Understanding Screenwriting #141
The Big Short, 45 Years, and Midseason Television 2015-2016.
By Tom Stempel. The Financial Maguffin. The Big Short (2015. Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, based on the book by Michael Lewis. 130 minutes.) Boy, talk about your degree of difficulty. Lewis’s book is a detailed non-fiction look into one of the elements that led to the Great Recession. It’s about sub-prime mortgages…zzz, […]
Understanding Screenwriting #140
Carol, Sisters, Youth, The Hateful Eight, The Revenant, Joy.
By Tom Stempel. No Nuances Allowed Here. Carol (2015. Screenplay by Phyllis Nagy, based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. 118 minutes.) Back in US #137, I told you that Brooklyn was wonderfully filled with nuances about character and themes. That, alas, is simply not true about Carol. It should be […]
Keys to the Kingdom: Understanding Star Wars
In this special edition of Understanding Screenwriting #139, Tom Stempel takes an in-depth look at Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
By Tom Stempel. I liked this movie a lot. I liked it almost as much as I admired it. I went to see the first Star Wars film on opening day, May 25,1977, since it was the first film I knew of that had a former student of mine in the credits. She was Mary […]
Understanding Screenwriting #138
Spectre, Trumbo, Secret in Their Eyes, Chi-Raq, Wild Tales.
By Tom Stempel. Going Through the Motions. Spectre (2015. Screenplay by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth, story by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade, based on characters created by Ian Fleming. 148 minutes.) This being a James Bond film, there are a lot of motions it goes […]
Understanding Screenwriting #137
Brooklyn, Spotlight, Our Brand is Crisis, Colin Welland and Melissa Mathison: Appreciations, Amarcord, Supergirl and The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened?
Nuances Are Us. Brooklyn (2015. Screenplay by Nick Hornby, based on the novel by Colm Tóibín. 111 minutes.) Virtually every review of this movie I have read uses the word “nuance” in one form or another, and rightly so. This is maybe the most nuanced movie I have ever seen, and coming in the middle […]
