3 WOMEN: The Unknown Girl, Battle of the Sexes, Mother!
Posted: October 1, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adéle Haenel, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Battle of the Sexes, Bill Pullman, Darren Aronofsky’s, Ed Harris, Elizabeth Shue, Emma Stone, Eric Christian Olsen, Javier Bardem, Jean-Pierre Dardennes, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremie Renner, Jonathan Dayton, Luc Dardennes, Michelle Pfeifer, Mother, Sarah Silverman, Simon Beaufoy, Steve Carrell, The Unknown Girl, Valerie Faris | 49 Comments »
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Warning: SPOILERS
There have been many examples of siblings sharing writing, directing and even producing credits from the Maysles to the Tavianis to the Wachowskis. Perhaps the most successful pairs artistically are the Coens and the Dardennes.
However, though the Coen brothers output is often quite breathtaking with wonderful highs (Fargo, True Grit, No Country for Old Men), they are far more erratic in quality of output (Hail, Caesar!, Burn After Reading, The Ladykillers).
Few filmmakers, however, have had the consistency of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes, Belgium brothers that first made their name in the U.S. with their Cannes winning film Rosetta, about a young women desperate to get employment, and they cemented their reputation with such triumphs as La Promesse, The Son, L’enfant and most recently Two Days, One Night.
Now we have The Unknown Girl, one of the finer films so far this year. Read the rest of this entry »
STRANGERER THINGS: Movie Review of It by Howard Casner
Posted: September 22, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andy Muschietti, Bill Skarsgard, Cary Fukunaga, Chase Palmer, Gary Dauberman, It, Sophia Lillis | 137 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
It, the new film adaptation of Steven King’s horror novel which exploits childhood fears of clowns, opened in September setting records with many critics saying it may actually prove the salvation of a lackluster, to say the least, summer box office.
It reached 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and based on anecdotal evidence of my Facebook page, most everyone I know swears by it, heralding it as the emperor in a new golden age of horror movies.
But for me, it’s the emperor’s new clothes and one of the worst films of the year. Read the rest of this entry »
IS IT REAL OR IS IT MEMOREX: Movie Reviews of Brigsby Bear and Marjorie Prime by Howard Casner
Posted: September 21, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Samberg, Brigsby Bear, Clair Danes, Dave McCary, Geena Davis, Greg Kinnear, Jane Addams, Jon Hamm, Jordan Harrison, Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney, Lois Smith, Marjorie Prime, Mark Hammill, Matt Walsh, Michael Alnereyda, Michaela Watkins, Tim Robbins | 31 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: 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? FosCheck 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
Brigsby Bear is basically the same story as Room (but not The Room), but though a comedy, is cleverer, deeper, better written, more original and more profound than the earlier critically acclaimed drama, which for my taste had a strong first half and then became a bit too predictable and formulaic in the second.
The film, a first feature for director Dave McCary and writers Kevin Costello and Kyle Mooney (Mooney also plays the lead role), is about James Pope, now 29, but who was abducted by a couple, April and Ted Mitchum, when he was five. Since then he has been kept in an underground bunker with his faux parents telling him he can’t go outside because the world out there is a apocalyptic wasteland and leaving the bunker means certain death. Read the rest of this entry »
CRIME DOES PAY: Movie Reviews of Logan Lucky and The Nile Hilton Incident by Howard Casner
Posted: September 19, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Fares Fares, Hillary Swank, Logan Lucky, Rebecca Blunt, Steven Soderbergh, Tarik Saleh, The Nile Hilton Incident | 1,656 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new 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 $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
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Warning: SPOILERS
Everyone in the US seems to agree that the working class is under siege. And it’s still unclear whether there is any real relief in sight.
I’m not sure whether this is the reason filmmakers have been creating stories that focus on the more downtrodden in our society (zeitgeists are almost impossible to recognize until we are out of them), but last year we had Hell or High Water, and more recently we’ve had Patti Cake$, Beach Rats and the topic of this review, Logan Lucky.
All the films have fallen into various genres and niches. Hell or High Water is a modern western/crime film; Patti Cake$ is a musical; Beach Rats is a coming out story; and Logan Lucky is a heist film.
All have, as their central characters, people struggling just to make ends meet or who are lost in a world that seems to have no future for them.
MIRROR, MIRROR: Patti Cake$ and Beach Rats
Posted: September 18, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Beach Rats, Bridget Everett, Cathy Moriarty, Daniella MacDonald, Dhananjay, Eliza Hittman, Geremy Jasper, Harris Dickinson, Mamoudou Athie, Patti Cake$ | 2 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: 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 $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
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Warning: SPOILERS
Two movies have opened recently in which the central characters occasionally gaze at themselves in the mirror, not for narcissistic reasons, but as if trying to figure out who they really are.
Patti Cake$ is a somewhat zaftig, working class, twenty something, white female who has dreams of being a rap singer. At first glance this might seem a preposterous idea, until she opens her mouth and recites one of her hundreds of poems she writes every waking chance she gets.
Then she has the power of Maria Callas, a vengeful angel laying waste to her multitude of distracters. Read the rest of this entry »
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, A HELL OF A TOWN: Movie Reviews of the The Dark Tower and Good Time by Howard Casner
Posted: August 15, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Barkhad Abdi, Ben Safdie, Dennis Haysbert, Good Time, Idris Elba, Jack Earle Haley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joshua Safdie, Mathew McConaughey, Michael Barbieri, Nicolaj Arcel, Robert Pattison, Ronald Bronstein, Tom Taylor | 2 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
The Dark Tower is proof of an observation I’ve made of Hollywood at its worst. They take a filmmaker, often foreign, who has gained attention, often with a body of impressive work. Then, as punishment for this sin, they bring the filmmaker to the U.S. and give him any old crap to film.
The filmmaker referenced here is Denmark’s Nicolaj Arcel, who has either written or directed, or both, such noteworthy fare as the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, A Royal Affair, and the Department Q trilogy.
The crap he’s been entrusted with has already been mentioned.
All right, that’s not exactly accurate. The Dark Tower is not crap. It’s not really anything. It’s just kind of there…like limbo. Read the rest of this entry »
MURDER MOST FOUL: Movie Reviews of Wind River, Lady Macbeth and Harmonium by Howard Casner
Posted: August 14, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alice Birch, Elizabeth Olsen, Florence Pugh, Graham Greene, Harmonium, Jeremy Renner, Kanji Furutachi, Koji Fukuda, Lady Macbeth, Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asino, Taylor Sheridan, William Oldroyd, Wind River | 160 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
Wind River is Taylor Sheridan’s third screenplay, but the first of his that he directed himself. It revolves around the discovery of the body of a female Native American, 18 years old, found dead in the snow, barefoot, having run who knows how many miles. So what happened to her and how did she end up there?
That’s certainly a good start for a who done it. And overall, Wind River is entertaining enough. It’s not really boring.
But I’m not convinced it really comes together that satisfactorily. Read the rest of this entry »
BURN, BABY, BURN: Movie Review of Detroit by Howard Casner
Posted: July 30, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Algee Smith, Anthony Mackie, Detroit, John Boyega, John Krakowski, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Will Poulter | 1,729 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
Two movies have opened within two weeks of each other, both by recognized filmmakers and both based on actual events.
However, apart from the fact that their titles are single words of two syllables each beginning with the letter “D”, the two couldn’t be more different in approach, tone and style.
One is writer/director Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and the second, more recently, is writer Mark Boal’s and director Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit.
And though Nolan’s movie is a masterful piece of filmmaking, impressive and even ultimately quite moving, it is ferociously put to shame by Boal and Bigelow’s Detroit. Read the rest of this entry »
LIFE’S A BEACH: Movie Review of Dunkirk by Howard Casner
Posted: July 30, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Christopher Nolan, Cilian Murphy, Dunkirk, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy | 131 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: 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
Is Dunkirk, writer/director Christopher Nolan’s version of one of the biggest military disasters of all time that, somehow, near miraculously, became a symbol of one of the biggest military triumphs of all time, any good?
Or does that matter and the movie, at least at this moment in time, is somewhat beyond criticism?
The film is certainly a monumental achievement, but ironically its due to Nolan’s minimalist approach to drama, with little dialog, no backstory and vistas of groups of soldiers lined up along the beach as if they were waiting for a bus. Read the rest of this entry »
THE APES OF WRATH: Movie Review of War for the Planet of the Apes by Howard Casner
Posted: July 22, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andy Serkis, Mark Bomback, Matt Reeves, Steve Zhan, War for the Planet of the Apes, Woody Harrelson | 19 Comments » First, a word from our sponsors: I wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to our Indiegogo campaign for 15 Conversations in 10 Minutes. We did very well due to you folks. For those who weren’t able to give, keep us in your thoughts. And if you are able to contribute in the future, contact me and I’ll tell you how. I will even honor the perks on the
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
I am well aware as to what the critics and my fellow movie goers feel about War for the Planet of the Apes.
And I don’t care.
As far as I’m concerned, this second sequel and third prequel of the Planet of the Apes franchise written by Mark Bomback and the director Matt Reeves is perhaps one of the worst films of the year. Read the rest of this entry »
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