You're Only as Good as Your Next One Audiobook By Mike Medavoy, Josh Young cover art

You're Only as Good as Your Next One

100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for which I Should Be Shot

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Mike Medavoy is a Hollywood rarity: a studio executive who, though never far from controversy, remained loved and respected through four decades of moviemaking. He helped bring to the screen some of the most acclaimed Oscar-winning films of our time, including Apocalypse Now, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Sleepless in Seattle.

Of course, there are the box-office disasters, which also have a place in his fascinating memoir, a pull-no-punches account of financial and political maneuvering, of creativity stymied, and of working with the industry's brightest star power.

An eyewitness to Hollywood history in the making, Medavoy gives a powerful and poignant view of the past and future of a world he knows intimately.

©2002 Mike Medavoy with Josh Young (P)2003 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV Biographies & Memoirs Entertainment & Celebrities History & Criticism Entertainment Funny Celebrity

Critic reviews

"Brisk, conversational, and intelligent writing supported by Robertson Dean's equally intelligent and ingenuous read provides a deeply informative listen." (AudioFile)
"[A]n engrossing exploration of what really makes Hollywood tick." (Library Journal)
"The best book on Hollywood I've ever read." (Larry King)
Insightful Film History • Personal Perspective • Great Narrator • Informative Industry Overview • Engaging Cinema Anthology

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
...was the fact I didn't have to pay for itm

Boring and self aggrandizing, very little actual insight into the movie making process.

Read more like he was bragging about his hits and excusing his misses, then countering arguments from articles 20 years ago.

The story may have benefited from an objective writer, a la Disney War. That would also have cut down on the repetitive, stream of consciousness style.

For example, drink every time he says "Cuckoo's Nest ", or any of his other early 70s hits. You'll be Loaded. it were only in the chapter dedicated to that era, it may've flown, but this went from intro to the last page.

There wasnt even any clear dilenation between decades or influences. I only vaguely know what a producer does after reading this, and I had about the same understanding going in. He's the money guy. Not the creative guy. I'll remember that next time I try to read a book that requires actual narrative .


Reader was good though. I read it at 1.10 and didn't miss a beat.

The best part of this book

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Narration was good but the story was not as engrossing as I was expecting. I thought he would be discussing in more detail the great, good and awful. Instead there was a huge amount of self satisfaction (I should have known better, this is a Hollywood Insider after all) about some very spurious links to great films and very little discussion on the really bad ones, which is where the interest really would have been.

Not Great, Quite Good, No need to Shoot

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A wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the career of one of the most prolific producers in movie history that feels like an honest genuflection upon the oftentimes good, and occasionally regretful, decisions made in an industry renown for its ability to deceive itself. Many books of this kind contain a significant amount of revisionist history that requires a healthy dose of salt during consumption. This book manages to tell a series of stories that allows a reader to understand the events disclosed within its pages are from one source who can only tell one side. It attempts to be both fair and entertaining from cover to cover, and that effort is appreciated. Moments of repetition pass quickly enough since they often lead into another chapter within his life, and some of those scenes revealed are laugh out loud entertaining. Touching to a degree, this book was a read I would recommend to anyone who enjoys cinema history, or autobiographies in general. A great addition to any library!

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

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I listened to this for the first time in 2022 so it didn't get into the time after 2003 and all of the turbulence between then and now. However it was still a good book. excellent narrator and you get to hear from the man himself Micheal Medavoy at the very end.

Very Interesting

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Inspirational in my ongoing attempt to learn as much about the inner workings of a Hollywood Movie Producer before I try to enter into the gladiatorial arena that is screenwriting.

Exactly what I needed.

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