THE PAST AIN’T WHAT IT USE TO BE: Movie Reviews of Genius and Finding Dory by Howard Casner
Posted: June 23, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Colin Firth, Dominic West, Ernest Hemingway, Finding Dory, Finding Nemo, Genius, Guy Pearce, John Logan, Jude Law, Laura Linney, Max Perkins, Michael Grandrage, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Wolfe | 6 Comments »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? 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
Two movies have opened that deal with the past in some way. One takes place in it, and one has a character trying to find it.
Genius is the based on a true story film about the editor Max Perkins (Colin Firth) and his nurturing of the somewhat difficult, to say the least, writer Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) and the publication of Wolfe’s two books, Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River.
It was certainly a tumultuous relationship as artist/mentor relationships go. Perkins, though responsible for the publishing of such authors as Hemingway and Fitzgerald, was a Puritan at heart. Wolfe was larger than life, obnoxious, rude, an egotist and near sociopath, who lived life as if it were a last meal to be devoured.
One might very well ask, then, how a drama revolving around two such men could be, well, if truth be told and the devil shamed, tedious and almost never gripping? Read the rest of this entry »
POSSESSION IS 9/10ths OF THE LAW: Movie Reviews of The Wailing and The Conjuring 2 by Howard Casner
Posted: June 19, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2Days, 3Weeks, 4 Months, Audition, Bong Joon-ho, Chun Woo-hee, Frances O’Connor, Hong-jin Han, Hong-jin Na, James Wan, Jun Kunimura, Kill Bill, Madison Wolfe, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Mother, Patrick Wilson, Police: Adjective, Simon McBurney, South Korea, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Amityville Horror, The Chaser, The Conjuring 2, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Exorcist, The Host, The Wailing, Thirst, Vera Farmiga, Yellow Sea | 58 Comments »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? 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
Two movies have opened of late that revolve around children being taken over by supernatural forces beyond their control. I’m sure many of you might ask, “But how can you be sure it’s not just puberty?” Well, see the films and decide for yourself.
In the last number of years, the most interesting movies have been making their way over here from two unlikely sources: the Romanian and South Korean new waves. One might suggest that one is the result of having recently thrown off the cloak of Communism and the other from living under the specter of the same. But that’s little more than speculation.
However, there is a difference in the two. While the movies we get from Romania tend to be more political and social critiques (4 Months, 3Weeks, 2Days, Police: Adjective, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), the ones from South Korea tend to be more genre focused (The Host, Thirst, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance).
Writer/director Hong-jin Han is one of the more interesting of the new set of Korean filmmakers. He started out with a psychological thriller (The Chaser, about a serial killer targeting prostitutes), and followed it up with a political thriller (Yellow Sea, about a man set up as a fall guy for an assassination, in a style worthy of Alfred Hitchcock).
His new film is of the genre horror, about a small town that becomes victim to a series of horrifying and inexplicable, and with enough blood to make Sweeny Todd proud, deaths. But is the cause a Japanese man new to the area (Jun Kunimura, known here for Kill Bill, Vol. I and II and Audition, so it’s understandable that there are those who would be of the suspicious sort); an odd, but beautiful young woman in white who appears to appear and disappear (Chun Woo-hee, who can also be seen in the wonderful Bong Joon-ho thriller, Mother); a demonic spirit; or some combination of the above. Read the rest of this entry »
CLASS WARFARE: Movie reviews of Love and Friendship and The Measure of a Man by Howard Casner
Posted: June 3, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Barcelona, Chloȅ Sevigny, Damsels in Distress, Dangerous Liaisons, James Fleet, Jane Austen, Kate Beckinsall, Ken Loach, Lady Susan, Love & Friendship, Metropolitan, Olivier Gorce, Redgrave, Robert Altman, Stéphane Brize, Stephen Fry, Terence Malick, The Last Days of Disco, The Measure of a Man, Tom Bennett, Vincent Lindon, Whit Stillman, Xavier Samuel | 1,439 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://youtu.be/1S0HyFTwqAI
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? 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
Two films have recently opened, Love & Friendship and The Measure of a Man, that both deal with issues of class, and I don’t mean the “you have no” kind, but class as in upper, lower and all things in between.
Whit Stillman, the cinematic chronicler of the sons and daughters of the upper crust, began his career with Metropolitan, a character study of a group of the haves and what happens when they end up with a have less over Christmas break, the last year before everything went to hell and fell apart after sex, drugs and rock and roll took over and it all went to pot (pardon the pun).
It was a wonderful début, suggesting that a new and unique voice had arrived on the independent scene. He followed that up with two even better films, Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco.
He, then, well, disappeared for a while, which was both a puzzlement and a disappointment, only to return, years later, with a new film. Read the rest of this entry »
PULL UP THE WELCOME MAT: Movie Review of A Bigger Splash and The One’s Below by Howard Casner
Posted: May 30, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: A Bigger Splash, Alain Delon, Alain Page, Clemency Posey, Dakato Johnson, David Farr, David Hockney, David Kajganich, David Morissey, Guadagnino, I Am Love, Ingmar Bergman, John Galsworthy, La Piscine, Laura Birn, Luca Guadagnino, Persona, Ralph Fiennes, Schoenaerts, Stephen Campbell Moore, The Forsythe Saga, The Night Porter, The One’s Below, The Swimming Pool, Tilda Swinton | 2 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S0HyFTwqAI
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? 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
Two movies have opened recently that have as its premise what happens when you welcome guests into one’s home. The basic moral of both is that, well, maybe it’s best not to.
In I Am Love, an earlier film directed by Luca Guadagnino, Tilda Swinton played the wife of a wealthy businessman who finds herself falling in love with the friend of her son. The movie had a small story and in many ways, very little happened plotwise. Still, every scene was filled with tension and suspense that at times was almost unbearable.
In A Bigger Splash, Guadagnino’s new film with Miss Swinton (not to be confused with the 1973 documentary about David Hockney), the plot seems to careen from scene to scene at high speed where a lot seems to happen, but ironically, with almost no sense of tension or suspense.
In the end, it’s a thriller desperately trying to find some thrills, but almost always coming up short. Read the rest of this entry »
MIXED DOUBLES: Movie Reviews of The Trust and The Nice Guys by Howard Casner
Posted: May 27, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Adam Hirsch, Alan Sharp, Alex Brewer, Angourie Rice, Anthony Bagarozzi, Arthur Penn, Benjamin Brewer, Chinatown, Elijah Wood, Jerry Lewis, Kim Basinger, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, L.A. Confidential, Leigh Bracket, Lethal Weapon, Lois Smith, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Matt Bomer, Myrna Loy, Nicholas Cage, Night Moves, Rififi, Robert Altman, Robert Benton, Robert Towne, Roman Polanski, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Shane Black, The King of Comedy, The Late Show, The Long Goodbye, The Nice Guys, The Trust, Who Framed Roger Rabbit | 597 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://youtu.be/1S0HyFTwqAI
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? 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
The Trust, the new semi-caper film from writers Benjamin Brewer and Adam Hirsch and directed by Alex and Benjamin Brewer, starts out somewhat as a shaggy dog story. Which works rather well since the two central characters, both Las Vegas PD police officers (Nicholas Cage and Elijah Wood), look and act like mutts one might find at an animal shelter, desperate to be adopted before they end up in the incinerator.
The two decide to rob a convenience store after they notice that said store receives regular deliveries, large bags, which disappear inside the premises. In return, nothing comes out; nada; zip; not a thing. So what exactly are the owners hiding inside in that new, state of the art, almost impossible to get into, concrete and steel freezer that is just simply too high end for a mom and pop operation such as it is?
The two decide to go after a pig in a poke and break in and take whatever they can find. And though each have their own personal motivations (Wood’s character Waters is bored and burnt out, and Cage’s character Stone has ideas for the force that go underappreciated), in many ways they really do it for the best of all reasons—they can. Read the rest of this entry »
APARTMENT COMPLEXITY: High-Rise
Posted: May 25, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley, Crash, Elizabeth Moss, Empire of the Sun, High-Rise, J.G. Ballard, Jeremy Irons, Kill List, Marie Antoinette, Metropolis, Monty Python, Sienna Miller, Sightseers, Snowpiercer, The Flies, Tom Hiddleston | 35 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S0HyFTwqAI
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? 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
The first third of High-Rise, the new movie based on the J.G. Ballard novel (he also gave us the autobiographical Empire of the Sun and the unautobiographical, we hope, Crash—no, not that Crash, Ballard gave us the one where people get turned on by auto accidents), has a nice quirky, what-the-hell sort of quality to its writing (Amy Jump, of Kill List and Sightseers) and directing (Ben Wheatley of ditto); they both seem to be having a great deal of fun, if nothing else.
Laing, a 30-something who likes to fall asleep on his balcony in the nude, moves into one of five of a set of state of the art apartment complexes that reach to the skies like the fingers of a hand. As he interacts with his neighbors, the conversation is realistic, yet off just a little. The actions of the characters are also realistic, yet off just a little. It almost feels like a kitchen sink version of a Monty Python sketch.
I more than suspect the whole thing is supposed to be allegorical with the high-rise an encapsulation of all the classes in England. Well, not quite, perhaps. The middle class live on the lower floors and the upper class live much higher, but the lower class seems restricted to a single building superintendent. While such dystopian allegories as Metropolis and Snowpiercer have no apparent middle class, High-Rise seems strangely void of a lower one. Read the rest of this entry »
LONG DIVISION: Movie Review of Captain America: Civil War by Howard Casner
Posted: May 11, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I have just launched the indiegogo campaign for my short film 14 Conversations in 10 Minutes. Check it out http://ow.ly/SblO3005HHu. Below is a video sample of the short. Think about contributing (the lowest contribution is only $5.00). Please view and share anywhere and everywhere.
https://youtu.be/1S0HyFTwqAI
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? 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
It takes a while for the new superhero movie Captain America: Civil War to reach the scene that everyone has paid their hard earned bucks to see: a knock down drag out between the two sides of the Avengers, one headed by Iron Man and one headed by the titular hero.
But when it gets there, it proves to be more than worth the wait.
Let’s just say, it ain’t your parents’ Sharks versus the Jets.
In fact it’s one of the wittiest and smartest over the top superhero fight scenes we are likely to see for some time. It’s not just the dialog that is clever and earns its laughs, it’s also the way the fight plays out, which character gets pitted against which and how their superpower works against each other. There’s such a slick smoothness here, as if the planning of it was completely effortless; everything just fits together so well. Read the rest of this entry »
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY: Movie Reviews of Green Room and Viva by Howard Casner
Posted: May 6, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anton Yelchin, Blue Ruin, Cuba, drag performance, gay film, Green Room, Hector Medina, Jeremy Saulnier, Jorge Perugorria, Luis Alberto Garcia, Mark O’Halloran, Paddy Breathnach, Patrick Stewart, Strawberry and Chocolate, Viva | 9 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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Green Room, the new thriller from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (the follow up to his well-received indie film Blue Ruin, but no, he’s not doing a series of titles with color in them), has a marvelous set up.
A group of head banger musicians take a last minute job to play at a remote white supremacist bar (does it bother anyone else in the audience that neo-Nazis and Washington DC millennials like the same type of music) because, well, their last gig got cancelled and they’re desperate for money (Saulnier does a clever thing here—as the first number the band plays, they assert their artistic integrity by singing an anti-Nazi song; it serves to help give them sympathy from the audience for taking the job in the first place).
After the show, they accidentally walk in on a murder and are then trapped in the titular location and must figure a way out of the mess they’re now in.
I mean, it’s a really neat little first act. It’s certainly gets one empathizing with their situation, wondering what you could possibly due in the same situation.
At the same time, this is also where the movie, for me, stopped fulfilling its initial promise. Read the rest of this entry »
NOSTALGIA AIN’T WHAT IT USE TO BE: Everybody Wants Some!! and Sing Street
Posted: April 30, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aiden Gillen, Allen Ginsberg, Amarcord, Begin Again, Ben Carolan, Blake Jenner, Boyhood, Cleo from 5 to 7, Don Wycherly, Emily Dickinson, Everybody Wants Some!!, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Jack Reynor, John Carney, John Lennon, John Travolta, Lucy Boynton, Mark Mckenna, Mary Doyle Kennedy, Once, Paul McCartney, Richard Linklater, Robin Williams, Sing Street, The Dead Poets Society | Leave a comment »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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Two movies have opened recently that take place in the recent past (the 1980’s to be more precise). Each felt pastelled over with a patina of nostalgia, a painful desire for a sweet past. But the two couldn’t be more different in their approaches.
Everybody Wants Some!! (with two, count ‘em, two exclamation points) is the most recent effort from writer/director Richard Linklater. Like his previous effort, Boyhood, it doesn’t use a hero’s journey or character arc, nor does it use a plot in which a central character must overcome an obstacle or gain a goal, as the basic structure.
No, rather, like such films as Amarcord and Cleo from 5 to 7, it uses a passage of time to hold its story together.
…and All That Jazz: Movie Review of Miles Ahead and an Oscar Prediction by Howard Casner
Posted: April 26, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Academy Awards, Birth of a Nation, Don Cheadle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Miles Davis, Oscars, Steven Baigelman | 6 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
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Miles Ahead is the new biopic of Miles Davis, one of the great, if not the greatest, jazz trumpeter and composer of all times. It’s written by Steven Baigelman and the director and star Don Cheadle. The filmmakers do everything they can, from non-linear storytelling to all sorts of directorial flourishes, to keep the audience enthralled.
And they succeed, at least for a while. Flashbacks, jump cuts and various stylistic juxtapositions that feel inspired by jazz music, give the film a certain electric immediacy.
But it’s not long before it feels that all this tinsel and sawdust is, well, not a lot more than tinsel and sawdust, there to hide the fact that in the end, the movie, though often entertaining, is really just another, as I and a friend like to call it, typical Warner Brothers biopic, the reference being the prestige pictures of the studios made in their heydays, like The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emil Zola and even more recently, Gandhi. All worthy, but all still somewhat bland. Read the rest of this entry »
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