O WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE: Movie Reviews of Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming by Howard Casner
Posted: July 11, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver, Edgar Wright, Eiza Gonzales, Jamie Foxx, Jon Favreau, Jon Hamm, Jon Watts, Laura Harrier, Marisa Tomei, Martin Starr, Michael Keaton, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Stan Lee, Tom Holland, Tyne Daly | 26 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 can certainly see why people are so in love with Baby Driver, the new heist film from writer/director Edgar Wright. It’s about as stylish as you can get, and with a stylishness that has a bouncy feel good quality to it that gets you to sit up in your seat, tap your foot and just generally groove out.
It begins with a bank robbery and a car chase orchestrated to a song chosen by the title character (a getaway driver with pouty lips and baby face). It’s followed soon after by a one take with said character bopping down the street to another song, barely dodging people on the street, and backed by some nice gymnastics (this is important because there comes a time when suddenly he’s bumping into people right and left, signaling a sea change within the character).
Everything is calculated and carefully choreographed to be cool and hip. And it is pretty cool. In fact, the movie is not only pretty cool, it’s fully aware as to how cool it is and revels in this coolness to such an extent that it knows that the audience knows that it knows just how cool it is.
BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEGUILEDED: Movie Reviews of The Beguiled and The Big Sick by Howard Casner
Posted: July 7, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning, Emily V. Gordon, Holly Hunter, Kirsten Dunst, Kumail Nanjani, Michael Showalter, Ray Romano, Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled, The Big Sick, Thomas Cullinan, Zoë Kazan | 1,353 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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
The original film The Beguiled was directed by Don Siegel and starred Clint Eastwood, from a novel by Thomas Cullinan. It was an attempt by Eastwood to do something more interesting than the man with no name and Dirty Harry. And there is something fascinating about it. Whether one likes it or not, one can’t quite look away.
The basic premise is that a wounded Northern soldier ends up being taken in by the remaining inhabitants of an all girl’s boarding school located in the South during the Civil War. The longer he stays, the more he arouses the repressed sexuality of the women, which simmers and simmers until all sorts of conflicts break out of the Southern Gothic variety. Read the rest of this entry »
FRENCH 101: ENNUI BY ANY OTHER NAME: Movie Reviews of Moka and My Journey Through French Cinema by Howard Casner
Posted: July 7, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Antonio Martin, Bertrand Tavernier, Emmanuelle Devos, Frederic Mermoud, Moka, My Journey Through French Cinema, Nathalie Baye | 3 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 original campaign.
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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
In the new film Moka, a woman’s young boy dies in a hit and run. After much time has passed, the mother Diane grows frustrated at the police making no progress on finding the driver, so she hires a private investigator who, based on a tip as to the type of car involved, leads Diane to a family in a nearby town. She insinuates her way into their lives in an attempt to be sure they are the guilty party and once she is assured, she plans to seek revenge.
It sounds like the beginnings of a tense, riveting thriller. At least it has been advertised as so. However, in spite of the subject matter, the movie’s pacing is far below the speed limit and the tension is almost non-existent. It takes a rather long time for very little to happen and you tend to feel the minutes ticking by. Read the rest of this entry »
CHARACTERSCURA: Movie Reviews of The Hero and Moscow Never Sleeps by Howard Casner
Posted: June 23, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Brett Haley, Johnny O’Reilly, Krysten Ritter, Laura Prepon, Marc Basch, Moscow Never Sleeps, Nick Offerman, Sam Elliott, The Hero | 1,076 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 original campaign.
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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Sam Elliott, the go to guy to cast as a love interest for older women, has a somewhat limited acting range. His technique, generally speaking, is of him taking a stance, cocking his head a bit, and delivering a line with a twinkle his eye. And there often seems to be very little variation on this approach.
But you know what?
I don’t care. I just love seeing him on the screen. Maybe it’s his mellifluous voice that could calm a tornado (somewhat satirized here in the opening and closing as he does a voice over for a BBQ ad). Maybe it’s his sincerity. Maybe it’s just his ability to be on the screen with seemingly little effort.
I just like him. Read the rest of this entry »
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 | 1,454 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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
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 »
AMAZON WOMEN ON THE EARTH: Movie Review of Wonder Woman by Howard Casner
Posted: June 16, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Allan Heinberg, Chris Pines, Gal Gadot, Lucy Davis, Patty, Wonder Woman, Zack Snyder | 4 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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
When the film Logan opened, I told all my friends I didn’t want any shit anymore about how depressing Manchester by the Sea is.
But that was just the beginning. It seems the world of comic book as escapist fare in film may be seeing its dying days as the genre seems to be getting darker and darker and ideas of right and wrong seem to be getting more and more ambiguous. Read the rest of this entry »
ART ISN’T EASY: Movie reviews of Afterimage and Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story by Howard Casner
Posted: June 16, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andrzeg Mularczyk, Andrzej Wajda, Boguslaw Linda, Daniel Raim, Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story, Harold Michelson, Lillian Michelson | 980 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 original campaign.
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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Andrzej Wajda is one of the great Polish filmmakers of our time. He gained international recognition starting in 1955 with the films A Generation, Kanal and Ashes and Diamonds, a trilogy that take place after WWII and Russia has become the occupying force.
We now have his final film Afterimage, co-written with Andrzeg Mularczyk (they also collaborated on Wajda’s penultimate film Katyn). It’s the story of an artist in 1950’s Poland who is the country’s most famous practitioner of abstract art, Wladyslaw Strzeminski. He’s also the most popular art teacher in his college-he’s the kind of lecturer that is also attended by non-students and tends to be standing room only.
But the times are not on his side. Communism has declared that non-representational art is decadent, Capitalistic propaganda, and only social realism is acceptable. Read the rest of this entry »
THE MARRIAGE GO ROUND: Movie reviews of The Wedding Plan, The Lovers and The Dinner by Howard Casner
Posted: May 31, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aidan Gillen, Amos Taman, Azazel Jacob, Debra Winger, Laura Linney, Medora Walters, Noa Kohler, Oren Moverman, Oz Zehavi, Rama Burstein, Rebecca Hall, Richard Gerr, Steve Coogan, The Dinner, The Lovers, The Wedding Plan, Tracey Letts | 9,745 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 original campaign.
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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Just some quick reviews to get caught up on my movie going which has been curtailed to some degree due to health issues, but now I feel closer to my old self. Now if I could only feel closer to my old self of thirty years ago, everything would be wonderful. But, ‘tis not to be.
One subgenre of film I usually detest is the romance where the female central character has no other goal in life than to find a husband and who believes that her life will always be incomplete without a man in it.
Usually when confronted by such a personage, I always want to yell “get a life” at the screen.
However, I also always say that there are always exceptions and so it goes that Michal, the focus of writer/director Rama Burstein’s new film The Wedding Plan, is just such an exception. Read the rest of this entry »
OEDIPUS WRECKS or DADDY DEAREST: Movie Review of Guardians of the Galaxy by Howard CasnerVol. 2
Posted: May 23, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn, Karen Gillian, Kurt Russell, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff, Sylvester Stallone, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana | 3 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 original campaign.
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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is superior to the fun and frolicsome first entry in the franchise if, for no other reason, than the casting of Kurt Russell, former Disney waif turned cult actor, who has managed, somehow, to bridge the cinematic generation gap (previously by appearing in Furious 7, now by becoming a Marvel supervillain) and, like Donald Sutherland in The Hunger Games, become relevant again.
And Quentin Tarantino certainly hasn’t hurt his career any.
And it’s also interesting that it is happening just as his significant other seems to be doing the same by co-starring in the more successful than expected Amy Schumacher vehicle, Snatched.
I’m always ready to spread out the welcome mat for Russell and here he seems to be having the time of his life playing a maniacal psychopath with a God complex (appropriately named Ego no less) and the powers to back it up.
THE BOXER AND THE POET: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki and A Quiet Passion
Posted: May 9, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: A Quiet Passion, Catherine Bailey, Cynthia Nixon, Duncan Duff, Eero Milonoff, Emily Dickinson, Jarkko Lahti, Jennifer Ehle, Jodhi May, Juno Koosmanem, Keith Carradine, Mikko Myllylahti, Oona Airola, Terence McNally, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki | Comments Off on THE BOXER AND THE POET: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki and A Quiet Passion
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
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki revolves around a boxer, the titular character, a local Finlandian hero, who is given the chance to go one on one with the world champion in his class, an American.
But there are two issues getting in the way. Olli’s trainer needs him to lose weight to box in a class one level lower than Maki normally boxes in. But even worse, perhaps, Olli is in love. He has met a young women whom he adores and who is accompanying him to prepare for the match.
Nothing much happens in the story. It moves along at its own leisurely pace. It, and Olli, are very ingratiating and likeable and the relaxed nature of it all tends to win you over. Read the rest of this entry »
REAL Short Box Subscribe!
