GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER: Movie reviews of Beatriz at Dinner and It Comes at Night by Howard Casner
Posted: June 22, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Beatriz at Dinner, Carmen Ejogo, Chloȅ Sevigny, Christopher Abbott, In It Comes at Night, Jay Duplass, Joel Edgerton, John Lithgow, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael White, Miguel Arteta, Riley Keaugh, Salma Hayek, Trey Edward Shults | 1,069 Comments »
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Warning: SPOILERS
Beatriz at Dinner is writer Michael White and director Miguel Arteta’s third film collaboration after Chuck and Buck (an interesting character study of a gay man wanting to take up a former relationship with his best friend who is now married and apparently no longer gay) and The Good Girl (a modern day somewhat clever take on Madame Bovary).
Together they have made a very solid series of films. Nothing perhaps to light up the sky, but still, quite respectable and entertaining.
Beatriz at Dinner is probably their most ambitious. At the same time, however intriguing and entertaining it often is, it is probably their weakest. I think this may be because they set up an intriguing premise, but failed to, or didn’t know how to, really resolve it all in a rich and satisfying way. Read the rest of this entry »
CLASS WARFARE: Movie reviews of Love and Friendship and The Measure of a Man by Howard Casner
Posted: June 3, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Barcelona, Chloȅ Sevigny, Damsels in Distress, Dangerous Liaisons, James Fleet, Jane Austen, Kate Beckinsall, Ken Loach, Lady Susan, Love & Friendship, Metropolitan, Olivier Gorce, Redgrave, Robert Altman, Stéphane Brize, Stephen Fry, Terence Malick, The Last Days of Disco, The Measure of a Man, Tom Bennett, Vincent Lindon, Whit Stillman, Xavier Samuel | 1,148 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://youtu.be/1S0HyFTwqAI
I am now offering a new consultation service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Two films have recently opened, Love & Friendship and The Measure of a Man, that both deal with issues of class, and I don’t mean the “you have no” kind, but class as in upper, lower and all things in between.
Whit Stillman, the cinematic chronicler of the sons and daughters of the upper crust, began his career with Metropolitan, a character study of a group of the haves and what happens when they end up with a have less over Christmas break, the last year before everything went to hell and fell apart after sex, drugs and rock and roll took over and it all went to pot (pardon the pun).
It was a wonderful début, suggesting that a new and unique voice had arrived on the independent scene. He followed that up with two even better films, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco.
He, then, well, disappeared for a while, which was both a puzzlement and a disappointment, only to return, years later, with a new film. Read the rest of this entry »
CHARACTER CHIAROSCURO: Movie Reviews of Little Accidents, Appropriate Behavior and Son of a Gun by Howard Casner
Posted: January 28, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alicia Vikander, Appropriate Behavior, Boyd Holbrook, Brenton Thwaites, Cecilia Frugiuele, Chloȅ Sevigny, Desiree Akhavan, Elisabeth Banks, Ewan McGregor, Halley Feiffer, Jacob Lofland, John Collee, Josh Lucas, Julius Avery, Little Accidents, Matt Noble, Nash Edgerton, Sara Colangelo, Scott Adsit, Son of a Gun | 217 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Three movies have opened recently that are driven by characters studies, even in the case of the one that is also driven by a prison break and robbery of a gold refinery. It’s not a bad way to start the new year, even if one of them, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t work on any level.
Little Accidents takes place in a small town that depends on coal mining for its existence. When a cave in leaves a sole survivor, he gets caught between two factions: the miners who want him to blame the company so they can be sued for compensation, and the miners who want him to say it was an accident because if the mine owners are held at fault, the mine will close and there’ll be no more work.
Meanwhile, the teenage son of the mine manager continually bullies the son of a miner who has died. When a fight ensues, the miner’s son accidentally kills the manager’s son and hides the body, causing a city wide search.
Finally, the wife of the manager, upset over the disappearance of her son and her suspicion that her husband was responsible in some way for the cave in, finds her life slipping away from her.
The three characters, Amos, the survivor; Owen, the miner’s son; and Diane, the manager’s wife, slowly find their lives intersecting as they become involved in some way with each other: Amos and Diane have an affair while Owen does yard work for Diane while Diane begins to treat him as a surrogate son and Amos becomes a kind of father figure to Owen.
Little Accidents is written and directed by Sara Colangelo and is one of those small movies that are rich in depth of characterization. The people are leading lives of quiet desperation, but Colangelo shows them such understanding and sympathy that you can’t help but be deeply moved in how they work through the difficulties that have suddenly shown up in their lives. Read the rest of this entry »
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