Posted: October 7, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aksel Hennie, Andy Weir, Benicio del Toro, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Kaluuya, Darius Wolski, Denis Villeneuve, Drew Goddard, Emily Blunt, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Joe Walker, Johan Johannson, Josh Brolin, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Matt Damon, Michael Pena, Pietro Scalia, Ridley Scott, Roger Deakins, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Sicario, Taylor Sheridan, The Martian, Victor Garber | 143 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
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Warning: SPOILERS
Sicario, the new thriller about the drug war written by Taylor Sheridan (a first film) and directed by French Canadian flavor of the month Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoner, Enemies), is, in many ways, two movies for the price of one.
The first is an action/adventure film full of car chases and gun battles and plot twists (many of which, if truth be told, I found just a tad tenuous at best) of the action/adventure variety.
The second is a treatise on the drug war.
The first film is often quite successful and impressive. The second is, at least from my perspective, quite shallow and unconvincing.
This means that for much of the time, Sicario is definitely and highly entertaining. Sheridan and Villeneuve, along with the incredibly soaring cinematography of Roger Deakins (one of our finest today), the film editing of Joe Walker, and the heart throbbing music of Johan Johannson, have crafted an edge of your seat story that never really stops and never really lets you stop watching. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 15, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: About Elly, Alan Tudyk, Asghar Farhadi, Eliot Laurence, Golshifteh Farahan, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joan Cusack, Kristen Wiig, Linda Cardellini, Loretta Devine, Peyman Hoaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Shira Piven, Taraneh Alidoosti, Tim Robbins, Welcome to Me, Wes Bentley | 1,886 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 Welcome to Me, the new comedy written by Eliot Laurence and directed by Shira Piven, began, I instantly became a bit wary. The central character, Alice Kleig (played by the quite funny Kristen Wiig) is bipolar and has just gone off her meds. I felt in these opening scenes the filmmakers were exploiting her condition for laughs and I became a bit uncomfortable.
But then something interesting happens. We stop seeing Alice through the eyes of the director and writer, but through the eyes of her friends, who love her very much, as well as her therapist, who is very concerned for her and also likes her very much, and suddenly all those things she does (like starting any explanation by whipping out a piece of paper and saying, “I have a prepared statement”) now seem charmingly eccentric.
We like Alice and have affection for her and her foibles and are concerned for her because her friends have affection for her and are concerned. 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 | 7,434 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 »
