Nathan Rabin (born April 24, 1976) is a film critic based out of Atlanta and former head writer for The A.V. Club, the pop-culture sister site of The Onion. Rabin famously coined the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl in his review of Elizabethtown, and to a lesser extent, The Family Guy Effect.
Rabin's main contribution to the site, beyond criticism, is his long-running My Year of Flops feature, which he describes as "a leisurely stroll of cinema's biggest commercial and critical disasters, with an eye towards singling out unfairly maligned winners (like, say, Joe Versus the Volcano or Ishtar) and great scenes in otherwise middling movies." After 199 installments, My Year of Flops ended and was repurposed as My World of Flops, allowing Rabin to delve into notable failures in other non-film media (though he still did films as well), thereby offering him a wider range of subject matter to pontificate upon. The feature ended after 36 installments due to his departure from the A.V. Club.
More recently, he has taken to music criticism, applying the My Year of Flops formula to the NOW! series of bestselling Nothing but Hits pop compilations in a series called THEN That's What They Called Music.
Rabin's autobiography, The Big Rewind, was published in 2009. A book based on My Year of Flops (which has long since passed the single year that Rabin planned for the feature to last, and was later relaunched as My World of Flops covering all types of media) was released in 2010. Through The A.V. Club, he is one of many co-writers of Inventory, which compiles over 100 lists.
Rabin was one of six longstanding A.V. Club writers (including editor in chief Keith Phipps and film editor Scott Tobias) to leave the site between late 2012 and Spring 2013, for Pitchfork Media's film website The Dissolve. He continues to look for failed flicks in "Forgotbusters", which compiles movies that were successful in their own time, and grossed enough for the yearly top 25, but have either worsened their reputations or been forgotten. Around May 2015, he left The Dissolve and went freelance, writing for websites like Slate and Cracked and even restarting My World of Flops in June 2015. He also continues to search for cinematic oddballs in Decider's Absolute Beginners "an ongoing column devoted to movies streaming online that movie stars and top directors made before becoming Household Names," and Rotten Tomatoes' Sub-Cult, "a series devoted to weirdly infectious cinematic oddities on the cusp of becoming the cult films of tomorrow."
In April 2017, Rabin launched his own personal website, Nathan Rabin's Happy Place, which features various pop culture columns and features. Following The A.V. Club's cancellation of My World of Flops the next month, he announced the column would be continuing on Happy Place. In addition, he and Clint Worthington have started the Travolta/Cage project, taking a chronological look at the careers of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, starting with a podcast with a pair of books about the actors planned for the future.
Bibliography:
- The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture (2009)
- My Year of Flops (2010): A book version of the column of the same name.
- Weird Al: The Book (2012): The official biography of "Weird Al" Yankovic, co-written with the man himself (in fact, Yankovic personally selected Rabin for the project)
- You Don't Know Me but You Don't Like Me (2013): A book about many things, chiefly about covering the fanbases of Insane Clown Posse and Phish, but also Rabin's impending marriage and his near-bankruptcy while writing the book.
- The Weird Accordion to Al (2020): A song-by-song analysis of every officially released "Weird Al" song. He first wrote it on Nathan Rabin's Happy Place before collecting as a book. A Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition soon followed.
- The Joy of Trash (????): An upcoming "Definitive guide to the very worst of everything." Not limited in scope to films, this one will also include books, shows, notably misguided YouTube videos by famous people, and even Real Life endeavors like Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign and Fyre Fest.
Rabin provides page quotes for the following:
- Franchise Original Sin
- John from Cincinnati
- Shower of Love
- Steven Soderbergh
- When You Coming Home, Dad?
Films featured in My Year of Flops include:
- Elizabethtown
- North
- The Fountain
- Gigli
- Battlefield Earth
- Batman & Robin
- Southland Tales
- Sucker Punch
- RENT
- Psycho (1998)
- Walk Hard
- Howard the Duck
- Delgo
- Canadian Bacon
- Catwoman (2004)
- The Wicker Man (2006)
- Waterworld
- The Postman
- Envy
- Ishtar
- The Bonfire of the Vanities
- Man of the Year
- Jarhead
- Toys
- Four Rooms
- Dune (1984)
- Nothing but Trouble
- Lady in the Water
- Striptease
- The Postman
- Tank Girl
- Over the Top
- Freddy Got Fingered note
- The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
- Hudson Hawk
- Color of Night
- Strange Days
- The Cat in the Hat
- Dreamcatcher
- Basic Instinct 2
- Glitter
- Pay It Forward
- Exit to Eden
- Hulk
- Speed Racer
- Cutthroat Island
- The Rocketeer
- Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
- The Love Guru
- On Deadly Ground
- Super Mario Bros. (1993)
- Boxing Helena
- The Number 23
- Mac and Me
- I Know Who Killed Me
- Little Nicky
- The Adventures of Pluto Nash
- The Hudsucker Proxy
Films featured in My World of Flops include:
- The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
- Alexander
- The Atlas Shrugged Trilogy
- An American Carol
- Astro Boy
- Bangkok Dangerous 2008
- Basic
- Baywatch
- Be Cool
- The Beach Bum
- Bewitched
- Big Bully
- Blind Fury
- Blood and Wine
- Blues Brothers 2000
- Boat Trip
- The Book of Henry
- The Bronze
- The Brothers Grimsby
- Bulletproof
- Can't Stop the Music
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin
- Carpool
- Cats
- Chains Of Gold
- Chappie
- The Cobbler
- Collateral Beauty
- Collision Course
- Cookie
- The Cotton Club
- The Couch Trip
- The Counselor
- Dangerous Game 1993
- Dark Phoenix
- Dead Heat
- Death to Smoochy
- Destiny Turns On The Radio
- Dirty Love
- Domestic Disturbance
- Domino (2005)
- Eyes of an Angel
- Fat Albert
- The Fanatic
- Fantastic Four (2015)
- Fedora
- The Forger
- The Frighteners
- From Paris with Love
- The Frozen Ground
- Furry Vengeance
- Gamer
- Ghosts of Mississippi
- Gotti
- Greedy
- The Happytime Murders
- Hearts Of Fire
- Heaven & Earth
- Hellboy (2019)
- High Spirits
- Holmes & Watson
- I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
- Jem and the Holograms (2015)
- John Carter
- Junior
- Jupiter Ascending
- Killing Season
- King Kong Lives
- Left Behind (2014)
- Let It Ride
- Let's Go to Prison
- The Life of David Gale
- The Lonely Guy
- Lonely Hearts
- The Lonely Lady
- Look Whos Talking Now
- Looney Tunes: Back in Action
- Loose Cannons
- Lucky Numbers
- Mad City
- Mars Needs Moms
- Maximum Overdrive
- McHale's Navy
- Money Plane
- Monkeybone
- Monster Trucks
- Mortdecai note
- Movie 43
- New Year's Eve
- Next
- The Next Best Thing
- Nine Lives (2016)
- Not Cool
- Old Dogs
- Only God Forgives
- On The Line
- The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure
- The Oscar
- Palmetto
- Perfect (1985)
- The Pickle
- The Quest
- RoboCop 3
- Rock of Ages
- Rock the Kasbah
- Rules Dont Apply
- Sahara (1983)
- Seeking Justice
- Serenity
- Sextette
- Shaft (2019)
- Sheena
- Simon Sez
- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
- Small Soldiers
- Snake Eyes
- Solarbabies
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- A Sound of Thunder
- Spider-Man 3
- The Squeeze
- Stolen (2012)
- Strange Magic
- Stroker Ace
- Sunset
- Supergirl (1984)
- The Survivors
- Swing Vote
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (2009)
- That's My Boy
- A Thousand Words
- Trapped In Paradise
- Two of a Kind (1983)
- U Turn
- Under the Rainbow
- Unforgettable (1996)
- The Weather Man
- White House Down
- White Man's Burden
- Windtalkers
- Winter's Tale
- Wise Guys
- Wonder Woman 1984
- Won Ton Ton The Dog Who Saved Hollywood
- A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
- Yoga Hosers
- Your Highness
- Zoolander 2
Other media featured in My World of Flops include:
- Cop Rock
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- I Am Cait
- The Jack And Triumph Show
- John from Cincinnati
- KDOC First Night
- Lil' Wayne's Rebirth
- Marville
- The Mary Tyler Moore Hour
- Mulaney
- Music from "The Elder"
- Pink Lady and Jeff
- Sarah Palins Alaska
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
- The Two Coreys
- What Would Ryan Lochte Do
Films featured in Forgotbusters include:
- The Golden Child
- Godzilla (1998)
- Space Jam
- Rising Sun
- Congo
- Hannibal
- Disclosure
- Jack
- Days of Thunder
- Bringing Down the House
- Eraser
- Shark Tale
- What Women Want
- xXx
- Tango & Cash
- Hot Shots!
- Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)
- Indecent Proposal
- Failure to Launch
- Cobra
- Hancock
- Convoy
- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- Conspiracy Theory
- Jingle All the Way
- Four Christmases
- Avatar
- Boomerang (1992)
- Wanted
- Michael
- Phenomenon
- Antz
- Turner and Hooch
- 10 (1979)
The man himself:
- The Atoner: He frequently made fun of Phish fans and Juggalos but after going to their concerts as explained in You Don't Know Me, But You Don't Like Me, he later identified with their sense of community.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He is regarded as a talented critic, but he said that he spent his high school days largely cutting class, going to the arcade or finding films with nudity in them.
- Creator Backlash: He doesn't like the Manic Pixie Dixie Dream Girl term anymore.
- Deadpan Snarker: Though he doesn't like the term.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: As seen in his memoir, The Big Rewind, he hasn't had the happiest of childhoods. But damned if he doesn't wring some laughs out of it.
- Jewish and Nerdy
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Trope Namer
- The Movie Buff: Well, of course.
- Oddball in the Series: His MWOF on E.T., the only video game covered in the series. After playing it, he states how he never wants to play another video game for the foreseeable future.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: He mentions many times his love for hip-hop.
- The Stoner: Mentions his pot smoking several times, among other drug consumptions.