If Tony Kushner takes home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Lincoln, he will do it largely on strength of the superior dialogue that he wrote for that script. From the plain-spoken dialect he gave to Abraham Lincoln to the sophisticated euphemisms he gave to William Seward to finally the absolute …
Category: Reviews
Django Unchained: My Favorite Film of the Year, But…
With the Academy Award nominations out today (and I admit that I still need to see some of the films), I wanted to spend some time talking about the film that is my favorite of the year so far, and that is Django Unchained. However, rather than sing its praises and extol the virtues of …
Underrated Holiday Movie: “The Family Man”
It’s not a terrific movie, and it is certainly not without flaws, but I watched The Family Man this holiday season for the first time since seeing it in the theater when it came out just a little over a decade ago. However, from a screenwriting and storytelling perspective, there are a lot of good …
“Rise of the Guardians” is THE Holiday Film To See This Year
If you didn’t see Rise of the Guardians over the weekend, and judging by the box office numbers you didn’t, then you should do whatever it takes to see it at some point this Holiday season. If you have a family and children, you should see it for the obvious reasons. If you’re interested in …
All Time Favorite Thanksgiving Movie: “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”
Not only is this one of the top comedies of the 80’s with some classic comedic lines (Neal – “Where’s you’re other hand?” Dell – “Between two pillows.” Neal – “Those aren’t pillows!”), but it also tells a compelling story, has great storytelling components, likable characters, and strong thematic elements. This is one of those …
All Time Favorite Horror Movie: The Shining
With Halloween less than a week away, I’ve been thinking a lot about Halloween movies and horror movies as well. Last week I posted that my favorite Halloween movie was Arsenic and Old Lace. Today I’d like to talk about my favorite flat out horror movie and that is The Shining. Obviously this is a …
All Time Favorite Halloween Movie: Arsenic and Old Lace
With Halloween less than 2 weeks away, I thought I would start talking about some of my favorite Halloween movies. Believe it or not, not all Halloween movies are Horror films, and not even all of them are scary. In fact, my favorite Halloween movie is one of AFI’s Top 100 Comedies of all time and primarily uses …
Tales From the Script: Essential Viewing
From it’s cautionary tales to its lessons on life and professionalism, this documentary should be required viewing for all aspiring screenwriters. I just watched this documentary again, and found it at once humorous and depressing. It’s a sobering account of the business for those of us aspiring to make it as screenwriters, and it makes the …
Another Awesome Example of Storytelling Sans Dialogue
The 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film was El Secreto de sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) and I recently saw it for the first time. A few months ago I blogged about a scene from Wait Until Dark which did an exceptional job of moving the story forward entirely through …
Moonrise Kingdom: Quirky, Stylish and Touching
I am going to preface this by saying that, while I generally like Wes Anderson’s films, I’m not a huge fan. I like most of the films that he’s made, but haven’t really loved any of them. Until now. I saw Moonrise Kingdom last night, and I found it to be emotionally engaging and heartwarming …