Obscene.

"On Nov 19 [Barney] Rosset will receive a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in honor of his many contributions to American publishing, especially his groundbreaking legal battles to print uncensored versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. He is also the subject of Obscene, a documentary by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor, which opens on Friday at Cinema Village." For the New York Times, Charles McGrath talks with the filmmakers - and Rosset.

"Barney Rosset is a tragic hero," writes Michelle Orange in Voice, as this "very fine documentary make unstintingly and yet wistfully clear."

Updated through 9/26.

Earlier: Reviews from Toronto 07.

Updates, 9/26: "If you need another reminder that book publishing and New York City aren't what they used to be, you could do worse than to immerse yourself in Obscene." A recommendation from Andrew Hultkrans in Artforum.

"Obscene is a brief, pleasant time-killer that genially preaches to the choir yet, while it's always enjoyable, this review's readers should seek Grove books out first," argues Aaron Cutler in Slant.

"It's the story of a man who follows his own drummer - usually with rum and Coke in hand - and believes in 'nourishing the accidental,'" writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "We should all be grateful that he does."

Posted by dwhudson at September 24, 2008 7:09 AM