Welcome to the Family captures the chaos and freshness of one of Hollywood’s most memorable franchises | Books

An author must approach a subject on their own terms to find the appropriate tone for the story being told. For example, you expect a different type of cultural and philosophical presentation of Ingmar Bergman’s work than Michael Bay. This is not to say that one is more “important” than the other, but that an author becomes a sort of dance partner with his or her subject, not only to meet the reader’s expectations, but also to enhance the tone of what is being discussed. That’s all to say that Barry Hertz is becoming “family” with the “Fast and the Furious” franchise in his excellent and engaging Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters That Supercharged the Worldnow available.

If you think about it, there are so many stories to tell about this surprisingly huge franchise, coming from the relatively humble origins of an adaptation of a Atmosphere Ken Li’s magazine article to the drama surrounding star Vin Diesel choosing to do “The Chronicles of Riddick” instead of “2 Fast 2 Furious” to the infamous cameo at the end of “Tokyo Drift” to the revitalization of the franchise with Dwayne Johnson joining the growing team. And that’s only the first half of the series. Hertz eventually gets into the drama surrounding Diesel vs. Johnson, as well as the strange limbo the franchise now finds itself in after “Fast X” became too expensive to ever be a success. While we’re in this pit stop, with no guarantee that it will ever return to the track, take some time to walk through the history of this franchise with Hertz, the Toronto film’s chief film critic. The Globe and Mail.

Hertz finds the perfect tonal balance for Welcome to the Familywithout ever devaluing its subject while recognizing that a book like this should be fun. He has a propulsive approach to the material, which is relatively brief (just under 400 pages), given the number of stories to be told. He is very adept at not dwelling too long on one anecdote or behind-the-scenes details, giving the book the momentum it really needed to succeed. The truth is that people who read movie books can sometimes look down on franchises like “Fast and Furious.” Nonetheless, Hertz defends the cultural and even representational importance of the franchise, not by over-explaining either, but by approaching it with just the right balance of reverence and whimsy.

And Hertz argues that those who readily dismiss these films as popcorn escapism fail to understand why they were so popular and the machines that were built around them. They are aimed at an audience that too rarely sees itself represented in action films, especially following the superhero boom. Sure, most people can’t pull off the impossible driving stunts in the later films, but there’s a central element of makeshift families that clearly struck a chord with millions. The stunts are cool, but people also come back for the characters they love.

Of course, Hertz also goes behind the scenes that reshaped the entire Hollywood machine, including how those films figured out the publicity game and how the series pivoted after losing one of its biggest stars. How “Fast and the Furious” has survived for a quarter of a century, and how it now faces an obstacle it may not be able to overcome, are two essential pop culture stories of the modern era: the explosion of an unexpected success that then became too big to survive.

Maybe. We’ll see. Never count out Dom and his family.