I had a lot of fun with this book. It was full of information I hadn't really been aware of - as most of these movies had come out when I as a kid - and was written in a very engaging way. The performer reading the book was easy to understand even slightly sped up. He was a good non-fiction reader.

It's one of the first movies to tackle the harsh realities of young men coming home and trying to piece together their lives after Vietnam. Which, is a very worthwhile subject and 50 years later, there have been some really terrific movies that have tackled the subject. Rolling it up into a rom-com makes it a little tough to digest for me, though. The charisma of the cast is undeniable and there are plenty of moments that are genuinely charming. It's not a bad movie at all, but I'm not sure it's a great movie either.

I felt like the plot was engineered around the decision to keep the number of locations and the cast small. Since there wasn't an especially engaging plot or really compelling characters, it made the whole affair kind of dull. There were decent looking effects. A couple of jump scares and gross out moments. It's hardly the worst movie I've ever seen, but didn't feel all that special, either.

I give it credit for turning the "A Star is Born" story into a tale about two musicians. Not to mention the leading man and lady look great in the movie. It's overly long, though, and when it starts to build momentum with the interplay between the characters and advancing the story, the music seems to stall the pace. The music itself is pretty good, too, it's just not well integrated with the storytelling.

Billy Dee Williams lived an interesting life and if you're a fan, I'd say that makes it worth checking out. He's had a fairly accomplished career in acting when there weren't that many other men of color in Hollywood. As far as an audiobook goes, there's a lot of name dropping and sometimes it sounds more like a resume than a memoir. There are other times when he's so clearly moved by the subject, it's really nice to have the voice along with the words.