formal education and beleives that imparting so called life lessons to his son while whatching movies is an acceptable replacement for, say, Chemistry or English. The father also acts like people shouldn't be too concerned when their sons want to drop out of school. I guess when you are of means and you have connections and can get your kid into a film school it isn't really such a big deal for you, but for the most of the rest of people, it is a big deal. How about this for a life lesson to teach your son, "stay in school kid, just because you think school is 'boring' isn't a reason to drop out. Your immediate gratification isn't always most important". Teaching perserverence would have been a great life lesson.

David Gilmour is certainly not father of the year material. The casual acceptance of cocaine use made me crazy. I wanted to scream, "Get a life, looser". Does Canada not have special education?
The kid needed to be away from his creepy friends and sluttish so-called girlfriends. He was only 16.

However, I loved the book. I loved reading about the movies. 'The Film Club' is well written and you will learn a lot about movies. It is assuredly not a parenting manual.

At 16 the author's son is being taught to be a wine connoisseur between cigarettes, and then is allowed to drop out of school. Dad, who is appalled to find out the depths of his son's ignorance (Where is Florida? Is that the end of the world?) really does nothing to educate his son except for turning film criticism into a type of religion. His son's use of drugs is tolerated, even given some constructive "guidance" for dealing with hangovers.
This was a totally disappointing read for me. I was expecting him to use appropriate movies as a way to actually educate his son instead of sending him to a school that was failing him. I also expected him to provide guidance and at least a modicum of discipline for a son who still paid attention to him and lived with him. Instead he became an enabler to a harmful lifestyle for his son and took the role of being his son's "buddy" instead of his father.
Because it is easy to read and quick it got 2 stars instead of 1 from me.

I read David Gilmour's The Film Club expecting to find a smug reinforcement of my long-held bias against traditional schooling. Instead, I found a painfully honest tribute to the often terrifying, but absolutely transformational power of unconditional acceptance and time spent between people who truly care about each other. The Film Club is not a treatise on educational philosophy, but a story about parenting, growing up, and the necessity of always putting our children's needs before institutional and societal norms (another long-held bias of mine that this book, thankfully, does support).

Parts of The Film Club are hard to read. Having a 13-year-old son of my own, it was not comforting to be reminded of how all-consuming the drama of sex can be at that age, not to mention the very real devastations that lie down the path of drug abuse.

But thank goodness reality and inspiration are not always mutually incompatible. In the end, I found much to give me hope in this treasure of a read.

Written with care. Interesting dance of communication between father and son. Compassionate read and enjoyable.

I awaited the release of this book anxiously from Gilmour's publishers. Since Twelve Publishers banks its existence on 12 books a year, i expected an award winning novel. However, the book is a severe letdown. The author decides to let his son drop out of school only if the son watches classic movies as part of his "home school education". In addition to the son dropping out of school, the author describes his lifestyle in which his wife supports him as he is unable to find himself a job. The author, the book and the story line screams of complete inadequacy. I disliked the book and the author as he made the biggest parenting mistakes of his life. There are many other books that are worth reading but this is not one of them. Sorry Twelve Publishers.

This is an quick and interesting read. This story shows how a father works through relationship challenges with his son. His approach , while unorthodox is interesting. Being a film critic makes this a little more doable, lacking that I am not sure the average person would catch all of the subtle techniques illustrated.

As I read the book there were times when i honestly felt like this book was an illustration of home schooling gone completely off the farm. If you are a film fan and fancy yourself a critic you will enjoy this book. If you have labored under the illusion that you have control of circumstances surrounding the relationship between a parent and a near adult child this may be a worthwhile indulgence.

While watching movies can truly provide an education of sorts, they may be less helpful with the basic knowledge needed may be as simple as how does one get from Toronto to Florida.

I had seen this book reviewed in several different national magazines and the premise intrigued me. I thought it might be particularly interesting for my husband who can quote chapter and verse (director/producer/etc.) from just about every movie ever made. I wasn't prepared to be unable to put it down.

Part of the books appeal is the length and ease of reading. I read the entire book in about 3 hours. Yes I read quickly but the book is very light reading.

I think the other reason I coudln't put it down was simply because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was convinced that due to Gilmour's shocking parenting decisions that some awful calamity would befall his child. You need to read it to find out if I was right!

I enjoyed this book so much that it just might go on my "Christmas book list" (books I buy to give away to fellow readers for Christmas) but it would have to be a certain kind of reader as there are a lot of drug and sex references and some language in it. Parents may want to vet the book before giving it to kids to read (especially younger teens).

When I saw the inner flap of this book, with its general premise "dad allows teenage son to drop out of high school, with the only condition that son watches 3 movies a week with dad", I was immediately intrigued, being a movie buff myself, and having teenage kids as well.

In "The Film Club" (225 pages), author David Gilmour (not to be confused with the Pink Floyd guitarist of the same name) brings the real life story of how he saw his 16 yr. old son flounder in high school, and decided that it didn't make any further sense to have his son stay in school. Instead, he made a deal with his son: drop out of high school, but watch at least three movies with me (of my choosing) each week. Wow. What a premise. The book plays at several levels: the obvious one is the discussions about the movies dad and son watch together and what lessons, if any, could be learned from it. The other one is the the more troubling one, namely dad's observations of his teenage son's personal life. This is where I cannot connect. The son drinks freely, and has troubling sexual episodes, and it all is tolerated by dad. Maybe I live in a cocoon, but how many of our kids are out of high school, and party it up, with booze and drugs all around, all tolerated by the parent(s)?

"The Film Club" is an enjoyable book to read, in the sense that the pages fly by in no time, but I can't help but wonder about the underlying social context of it all. Sure, in the end, the son decides to wizen up after 3 years of this, and gets his HS diploma, but at what price? Puzzling to me....

It never occurred to me to judge David Gilmour's parenting techniques because he perfectly captures a dilemma known to me. There is your child, adrift, possibly in danger of floating away for good. This is the time for the greatest parenting move ever...and all you can think is, maybe I'm not so good at this parenting stuff.

Gilmour reaches deep into himself, to something he is good at, i.e., movies, in an attempt to forge a connection with his son. He seems cool and confident in this gesture, but I think he is really terrified. Luckily the kid takes the bait, and what a great ride it is from there. Just because they are watching movies together, doesn't mean they instantly forge an impenetrable bond and the son is saved. Gilmour has to watch his boy suffer through early relationships with the opposite sex (surely one of the most exquisite forms of torture ever for a parent). Almost magically, there are movies that can help with this stuff, or at least make a parent feel like he is doing something, anything, to help his child cope.

It's certainly not an easy path out of the woods. The kid gets himself into situations and suffers a fair amount. The ending is great. It does seem like they are both making progress. What a perfect example of thinking outside the box to solve a problem. I was totally engrossed, and this one has a permanent berth on my Kindle.

This book is a great and fast read and for those who love classic films like myself, it is a great guide to cinema. Though I loved the book and its prose, I was saddened by Gilmour's parenting. He is so self congratulatory of his openminded approach that he fails to take any responsibility for why is son is at this terrible crossroads in the first place. His boy is arrogant, unmotivated, a smoker, and a drinker. He allows his 16 year old to have sex in his room after knowing a girl for less than a week. Somewhere along the line, not having expectations or standards for your child have become the qualifications of a good parent. This is not an original idea, it is the philosophy behind most bad parenting, and with that, most unhappy and misguided adolescents. As a teacher I see the product of this "parenting" every day and it is sad to see the results of parents being more interested in having their child's friendship, rather than their respect. All in all worth a read, but certainly not a productive guide to child rearing.

There's lots of detail about this book below, but I would just add that it's a marvelous guide to movies you may or may not have seen, looked at very perceptively in terms of specific scenes that reflect some aspect of film history, and looked at thematically in ways that are easy to relate to. A section, for example on u There's a list of all the films discussed at the end of the book, and you'll want to queue up a lot of these on Netflix or Blockbuster. A real joy to read.

I couldn't wait to read David Gilmour's THE FILM CLUB. I expected a funny, witty diatribe on the strangely educational aspects of movies on modern life and, especially, on teenagers, those wild and woolly consumers for whom most films are focus-grouped. However, the book turned out to be a deeply affecting parenting manual --- one that speaks directly to my own dementedly-in-love-with-movies soul.

When Gilmour allows his 15-year-old son Jesse to drop out of high school, given his steadily lowering grades and obvious disconnect to all things academic, he does so under one condition: Jesse must watch three movies a week with him and talk about them. Now, that might seem entertaining to most kids. But Jesse knows that his father, a former film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, values the cinema too highly to treat it as a passing fancy. And so begins the film club --- a disarmingly fun way for a grown man to connect with his young son, to bridge the parent-child gap between them by letting movies do the hard work, coming up with what they need to talk about, coinciding beautifully at times with incidents from Jesse's own tumultuous life (especially his love life).

Gilmour breaks down the films into groups --- movies that are overrated in his opinion, movies with "buried treasures" that most filmgoers may have missed the first time around, timeless classics and classic timewasters --- and they all have something to say. Or at least Gilmour has something to say about each of them. As his son slouches from one lousy love affair to another, Gilmour finds, more often than not, a bon mot in a single frame of celluloid that can help them talk about what is really happening in modern-day Canada. It's a brilliant idea (one I adopt with my seven-year-old when the going gets rough), but the fact that he can actually lead his son into the decision he makes at the end of the book makes it a particularly special and remarkable one.

I thought I would be weeping my way through this memoir, as Gilmour passionately throws his son onto the ropes of the greats, expressing what makes the moving picture so special, while dealing with the difficulties of helping a child leave the nest as well-prepared as possible to deal with real life. And the fact that Gilmour can find the spots in the fantasy life of the movies that reflect most wisely on the real world makes him all the more enchanting a guide. But he never lapses into the sentimental (except for one passage in which he takes on fully the pain of his son's romantic agony).

Gilmour's view seems to be that the most important thing we as parents can do is to show...and listen. Show them by example (or John Ford's example or even Quentin Tarantino's) how to handle situations and then listen as the child uses this help as a jumping-off point for his own philosophizing about his personal situation. Every time Jesse calls his dad in the midst of a crisis, I think about how lucky Gilmour is and hope that I, too, am so fortunate --- that in the course of a child's life, their answer to the Ghostbusters' famous question, "Who ya gonna call?" is mom or dad, even when they're well beyond a 7:30 bedtime.

You might learn a few things about movies here, but mostly you'll learn about risky parenting and how one man's decision to save his son without shielding him from the realities of daily life by using moving art to have it all make sense became his greatest achievement. THE FILM CLUB is a great memoir and will certainly find its way to a lot of dads around Father's Day. But just about anyone can benefit from its wisdom and soft-hearted belief that love really does conquer all, in movies as much as in life.

--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

The Film Club is everything you could want in a memoir. In letting his son drop out of school to watch movies under (his) adult supervision, David Gilmour attempts a zen-like parenting move that is both inspired and insane. The story immediately takes off and never lets you down, nor does the language, which is inspired on virtually every page. Consider this passage from the middle of the book. "I knew down the road, not that far, we (he and his son) were going to have a shootout and I was going to lose. Just like all those other fathers in history." If you happen to be one of those fathers, you'll understand. If you're not, read this book and you will.

I wish I had someone to talk to about this book. It left me feeling frustrated because it didn't have a perfect hollywood ending - just like life. I admire this dad and at the same time am annoyed by him. I guess he is the realist and I am the dreamer. I think there are a lot of kids like his son that our education system does not work for. We should try and fix the education system to help all kids not just the ones who are "booksmart".

Because my Father was the greatest Father in the world I always wanted to be a Father, and then I was blessed with the greatest son. Since the two roles in my life; son, when my Dad was alive, and Father now, are so special to me, I'm always enthusiastically interested in any literature regarding the magical union of Father and Son. The author of this book David Gilmour has been among other things the national film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and has written six novels. David was confronted with a personal and family crisis when his fifteen-year-old son Jesse was failing every subject in school. Jesse had no real desire to continue going to school so David had to make a gut wrenching decision... a decision that wasn't discussed in the "Being A Father" manual that you weren't given when your first child was born. David gave Jesse the freedom to quit school with one proviso: he had to watch three movies a week with his Dad, and his Dad chose the movies. Jesse gleefully accepted the deal. What the author wound up receiving was three years of indescribable time together that involved way more than just watching movies. The Father cleverly became a skillful teacher without standing up in the front of a classroom and announcing I am "THE TEACHER!" The teacher he became did not have a set curriculum that you would find in any institution of higher learning. The subject wasn't math, English or history... it was much more important! It was "LIFE". Though the author shared his lifetime love of movies with his son, the movie subjects were picked, and schedules changed, based on the curve balls being thrown at Father and son by a combination of destiny and fate.

This book is lovingly written and the reader shares the travails of a sixteen-year-old dropout with no job, girl problems, and a Father trying to feel his way blindfolded, through a darkened twisting tunnel, in an attempt to come out on the other end with a boy who becomes a man, and a loving Father/son relationship still intact. The tools the Father uses are of course great movies renowned and obscure, ranging from "The Bicycle Thief" to "The Exorcist" to "Scarface" and beyond. He reaches into his past experiences as a movie critic to share inside info with his son, such as when he interviewed Dennis Hopper and asked him who his favorite actor was. "I thought he was going to say Marlon Brando. Everyone says Marlon Brando. But he didn't. he said James Dean. You know what else he said? He said the best piece of acting he'd ever seen in his life was that scene with James Dean (in "Giant") when he takes his leave, he stops by the door, fiddling with a long piece of rope, like he's practicing a rodeo trick... he makes a movement with his hand, like he's sweeping snow off a desk. It's like he's saying "F" you to the business guys."

As important as the education by film, are the situations that force the Father to open up his own past, involving hurt and disappointments with women. As a parent, the reader feels the pain of indecision in a place that only one's child can penetrate to, as the Father decides what to share from his inner vault. The author makes it clear that at this stage of his son's life it's more important to be a Father than a friend. When Jesse starts drinking too much the author turns to literature and tells his son about Malcolm Lowry, a rich boy who leaves England and drinks his way around the world, settling in Mexico and writes a great novel about drinking, "Under The Volcano", and almost drives himself insane in the process. "I told Jesse, to imagine how many young men your age have gotten drunk and looked in the mirror and thought they saw Malcolm Lowry looking back at them. How many young men thought they were doing something more important, more poetic than just getting really smashed. I read Jesse a passage from the novel to show him why. "AND THIS IS HOW I SOMETIMES THINK OF MYSELF, LOWRY WROTE, AS A GREAT EXPLORER WHO HAS DISCOVERED SOME EXTRAORDINARY LAND FROM WHICH HE CAN NEVER RETURN TO GIVE HIS KNOWLEDGE TO THE WORLD: BUT THE NAME OF THIS LAND IS HELL." "Jesus, Jesse said, slumping back into the couch. Do you think he meant it, that he really saw himself that way?" "I do."

From there the senior Gilmour segues to a documentary on "Under The Volcano": "Canadian filmmaker Donald Brittain's description of Lowry's incarceration in a New York insane asylum: "This was no longer the rich bourgeois world where one fell about on soft lawns. Here were things that kept on living despite the fact they were beyond repair." Wow! What a powerful literary lesson from Father to son about not over indulging, without coming across like the Father is the only person seeing these possible horrendous pitfalls. On a family trip to Cuba Jesse gets himself into a bad situation at a bar, and Dad saves the day. And it's time for another lesson from Dad on the streets of life, to add to the lessons from cinema and literature: "There are a couple of inviolate principles in the universe," I said, suddenly chatty (I was delighted to be where we were), One is that you never get anything worth getting from an "A" hole. Two is when a stranger comes toward you with his hand extended, he doesn't want to be your friend."

This terrific memoir may have movies as its home base, but the education and bonding of love between Father and son has no boundaries in this book and in life.

His grades started dropping in the ninth grade. In the tenth, they toppled. He switched to a private school. No difference. Jesse Gilmour just didn't give a damn.

His father --- David Gilmour, a well-known Canadian novelist --- was unhinged. At this rate, Jesse wouldn't be going to college. At this rate, Jesse would be flipping burgers at minimum wage --- if he didn't completely fall apart.

Dad had to intervene. And he did. He had been a movie critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His son liked movies. On that frail connection, he proposed that Jesse drop out of school and watch three movies a week. Dad's choice. Just the two of them.

The film club began with Truffaut's "400 Blows". European. Arty. Certain to bore the kid. But important because Truffaut was "a high school dropout, a draft dodger, a small-time thief." They watch. They talk. You're interested.

Then Rebecca Ng enters the story. She's mature, mysterious, unspeakably hot. Jesse's smitten. David's worried. Seeing Rebecca and Jesse together was "like watching him get into a very expensive car. I could smell the new leather from here."

Girls and movies make for a more complicated story. Now add another element: David's writing career. Suddenly it's going about as well as Jesse's schooling. It looks as if there are two dropouts in the Gilmour residence.

But David perseveres with the film club. In the course of the screenings, he serves up terrific tidbits. Did you know Alfred Hitchcock built a second set of stairs so Ingrid Bergman's long walk at the end of "Notorious" is doubly tense? That Stephen King didn't like the film of "The Shining" and had no affection at all for its director, Stanley Kubrick? That director William Friedkin got a great performance by a priest in "The Exorcist" by asking the guy if he trusted him --- and then slapping him in the face?

Yes, you learn lots of cool trivia from "The Film Club", but that's not the big takeaway. This easily digested memoir is about something much bigger than film --- it's about people, and how we see them, and how we treat them.

There are, if you think that way, "good kids" and "bad kids". And there are "responsible parents" and "permissive parents". You can put those grids over relationships and make some easy, smug judgments. And I'll bet, if you're that sort of reader, even this brief description of "The Film Club" is enough to lead you to conclude that Jesse's a bit of a loser and Dad's a bit of a flake.

If you're that kind of reader --- what am I saying? I'm that kind of reader! I judge like mad! And of course I feel superior to this father-and-son team. Why not: I loved school. And as a stepfather and now a father, the kids who have lived with me have also loved to learn --- even in school.

So if you're that kind of reader --- if, like me, you think of yourself as a rebel, but you don't color too far outside the lines --- this is a very subversive memoir. Three years in two lives. Father and son really getting to know one another. Boundaries broken. Generalizations shattered --- David and Jesse's first, but yours most of all.

Don't think this is a small book just because it's short (217 pages) and intimate. David Gilmour took a chance. A big chance --- few parents would tell their teenaged kid he/she doesn't have to go to school. To ask "Did Jesse's life work out?" is to reduce this complex story to a Hollywood movie plot. It did and it didn't. It's real life, not a movie.

On the other hand, "The Film Club" does have a pretty great ending.