Posted: September 27, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Black Mass, Coming Home, Corey Stoll, David Harbour, Huiwen Zhang, Jesse Plemons, Jez Butterworth, Jingzhi Zou, Joel Edgerton, John Connolly, Johnny Depp, Kevin Bacon, Li Gong, Mark Mallouk, Peter Sarsgaard, Random Harvest, Rory Cochrane, Scott Cooper, W. Earl Brown, Whitey Bulger, Yanshi (Daoming Chen, Yimou Zhang | 7 Comments »
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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
In 1942, Ronald Colman played a character so shell shocked by the trenches of World War I that he walked out of the hospital where he was recovering, having no idea who he was.
He was taken in by a singer in a vaudeville house (Greer Garson), fell in love and the two married. Then years later, he suddenly, out of nowhere, remembered who he really was, but totally forget that his wife existed. He discovers he’s the scion of a wealthy family and eventually runs for political office, not knowing that his secretary is actually his wife.
This movie is Random Harvest and is perhaps the most romantic and delirious use of amnesia in film. But amnesia has always been a useful tool of storytelling, whether romantic (here and in Law of Desire) or in thrillers (Mr. Budwing and Mirage) or comedy (The Hangover and 50 First Dates).
Coming Home, written by Jingzhi Zou and directed by Yimou Zhang, falls into the more melodramatic end of the spectrum like Random Harvest. It’s unabashedly sentimental and relishes in a sort of 1930’s studio romanticism tone and style, though the grittiness makes it more Warner Brothers than MGM. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: July 25, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam McKay, Ant-Man, Bobby Cannavale, Corey Stoll, David Dastmalchian, Edgar Wright, Evangeline Lilly, Joe Cornish, John Slattery, Judy Greer, Martin Donovan, Marvel, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, Paul Rudd, Peyton Reed, T.I. | 2 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
When word came down that they (and we all know who “they” are even if we don’t know who “they” are) were making a movie based on the Marvel character of Ant-Man, well, let us say that there was a bunch of groaning and/or unintentional laughter followed by, “Oh, you’re serious”.
Among my comic book geek friends, Ant-Man, a superhero who could miniaturize to the size of the referred to hard working insect, as well as control them, had never been taken that seriously.
With the name not really helping much.
And when I first saw the previews, I didn’t see any additional reason for optimism. They seemed fairly, well, lame.
So now I’ve seen the movie itself and I have to say…it’s not bad and actually has some worthy virtues to speak of.
Who’d have thought it?
The basic premise is that an ex-con (but don’t worry, one of those heroic ones, a computer hacker robin hood, so that way we can cheer him on) gets lured into a life of superherodom by a retired scientist trying to stop an-ex intern, now owner of the scientist’s former company, from exploiting the scientist’s technology of shrinking objects and people and selling them to the highest bidder for world domination purposes (with that neo-Nazi group HYDRA somehow managing to have the most moolah to do it after being so soundly defeated by Captain America and Co. a year or so ago—where do they get their funds? The Koch brothers?). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: September 30, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Driver, Bill Hader, Connie Britton, Corey Stoll, Craig Johnson, Dax Shepard, Debra Monk, Dennis Tripper, Dominique Pinon, Israel Horovitz, Jason Bateman, Joanna Gleason, Katherine Hahn, Kevin Kline, Kristen Wiig, Kristin Scott Thomas, Luke Wilson, Maggie Smith, Mark Heyman, My Old Lady, Rose Byrne, The Skeleton Twins, This Is Where I Leave You, Timothy Olyphant, Tina Fey | 7,423 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
Warning: SPOILERS
Gosh darn, daddy’s seem to be dropping like flies this month. Three movies have opened lately in which the pater familias is no longer in the picture. Not only that, it’s these fathers that often seem to be getting the brunt of the blame for the way their kids have turned out.
I guess it’s kind of convenient for all the characters involved, then, that the man from whose loins they were loosed is no longer around to defend himself.
But, you know, whatever, I guess. At any rate, he’s dead, dead, dead. And just won’t let us forget it.
Read the rest of this entry »
