Nathan Rabin Explained

Nathan Rabin
Birth Place:United States
Alma Mater:University of Wisconsin–Madison
Spouse:Danya Maloon
Children:2

Nathan Rabin is an American film and music critic.[1] Rabin was the first head writer for The A.V. Club,[2] a position he held until he left the Onion organization in 2013.[3] In 2013, Rabin became a staff writer for The Dissolve, a film website operated by Pitchfork Media.[4] Two of his featured columns at The Dissolve were "Forgotbusters" (looking back at films that were among the top 25 box office earners in their release years but had not had cultural or popular endurance) and "Streaming University" (reviewing documentaries that were available through sites such as Netflix and Hulu).

On April 29, 2015, Rabin announced he had parted ways with The Dissolve.[5] He later returned to The A.V. Club as a freelance writer.[6]

In April 2017, Rabin announced that The AV Club had canceled his My World of Flops column, and that he was establishing his own Patreon-funded website, Nathan Rabin's Happy Place.[7]

Early life and education

Rabin grew up on the north side of Chicago.[8]

Career

He coined the phrase "manic pixie dream girl" as a cinematic archetype in 2007.[9] He was a panelist on the short-lived basic cable show Movie Club with John Ridley on American Movie Classics. In 2007, he began My Year of Flops on The A.V. Club, where he reevaluated films that were shunned by critics, ignored by audiences, or both, at their time of release.[10] As of January 2008, the year was finished, but he continued the project as a bimonthly feature. Other ongoing features Rabin wrote for The A.V. Club include Dispatches From Direct-To-DVD Purgatory, a tongue-in-cheek look at DVD premieres; reviews for TV shows like Louie; Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club,[11] a humorous exploration of trashy books about entertainment, and Ephemereview, which offers critiques of sub-reviewable pop-culture detritus.

Rabin released his memoir in 2009, The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought To You By Pop Culture, (2009) which was published by Scribner.[12] The Washington Post gave the book a negative review, calling it a "...failed project brought to you by pop culture."[13] while The New York Times wrote, "[Rabin] has packed [The Big Rewind] like a cannon, full of caustic wit and bruised feelings" in its more positive review.[14] The book uses novels such as The Great Gatsby, musical recordings such as The Charm of the Highway Strip by The Magnetic Fields and other pop culture items as a springboard to discuss its author's tragi-comic adolescence as a guest of a mental hospital, a foster family whose patience and generosity he jokes "knew only strict, unyielding boundaries" and the Jewish Children's Bureau group home system, as well as his career with The A.V. Club and the short-lived film review show Movie Club With John Ridley on which he appeared.[14] The book ends with a chapter about Rabin's unsuccessful audition to fill in for Roger Ebert as a guest critic on At the Movies. Scribner also published a book version of My Year of Flops (2010).[15]

On April 23, 2013, The A.V. Club announced that Rabin, Tasha Robinson, Genevieve Koski, and Noel Murray would be leaving to start a new web-based project with former staffers Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps.[3] On May 30, 2013, this project was revealed to be The Dissolve.[4] In addition to criticism for The Dissolve, Rabin also wrote the biweekly feature Forgotbusters,[16] a reexamination of now-culturally obscure Hollywood films whose box office grosses were among the top 25 of any film released in their year.

He has also written books on the Insane Clown Posse, Phish,[17] and "Weird Al" Yankovic.[18] [19]

Personal life

Rabin is Jewish.[20] [21] [22] He is married to Atlanta native Danya Maloon; they have two sons together.[23] [24] He lives in Marietta, Georgia with his family.[23]

In a 2009 AV Club article about the 1996 baseball comedy film Ed, Rabin described himself as "a longtime Chicago White Sox super-fan",[25] although in a 2021 blog post he confessed to having lost interest in following sports since his adolescence.[26] In 2024, he announced that he had recently been diagnosed with autism and moderate ADHD.[27]

Books

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20090716175846/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1909930,00.html The Onion's Nathan Rabin
  2. http://www.avclub.com/users/nathan-rabin,7/ Articles by Nathan Rabin
  3. http://www.avclub.com/articles/an-update-from-the-av-club,97016/ An Update from the AV Club
  4. http://pitchfork.com/news/50949-introducing-the-dissolve-a-new-film-site/ "Introducing The Dissolve, A New Film Site"
  5. https://www.facebook.com/nathan.rabin/posts/10153293867362224?pnref=story Facebook Post Regarding Rabin Leaving The Dissolve.
  6. Web site: Nathan Rabin • The A.V. Club. Nathan. Rabin. The A.V. Club. 25 August 2015. 25 August 2015. October 25, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151025073948/http://www.avclub.com/author/NathanRabin/. live.
  7. Web site: Tweet by Nathan Rabin announcing his new website. April 30, 2017. April 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210415080216/https://twitter.com/nathanrabin/status/856556260912750592. live.
  8. http://truetometoo.com/profiles/nathan-rabin/ Movie Critic Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club & The Dissolve
  9. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95507953 Manic Pixie Dream Girls: A Cinematic Scourge?
  10. https://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-07-06-nathan-rabin-the-big-rewind_N.htm 'Onion' writer Nathan Rabin rewinds big-time for memoir
  11. http://www.avclub.com/features/silly-little-showbiz-book-club/ Silly Little Show-Biz Book Club
  12. http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Nathan-Rabin/45083314 The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought To You By Pop Culture
  13. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091803352.html?hpid=artsliving The Layers of a Pungent Life
  14. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/books/22garner.html Memories of a Train Wreck Diverted
  15. http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Nathan-Rabin/45083314/author_revealed "My Year of Flops"
  16. http://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/ Forgotbusters
  17. Web site: You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music's Most Maligned Tribes. Nathan. Rabin. June 11, 2013. Amazon. October 23, 2019. April 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210415075944/https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451626886/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0. live.
  18. Book: Weird Al: The Book. Nathan. Rabin. Al. Yankovic. October 1, 2012. ABRAMS Image . Amazon. October 23, 2019. April 15, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210415075805/https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G5H4VMW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1. live.
  19. Web site: The Weird Accordion to Al . Amazon . January 22, 2020 . April 15, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210415075619/https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Accordion-Al-Obsessively-Co-Author-ebook/dp/B083QSSG6G/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?keywords=world+accordion+to+al&qid=1579701483&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmr2 . live .
  20. Web site: Nathan. Rabin. The Adorably Good Intentions of Hershel the Jewish Reindeer. nathanrabin.com. November 6, 2019. October 6, 2021. As the Jewish parent of a holiday, present and toy-obsessed five year old boy I’ve wrestled with the dilemma of how to handle Christmas.. October 6, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211006160848/https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2019/11/5/the-adorably-misguided-good-intentions-of-hershel-the-jewish-reindeer. live.
  21. News: Hadara . Graubart . Peeling Back Layers . Tablet Magazine. July 7, 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180210160819/https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/9273/this-boy%E2%80%99s-life . February 10, 2018. You talk about community and family being part of what you inherited from Judaism. .
  22. Web site: Nathan. Rabin. The Adorably Misguided Good Intentions of Hershel the Jewish Reindeer. nathanrabin.com. November 6, 2019. October 6, 2021. As the Jewish parent of a holiday, present and toy-obsessed five year old boy II’ve wrestled with the dilemma of how to handle Christmas.. October 6, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211006160848/https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2019/11/5/the-adorably-misguided-good-intentions-of-hershel-the-jewish-reindeer. live.
  23. News: Chris. Serico. Living in his in-laws' basement with baby: Why this dad was happy to downsize. Today.com. August 14, 2015. October 6, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211006161433/https://www.today.com/parents/living-his-laws-basement-baby-why-dad-was-happy-downsize-t38761. live.
  24. Web site: Danya Maloon is the Camper Care Director for In the City Camps. . inthecitycamps.org . She is a native Atlantan and alumna of Jewish Day Schools. . October 6, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211006161905/https://inthecitycamps.org/support-staff/ . live .
  25. Web site: I Watched This On Purpose: Ed. Rabin. Nathan. The A.V. Club. December 16, 2009. March 22, 2014. March 22, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140322073926/http://www.avclub.com/article/emedem-36397. live.
  26. Web site: Cut It With the Condescending "Sportsball" Crap. Rabin. Nathan. Nathan Rabin's Happy Place. February 16, 2021. August 7, 2022. February 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210216202101/https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2021/2/16/cut-it-with-the-condescending-sportsball-crap. live.
  27. https://www.nathanrabin.com/happy-place/2024/1/9/in-a-perhaps-unsurprising-development-i-am-autistic-and-have-adhd?rq=autism

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nathan Rabin".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.