3 Women: Movie Reviews of Personal Shopper, Ghost in the Shell and Beauty and the Beast by Howard Casner
Posted: April 7, 2017 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Audra McDonald, Beauty and the Beast, Bill Condon, Dan Stevens, Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Evan Spiliotopoulos, Ewan McGregor, Ghost in the Shell, Ian McKellan, Josh Gad, Juliet Binoche, Kevin Kline, Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Luke Evans, Michael Pitt, Olivier Assayas, Rupert Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Stephen Chbosky | 130 Comments »
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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
Kristen Stewart, as far as I was concerned, did not have a particularly auspicious start in films as an actress. She came to fame by making big movies. But I found the Twilight series, and her acting, impossible to watch (I couldn’t get through the first in the franchise). She followed that up with Snow White and the Huntsman, which I did manage to get through, but definitely no thanks to Stewart’s underwhelming performance.
Then something happened. She became good. I was astounded, but still it happened.
This came to pass around the time she made Still Alice and The Clouds of Sils Maria (for which she became the first American to win a César award for acting-here in the supporting actress category). Read the rest of this entry »
CLAUSTROPHOBIA – Movie Reviews of Room and The 33 by Howard Casner
Posted: November 28, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amanda Brugel, Antonio Banderas, Bill Macy, Bob Gunton, Brie Larson, Emma Donoghue, Gabriel Byrne, Hector Tobar, James Brolin, Joan Allen, Juliet Binoche, Justin Tremblay, Lenny Abrahamson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Patricia Riggen, Rodrigo Santoro, Room, Sean Bridges, The 33, Tom McCamus | 3 Comments »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
Room, the new somewhat minimalist film written by Emma Donoghue (from her own novel) and directed somewhat minimally by Lenny Abrahamson (who also was responsible for cult fave Frank), is, like such movies as Vertigo and Boogie Nights, a before and after film, a movie in which something happens about midway through that divides the story into two neat little parts.
For Room, the first half dramatizes the story of a character called Ma and her six year old son, Jack. Seven years earlier, Ma was abducted and kept prisoner in a large garden shed by a bearded man called Old Nick. Jack was born into captivity and, in fact, does not know there is a world outside, having been told by Ma that there’s nothing on the other side of the four walls. Jack is so young, it simply doesn’t occur to him to ask that if that were so, then where does Old Nick come from each night when he visits, and where does he go when he leaves.
The second part dramatizes Ma and Jack’s escape (a very taught and edge of your seat set of scenes, even though you do also wonder why someone who is as clever as Old Nick in setting up the shed could also be so stupid) and what happens when Ma and Jack rejoin the outside world. Read the rest of this entry »
WORKING WOMEN: Movie reviews of Two Days One Night, The Clouds of Silas Maria and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Posted: November 14, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chloȅ Grace Moretz, Gett The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Juliet Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Luc Dardenne, Marion Cotillard, Menashe Noy, Olivier Ossayas, Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Schlomi Elkabetz, Simon Abkarian, The Clouds of Silas Maria, Two Days One Night | 4 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
I have been attending the AFI film festival and have seen three films with female leads and have noticed a major difference between movies from other countries and those made in the U.S. when it comes to how we treat our actresses.
In the U.S., Marion Cottilard is made to play second fiddle to Johnny Depp, Daniel Day Lewis and Leonard DiCaprio, but on her home continent, two of the top European filmmakers actually built a whole movie around her.
In the U.S., Juliet Binoche is relegated to second tier status after a gigantic lizard goes on the rampage and Kristin Stewart is stuck in ridiculous teen angst films and even more ridiculous, over the top Hollywood blockbusters, but in Europe the two are allowed to play opposite each other in roles with depths most American actresses only dream of.
And in the U.S., when it comes to a study of a marriage, we have the misogynistic Gone Girl, with a psychotic wife who will do anything to punish her husband, even set him up for her own murder (while killing herself, no less), while from Israel, we have a film in which a woman desperately tries to get a divorce from a court that is almost determined to keep her in her place and not let her have it.
Prevailing wisdom is that this is one of the weakest years for actresses and the air is filled with panic as voters try to find five females to fill the slots for the Oscar noms for this year.
But prevailing wisdom always seems to leave out the pertinent proviso that this is really only true for the U.S.
Read the following reviews and weep at our inability to create worthy roles for half the population. Read the rest of this entry »
HOT AND COLD: Movie reviews of Words and Pictures, Cold in July and Chinese Puzzle
Posted: June 9, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Audrey Tatou, Bruce Davison, Cedric Klapisch, Clive Owen, Cold in July, Don Johnson, Fred Schepsi, Gerald di Pego, Jim Mickle, Juliet Binoche, Kelly Reilly, Michael C. Hall, Nick Damici, Romain Duris, Sam Shepard, Words and Pictures | 2 Comments »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
Ofttimes of late, and not so late, I get into a discussion/argument/knock down drag out fight as to whether the director or the screenwriter is more important to the success of a movie, or even to the existence of a movie. The conflict usually boils down to which is more important, the visual or written aspects.
It’s a silly argument, at least it should be, because the answer is that both are important and neither should be denigrated (and are often so intermingled that you can’t even tell what part of the film resulted from one over the other). It’s a pretty obvious conclusion, though you’d be surprised as to how many people don’t go for the obvious. Read the rest of this entry »
Of Mice and Frenchmen: Moview Reviews of Ernest & Celestine and Mauvais Sang by Howard Casner
Posted: March 14, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Benjamin Renner, Daniel Pennac, Denis Lavant, Ernest and Celestine, Forest Whitaker, Gabrielle Vincent, Holy Motors, Julie Delpy, Juliet Binoche, Lauren Bacall, Leos Carax, Mackenzie Foy, Mauvais Sang, Megan Mullally, Michelle Piccolo, Nick Offerman, Paul Giamatti, Stephane Aubier, The Night is Young, Vincent Patar, William H. Macy | 2,129 Comments »
In Ernest and Celestine, the Oscar nominated animated film from France, anthropomorphized bears dwell above ground, live like humans (one owns a candy store), and claim that mice fairies will come by in the night and leave money whenever a cub loses a tooth.
Meanwhile, anthropomorphized mice dwell in the sewers and steal bear teeth to use as dentures.
Read the rest of this entry »
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