Daniel Faris & Eddie Muller: Grindhouse: The Forbidden World Of "Adults Only" Cinema

As with all other art forms, as long as there has been a mainstream cinema there has been an underground that caters to tastes left untouched by general fare. Grindhouse explores the largest aspect of the underground from the '30s to the '70s, namely the "adults only" films that specialized in exploiting taboo topics such as drugs, crime and, most prominently, sex. In addition to descriptions of movies such as Child Bride and Sin in the Suburbs, authors Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris provide dozens of interesting stories about the makers of such films—from the traveling hucksters who produced "educational" movies which they exhibited from town to town, to more well-known characters such as Russ Meyer. Unfortunately, Muller and Faris seem content with superficiality: Most accounts are taken from second-hand sources, and the book's attempts at placing its subject within a larger cultural context often seem ridiculously generalized. Additionally, they seem ambiguous about their subject, alternately deciding upon repugnance, kitsch appreciation and timid justification before switching into a nostalgic mode when describing the genre's death, which accompanied the emergence of hardcore and the popularity of VCRs. Still, there's no denying the perverse fascination of a subject left uncovered in most film histories, and the many reproductions of posters and stills make for a visually appealing coffee-table book—even if it's not the type you'd want others to see sitting on your coffee table.