CUT THE CRAP: Movie review of Joon-ho Bong’s Snowpiercer by Howard Casner
Posted: July 11, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Joon-ho Bong, Kelly Masterson, Octavia Spencer, Snowpiercer, Tilda Swinton, Vladimir Ivanov | 27 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
There is one clever and rather effective scene in Snowpiercer, the new movie about a train containing all the survivors of a global warming apocalyptic event that travels the world and can never stop.
Just as a battle royale is about to erupt, everyone is ordered to stop and wait while some of the participants count down from ten as the train passes over a certain bridge, a bridge the train passes over only once annually, meaning that it’s, wait for it…yes, New Years.
Once the countdown is over, it’s back to the bloodshed.
But outside of that, I’m sorry, but I have to say…no, you know what? I’m not sorry.
Snowpiercer is crap.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Movie Reviews of The Amazing Catfish and Gabrielle
Posted: July 10, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alexander Landry, Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Garbrielle, Lisa Owen, Louise Archambault, Melissa Desomaux-Poulin, Robert Charlebois, The Amazing Catfish, Williams Syndrome, Ximena Ayala | 196 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 really feel as if I should apologize. A movie came and went, not too long ago now, that played only a week and that I saw and that I never got around to reviewing.
And it’s shame because it’s one of the finer films of the year.
The movie is The Amazing Catfish, a movie from Mexico written and directed by Claudia Saint-Luce. It revolves around a young woman, Claudia (no relation), who works in a supermarket handing out samples. She has no relatives in the big city and has in fact left her small town because her family really has no use for her and doesn’t much care if she’s around or not. Read the rest of this entry »
WOMEN IN UNREQUITED LOVE: Movie review of Violette
Posted: July 6, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Camille Claudel, Francois Truffaut, Jacques Bonnaffe, Jacques Guerin, Jean Genet, Marc Albdenour, Martin Provost, Olivier Gourmet, Rene de Ceccatty, Sandrine Kiberlain, Seraphine, Simone de Beauvoir, The Story of Adele H., Violette, Violette Ludec | 2,596 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
Violette, the new biopic of French feminist writer Violette Ludec (she was a contemporary of Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre and Jean Genet), is a beautiful film to watch. From a technical standpoint, I think anyone would be hard pressed to find much fault with it. The cinematography is gorgeously, if not depressingly, dark; the sets and costumes faithfully rendered; the music score is enticing; the story is never uninteresting.
At the same time, when it was over, I have to be honest and say that I never really had an emotional connection to the title character. Read the rest of this entry »
AND BABY MAKES NONE: Movie review of Obvious Child by Howard Casner
Posted: July 3, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, Anna Bean, Elisabeth Holm, Gillian Robespierre, Jake Lacy, Jenny Slate, Karen Maine, Obvious Child | 13,426 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
Obvious Child is a movie about a woman who decides to have an abortion.
After seeing it, my first thought was, “And?”
I mean, as I was reading about it before it opened and then reading reviews, and even while watching the movie itself, I got the feeling that everybody involved and everyone who was praising this movie was doing so mainly because of its subject matter, and that they all thought the film was doing something edgy and controversial and daring.
Okay, maybe it is. But, I’m sorry, I simply didn’t see it. Read the rest of this entry »
REAL LIFE, REEL LIFE, STILL LIFE: Movie Reviews of The Last Sentence and Jersey Boys by Howard Casner
Posted: June 29, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Christopher Walken, Clint Eastwood, Erich Bergen, Frankie Valli, Jan Troell, Jersey Boys, Jesper Chrsitensen, John Lloyd Young, Joseph Russo, Klaus Rifbjerg, Marshall Brickman, Michael Ballhaus, Michael Lomenda, Mike Doyle, Rick Elice, The Last Sentence, Torgny Segerstadt, Vincent Piazza | 3,069 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
If you’ve seen the previews or read about the new Swedish film The Last Sentence, you will most probably come to the conclusion that the movie is about a brave man, one Torgny Segerstadt, who spent his later years as a newspaper editor fighting against fascism in the 1930’s during the rise of Nazism.
But if you actually see the movie, you quickly discover that this is only a small part of the story, and that the film is really about Segerstadt’s relationship with three women: his mother who died when he was young and whose death haunted him the rest of his life; his disintegrating marriage to a woman who spiraled into a depression after the death of one of their sons and for whom he has lost all affection; and his love affair with the Jewish owner of the newspaper he runs, a drug addict whose husband knows about the affair and who is not particularly bothered by it. Read the rest of this entry »
AND THEN THE ECSTASY KICKED IN, OR WHO’S MIND F*CKING THE STORE?: Movie reviews of Borgman, Coherence and The Moment by Howard Casner
Posted: June 26, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alex Manugian, Alex van Warmerdam, Alia Shawkat, Borgman, Boudo Saved From Drowning, Brian De Palma, Coherence, Emily Baldoni, Gloria Norris, Home Movies, James Ward Byrkit, Jan Bijvoet, Jane Weinstock, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Martin Henderson, Meat Loaf, The Moment, WTF films | 10,969 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
Three movies have opened recently that I call WTF films. You know what I mean, cinema deliriums that after you watch it, you turn to your friend and go WHAT THE…?
Movies like The American Astronaut, Eraserhead, La Mustache, El Topo, Holy Motors, Dogtooth, Mulholland Drive…
Movies that play mind fuck games with your, well…mind.
Movies that are strange and offbeat and abnormal and peculiar and original and unique (well, I could go on, my thesaurus lists a lot of words similar to these, so I think I’ve made my point), but also movies made with a vision and passion and eschew normal rules of screenwriting and filmmaking.
And if there is one thing I like in films, it’s have my fucking mind…fucked. Or blown. Or something else that can have a sex act as its metaphor. Read the rest of this entry »
WHERE’S THE REST OF ME: Movie Reviews of the The Signal and Night Moves by Howard Casner
Posted: June 22, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Beau Knapp, Brenton Thwaites, Carlyle Eubank, Dakota Fanning, David Frigerio, James Le Gros, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Malloy, Night Moves, Olivia Cooke, Peter Sarsgaard, The Signal, William Eubank | 6 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
Two movies have opened that seem to have never heard of the rule that today your screenplay must begin with a grabber scene, it simply has to. You know, something that happens in the first ten pages that attacks the face and thrusts its whatever it was down your throat like that creature in Alien?
Instead the filmmakers seem to feel that the slow build, the taking the time to create context for the characters and the situation, the use of an approach that invites us along for the ride rather than assaults us, is the more effective way to go. Wow, what a concept. Read the rest of this entry »
DEATH, CAN’T LIVE WITH IT, CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT: Movie reviews of The Fault in Our Stars and Dormant Beauty by Howard Casner
Posted: June 20, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ansel Elgort, Dormant Beauty, Eluana Englaro, Isabelle Huppert, John Boone, John Green, Laura Dern, Marco Bellochio, Maya Sansa, Michael H. Weber, Mike Birbiglia, Nat Wolff, San Trammell, Scott Neustadter, Shailene Woodley, Stefano Rulli, The Fault in Our Stars, Toni Servillo, Veronica Raimo, Willem Dafoe | 1,800 Comments »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
Jeffrey: You loved Darius. And look what happens. Do you want me to go through this, with Steve?
Sterling: Yes.
Jeffrey, Paul Rudnick
I’m not sure why, but I always get the feeling that when Romeo and Juliet is made into a movie it’s a hit and that teens tend to flock to that story as if their life depended upon it as much as it does the title characters of the play.
I’ve never quite understood why people so young are so fascinated by their own mortality, and even more so, find the need to have it represented in such a gorgeously tragic manner. Read the rest of this entry »
IT’S RAINING MANLY MEN: Movie Reviews of The Rover and Policeman by Howard Casner
Posted: June 17, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Antony Partos, David Michod, Guy Pierce, Joel Edgerton, Michael Aloni, Nadav Lapid, Policeman, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, The Rover, Yiftach Klein | 1,764 Comments »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
“Okay, too much testosterone around here for me.” Tyler Ann Endicott, Point Break
Two movies have just opened that filled me with much relief that smellovision never caught on. Both films are jam-packed to the brim with characters so masculine they ooze hormones to the extent their odor would grow hair on your chest if it was released into the auditorium.
In the new Australian thriller The Rover, written and directed by David (Animal Kingdom) Michod from a story by Michod and Joel Edgerton (yes, that Joel Edgerton), it’s ten years after “the collapse”, a catastrophe that is never (to the movie’s credit) clearly defined, but has resulted in a Down Under that is in a near state of anarchy with the military standing in for the police; gas and food in short supply; the American dollar being the only trusted currency (hey, it could happen); and nobody seeming to have taken a bath in years. Read the rest of this entry »
ALL I WANT IS LOVING YOU AND MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC: Movie Reviews of Lucky Them and We Are the Best! by Howard Casner
Posted: June 14, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Caroline Sherman, Coco Moodysson, Emily Wachtel, Huck Botko, Liv LeMoyne, Lucky Them, Lukas Moodysson, Megan Griffiths, Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Oliver Platt, Ryan Eggold, Thomas Haden Church, Toni Collette, We Are the Best! | 3 Comments »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
Lucky Them is a movie about someone who is supposed to find someone, but doesn’t really want to find him. It’s a movie about a writer who never seems to really want to write. It’s a movie about someone making a documentary film who doesn’t really want to make one.
Now, within the context of the story and characters, all of this makes perfect sense.
At the same time, because no one wants to really do anything, then nothing really gets done. The plot never really moves forward. The story never really goes anywhere.
And it takes a very long time for none of this to happen. Read the rest of this entry »
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