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I’ve always insisted that Top Gun is a character-driven movie, or perhaps even a soundtrack-driven movie, but that may have a lot to do with the fact that, after countless viewings, I have a fairly limited grasp on what’s going on in the film. I mean, I know Maverick (Tom Cruise)...
If you go to write a screenplay these days, there’s no shortage of books to tell you exactly how it’s done. Formula seems to be the key to success, and it’s generally implied that if you deviate from the standard, you will have a very, very hard time getting...
You might not think of Troma films as the classiest fare on the market, but the reality is that this studio and its motley crew of films (think The Toxic Avenger and Poultrygeist) has made a lot of money over the years. With this in mind, it makes sense...
According to Xander Bennett, we’re all hacks when it comes to screenwriting. This theory is intended to be comforting, not insulting, and the sooner we embrace the fact that none of us *really* know what we’re doing, the sooner we can get down to the business of getting better...
Lucille Ball is such a fixture in pop culture that it’s hard to believe she’d be 100 years old if she were still alive. One hundred? How the heck is that possible when she’s frozen in time ‘splainin’ herself to Desi and getting into trouble with Ethel? In honor...
Probably just about everyone who loves television or movies has toyed with the idea of working in Hollywood. For the most part, those dreams tend to be of the pipe variety as we aim ridiculously high and never make an honest attempt to realize them at all. However, it...
There probably isn’t a movie-lover among us who doesn’t have a host of Christmas movies he or she revisits every year, and Alonso Duralde’s Have Yourself A Movie Little Christmas is the perfect companion for your holiday viewing. Packed with synopses and fun facts about favorites like A Christmas...
You’ve probably never heard of Adah Isaacs Menken, but this pioneering free spirit could be considered America’s first true Superstar (with a capital “S”). By fearlessly defying convention, Menken achieved things in the 1800s that are still considered risque today. Certainly the world has become a more liberal and...
You know how sometimes you just want to be alone? Like after your looney ex-boyfriend accuses you of cheating, tries to drown you in the tub, causes you to have a miscarriage and a total mental meltdown, and then you have to hurry up and finish your screenplay because...
Silver Linings Playbook is one of the odd gems that defies the formula and goes for a warts-and-all approach to storytelling that feels refreshingly like real life. It’s nice not knowing exactly how things are going to play out, and in the end it makes the payoff even sweeter....
Anyone who sat down to watch Tim Burton’s recent adaptation of Dark Shadows without having seen the show was probably a bit jarred by its slow pace and meandering plot. Though quirky, funny, and fabulous in many ways, Burton’s film feels out of step with the formula of today’s...
As the credits rolled on Arthur, I started to cry. Dudley Moore is dead, and worse yet, he spent the last years of his life slurring like drunk-Arthur due to a degenerative neurological illness. Liza Minelli became an alcoholic herself, then fell victim to a series of unfortunate events...
