Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film

A memoir about coming of age as a performer during the late 1990s while obsessively watching classic films at a legendary theatre in Los Angeles.
Between 1995 and 1999, Patton Oswalt lived with an unshakable addiction. It wasn't drugs, alcohol, or sex: it was film. After moving to Los Angeles, Oswalt became a huge film buff (or as he calls it, a sprocket fiend), absorbing classics, cult hits, and new releases at the famous New Beverly Cinema. Silver screen celluloid became Patton's life schoolbook, informing his notion of acting, writing, comedy, and relationships.

Set in the nascent days of LA's alternative comedy scene, Silver Screen Fiendchronicles Oswalt's journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way. "Clever and readable...Oswalt's encyclopedic knowledge and frothing enthusiasm for films (from sleek noir classics, to gory B movies, to cliche-riddled independents, to big empty blockbusters) is relentlessly present, whirring in the background like a projector" (TheBoston Globe). More than a memoir, this is "a love song to the silver screen" (Paste Magazine).