Unearthed Screenplay: The Courtship of Rivkah Klein, Sept. ‘05
Ahhh, how come I never could finish this screenplay? Tell me what you think of the start.
INT. DANIEL'S APARTMENT - DAWNRIVKAH, 20, is lying naked under the covers, fast asleep.
DANIEL, 28, is fully dressed, quietly putting his shoes
on, sitting at the foot of the bed.
Read on...
Review: There Will Be Blood
It was little more than a decade ago that a young P.T. Anderson completed a video scene at the Sundance lab that showed not only promise, but genius. The resulting Sydney, which would be renamed Hard Eight gained Mr. Anderson enough recognition to be given relatively free reign at New Line Cinema to make Boogie Nights, all the while retaining and growing his talented cabal of creative geniuses. You know most of them: actors Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, and Philip Seymour Hoffman among others; director of photography Robert Elswit; and composer Jon Brion. There are others, but the previous list represents those whose careers skyrocketed in sync with this American auteur.
Why the history lesson? Because, save for Robert Elswit’s gorgeous photography, all of the usual suspects are noticeably (and thankfully) missing from Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, There Will Be Blood. Like so many younger American filmmakers, he has walked the line between being an artist and a rock star. It’s not so hard to see why. His films all deal with Los Angeles, fame, drugs, violence, masculinity and that concoction of all that is good and evil, The American Dream. But ever since the gargantuan success of Boogie Nights, Mr. Anderson has retracted into his own thoughts for fear of making the wrong movie, and we as an audience have to suffer for it. It’s been five years since he made Punch Drunk Love, which was four years after Magnolia. Who knows the next time we’ll see his name in lights.
But anyway, let’s deal with the film at hand. Read on...
Top 10 Films of 2007 (that I’ve seen)
Another year has flown by, far too fast I might add. So in the great tradition of the new year, I too will toss my hat in and break the year down to a list. What follows is a list that I thought very little about before writing. They are in some sort of order, but in truth, it makes no different. By reading my lengthy blurbs, you’ll notice that direction and impact make up a huge percentage of my grading criteria. 2007 is one of the best years in the history of the movie business, and the audiences get to benefit from that cashflow. That means there’s more money for better films to come along, but also more demand for franchise crap. When you look at my list, you’ll see some of those franchise bits can be amazing. Enough preamble, enjoy and leave comments with your thoughts. Happy New Year. Read on...
Best Slogans and Blogsplosion!
While trying to gather my thoughts on No Country For Old Men, I couldn’t help but update myself on the latest and greatest from the WGA strike. A quick googling will find a number of critics, Jamie Lee Curtis chief among them, who are unimpressed by the writers’ slogans on the picket line. Well, I have certainly found the best one out there, as well as a few others that are enjoyable. No surprise the winner came from the WGAe. Drumroll please:
The Winter of our DISSED CONTENT
(It’s nothing against those LA writers, but I am yet to notice Shakespearean puns coming from their throngs of rallyers)
Some other decent fare:
Don’t Write Til it’s Right
More Money, More Funny
I Wrote This (I promise it seems more clever scrawled on posterboard)
Nick Counter Hates Puppies and Babies
Ellen Is No Friend of Mine, Because She Crossed My Picket Line
BLOGSPLOSION!!!
Also for your viewing pleasure…The WGA strike rules are incredibly strict for both members and non-members. But hey, writing is just one of those things you can do by accident sometimes, and writers don’t know what to do with all this free time. So they have turned to about the only format they can work on, the internet. Writers are offering up some pretty great blogs, for both news and getting some jokes off their chest. Get it while it’s hot folks.
United Hollywood
Late Show Writers On Strike
Scribe Vibe @ Variety
Each of those sites will lead to a ton of other writer-centric blogs. Also check out a new blog devoted to the real victims of the strike, non-union film and tv employees whose jobs are either in jeopardy or have already gotten the axe. Hopefully we can all stay off that list.
It’s a sensitive time, but hilarity will get us through it much easier. Below, an hilarious video that shows how desperate the writers are to get some of that creativity out. Watch closely for the best picket sign around.
Review: Michael Clayton
“I am Shiva, the god of death.”
Michael Clayton is immediately recognizable as a film made by a writer. It is a perfectly crafted narrative, with all the beats and reversals happening in the right places. Each character is endowed with a panoply of quirks and relationships which we learn at a pace that seems almost scientifically measured and applied. It is a formulaic thriller in every sense of the word, and it is all the better for it.
Tony Gilroy, the film’s first-time director, slipped into his new role at the top with ease. Having spent nearly his whole professional career as a scribbler, he seems to have approached the onus of his new role with two fistfuls of both trepidation and confidence. By surrounding himself with some of the most talented people working in Hollywood today, he managed to create a film that proves to be highly original, wonderfully familiar, and downright entertaining. Read on...
