WOMEN WHO WORK: Movie Reviews of Things to Come and Miss Sloane by Howard Casner
Posted: November 23, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andre Marcon, Edith Scob, Father of my Children, First Love, Goodbye, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Isabella Huppert, Jake Lacey, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, John Madden, Jonathan Pereira, Mark Strong, Mia Hanson Love, Michael Stuhlbarg, Miss Sloane, Sam Waterston, Things to Come | 1,035 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
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
Two films at this year’s AFI fest had, as their central characters, women who work outside the home. But the takes on the situation by the respective filmmakers couldn’t be more different.
In Things to Come (not to be confused with the Sci-Fi film from 1936 starring Raymond Massey…I hope), Nathalie Chateaux teaches philosophy in high school. And I don’t mean teaches philosophy, she TEACHES philosophy (and in a way that makes you put on sackcloth and ashes, moaning and bewailing in despair over the U.S. educational system).
Everything in her life seems in perfect equilibrium. She has a loving husband, family, occupation (her only real downside is that her mother is emotionally unstable).
Then she encounters a series of misfortunes. Her husband asks for a divorce; her mother dies; and she is basically fired from her position of overseeing the philosophy texts used in school. Read the rest of this entry »
KING, QUEEN AND PAWNS: Movie reviews of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Song of the Sea and Timbuktu by Howard Casner
Posted: February 18, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Abderrahmane Sissako, Abel Jefri, Brendon Gleeson, Colin Firth, Dave Gibbons, David Rawle, Fionnula Flannagan, Jane Goldman, Kessen Tall, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mark Hamill, Mark Millar, Mark Strong, Matthew Vaughn, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, Song of the Sea, Taron Egerton, Timbuktu, Tomm Moore, Will Collins | 1,046 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
Kingsman: The Secret Service, the latest entry in a comic book franchise, this one with an espionage theme, is, in many ways, an impressive and handsomely made movie.
From a technical perspective, it’s incredibly well done with the best costumes, sets, and music money can buy. It doesn’t stint and there is nothing in this film that is an old piece of tat or is cheap as chips.
The acting is also first rate, raiding the cupboards as it does for the actors who are left who managed to not appear in The Lord of the Rings or The Harry Potter series.
And it has some beautifully well staged and directed second unit scenes of carefully, even wittily, choreographed episodes of extreme violence.
In many ways, those who like these sort of studio type tent pole films will probably find it hard to carp at anything they see.
So why did I find the whole thing dispiriting and extremely depressing?
REEL MEN, REAL MEN, PART ONE: Movie reviews of Foxcatcher, Rosewater and The Imitation Game by Howard Casner
Posted: November 21, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alan Turing, Allen Leech, Anthony Michael Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bennett Miller, Channing Tatum, Charles Dance, Dan Futterman, E. Max Frye, Foxcatcher, Gael Garcia Bernal, Graham Moore, Howard Shore, Jason Jones, Jon Stewart, Kid Bodnia, Kiera Knightly, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Strong, Matthew Goode, Maziar Bahari, Morten Tyldum, Rosewater, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Steve Carrell, The Imitation Game, Vanessa Redgrave | 1,167 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
It’s November, which means we few, we happy few, we band of brothers, are fast approaching awards season, which in turn means distributors, producers and studios are bringing out a bunch of stunt performances, or as we vulgarly call them in the vernacular, bio-pics, to qualify for the Academy Awards (among other competitions).
And this year is not only no different, it may actually set a record as it’s quite possible that three of the five female nominees for best actress Oscars will be for movies with characters based on real people and the male category may have up to four.
So please join me for the first installment of Reel Men, Real Men.
Foxcatcher is a movie about a poor younger man with daddy issues who becomes entangled in the life of a wealthy older man with mommy issues. The filmmakers seem determined to raise all the goings on to the level of Greek tragedy, but I’m not convinced it comes close to anything remotely Sophoclean. Read the rest of this entry »
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