Reviews

Jake Horsley seems to arrive out of nowhere, yet here he is – an almost fully developed and only slightly stoned sensibility... He's a marvellous critic.
Pauline Kael

Following the history of movies from Méliès to the modern day, Jake Horsley's exhaustively researched, yet light to read, work argues that an 'independent' film is a state of vision and sensibility, rather than how much wonga is thrown at an artiste.
**** Total Film


Horsley's prose overflows with vitriol and colorful personal take-downs. To wit: Star Wars writer/director George Lucas "can no longer be considered human in the usual sense," while Steven Spielberg "lacks the intelligence for making observations...about the 'heart of man,'" "auteur lite" Kevin Smith's Clerks is "an all-round 'bad' movie with nothing going for it save its bawdy, irreverent humor and a complete indifference to credentials (of which it had none)" and Raising Arizona was "a movie about a baby co-starring Nicolas Cage's hair."...Readers who watch "films," but not "movies," will want to pick up this rollicking evisceration of Hollywood.
Publishers Weekly


For all its fury, Dogville vs Hollywood is in fact a very assured critical evaluation of an art form constantly threatened by the artless - it's hard to imagine a better rough guide to film than Horsley's… Passionate, philosophical, erudite, and sometimes witty, Jake Horsley has produced a book that works on every level.
The Leeds Guide