In 2011, Daniel M. Kimmel’s Jar Jar Binks Must Die took the sf world by storm, earning him a Hugo Award nomination and a permanent place in the pop culture pantheon.

Now, with Schrödinger’s Dinner Party, Kimmel is back with fifteen more years worth of new film commentary. He covers the range of science fiction movies from the very beginning to the potential classics of today, telling us not only why we want to watch them, but in some cases why they shouldn’t have been made. He casts his critical eye on films you probably know—Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars (again), and Planet of the Apes (old versus new)—films you ought to know—The Manchurian Candidate, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and The Brother from Another Planet—and films you’ll be happy to discover—Heartbeeps, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and Coherence (which inspired the title of this collection)—as well as many, many more.

Was this movie an important classic or a better-off-forgotten? Will you love it or hate it? Most importantly, will you agree with Kimmel or not? You’ll only know for sure once you open this book.

Film critic and award-winning author Daniel M. Kimmel is the author of the Hugo-finalist non-fiction volume Jar Jar Binks Must Die… and Other Observations about Science Fiction Movies, and the novels Shh! It’s a Secret: a novel about Aliens, Hollywood, and the Bartender’s Guide, and Time On My Hands: My Misadventures In Time Travel. He is the winner of the 2018 Skylark Award (formally known as the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction), which is given by the New England Science Fiction Association for lifetime contributions to science fiction.

Reviews:

“Daniel M. Kimmel is back with another heaping helping of his insightful commentary, all served up with his signature wit!” —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of FlashForward

“Schrödinger’s Dinner Party deserves a spot on the shelf of every film lover. Kimmel’s prose is witty and easy to read, striking a balance between the frankness of a knowledgeable friend and a world class expert.” —Charles Matthau, Filmmaker

“Kimmel combines a deep knowledge of cinema with a deep love of science fiction to provide some truly insightful pieces.” —Keith R.A. DeCandido, award-winning, best-selling author of Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD

Contents:

Introduction

PART I: CRITICISM

The Ironic Resonance of The War of the Worlds

Better Dead than Red: Politics and Genre

A Guilty Pleasure Four Decades Later

Fish Out of Water

Oh, Grow Up, Steven

Child’s Play

A Matter of Bad Timing

Fly Me to the Moon: Romance and SF Movies

Apocalypse Soon

Alternate Timelines

There’s No “I” in “Team”

Mad Science

Tuesday is “Soylent Green Day”

Mighty Like a Rose

What Do Women Want? What Do Men Want?

Notes on The Invisible Man

The Days of Future Past is a Different Country

Going Ape

The Lovable Scientist Next Door

I See Tiny People

Aliens Among Us

The Best of Enemies

Changing the Past

Mapping Time Travel

Arrogant Monsters

This is the Way the World Ended

The Robot as Metaphor

Stirling Silliphant and ’60s SF

An Unknown Modern Classic

Scary But Funny

Standing the Test of Time?

A Critic Recants

Big Director, Big Stars, Big Flop

Reboot

The Tale Wagging the Dog

Ersatz Intelligence

Gene Therapy

Schrödinger’s Dinner Party

PART II: REVIEWS

Aelita, Queen of Mars

Runaway

Cocoon

Lifeforce

Brazil

Star Wars Trilogy (Special Edition)

Minority Report

District 9

Inception

John Carter

Gravity

Interstellar

Arrival

Annihilation

Reviewed During the Pandemic

PART III: FICTION

Boffo

And the Winner is…

For Whom the Bell Trolls

Introduction to 8 Plans from Outer Space

Cel Abuse