Understanding Screenwriting #126
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Focus, McFarland USA, At Middleton, Network.
By Tom Stempel. Different Reasons The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015. Screenplay by Ol Parker, story by John Madden and Ol Parker, based on characters from the novel These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach. 122 minutes.) As you may remember from my item on The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) in US #96, I […]
The House of Many Colors
Writing funny about race on American television.
By Tom Stempel. A standard complaint about American television from the beginning that there are too few shows, especially comedies, that deal well with race. From 1951 to 1953 there was a show on CBS called Amos ‘n’ Andy with an all-black cast. It was based on a hugely successful radio show in the thirties […]
Understanding Screenwriting #125
Still Alice, Wild, Paddington, Downton Abbey, and Two and a Half Men.
By Tom Stempel. What Did They Forget? Still Alice (2014. Screenplay by Richard Glazer and Wash Westmoreland, based on the novel by Lisa Genova. 101 minutes.) Alice Howland is a linguistics professor at Columbia University who is stricken with early onset Alzheimer’s (she’s only in her fifties). Her doctor and her family deal with her […]
Understanding Screenwriting #124
Selma, Unbroken, American Sniper, Big Eyes, Taken 3, “It’s the Pictures That Got Small”: Charles Brackett on Billy Wilder and Hollywood’s Golden Age (book).
By Tom Stempel. Fan Mail Oh, goodie, oh, goodie. We are beginning to get a few reader comments. On #122 we had three. One was from Erik Bauer who thanked me for the review of The Guest, which he’d passed on before and now decided to take a look at. That’s part of the function […]
Understanding Screenwriting #123
Nightcrawler, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game, Mr. Turner, Into the Woods, Top Five.
By Tom Stempel. This is why I started watching Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. Nightcrawler (2014. Written by Dan Gilroy. 117 minutes.) For decades my wife would watch the Channel 4 Evening News at 11 P.M. after a night’s run of shows finished. Channel 4 is the NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, and their coverage […]
