This month, we pay tribute not just to a movie that almost instantly fell out of the public consciousness but to a great writer as well. North America may have no finer, no more eloquent defender of the director Paul Verhoeven than Adam Nayman, whose book, It Doesn’t Suck, is the final word on “Showgirls.”

I had been given the book out of a pile of review copies in a press office a few months before finally cracking it open, grabbing it idly on my way out the door to catch a plane, my first in almost a decade. As the plane rocketed with turbulence and I discovered a newfound hatred of the sky, I sank my teeth into Adam’s book and came out a lifelong fan.

Ever since, I’ve been reading his every book and review and I’m proud to call him a friend. He very, very kindly quoted me in his book Mind Games on David Fincher (very specifically the first Unloved on “Alien³”) which brings us full circle.

This essay on “Hollow Man” is but a scratch of the surface of Verhoeven, but it would never have happened without Adam turning me around on the great director and his delectable perversity. Thanks Adam, and thank you all for watching.