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 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. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r,
And check out my script consultation services http://ow.ly/HPxKE
My recommendations for movie watching this week in L.A. 4/1-4/8/16
ON NETFLIX: Anchors Aweigh is the movie in which Gene Kelly dances with Jerry, the mouse (it was supposed to be Mickey Mouse, but Disney wouldn’t agree to it). It’s also the one where Frank Sinatra learned to hoof. This musical about two sailors on leave, written by Isobel Lennart (who also wrote or worked on such films as Love Me or Leave Me, The Sundowners and Funny Girl) and directed by George Sidney, is a great example of the golden era of Hollywood musicals. Also with Kathryn Grayson, Dean Stockwell (his screen debut), Grady Sutton and Jose Iturbi (as himself). Kelly was the choreographer.
ON HULU: Séance on a Wet Afternoon is about a psychic who has her husband abduct a child so the psychic can “use” her powers to find her and achieve notice. A solid and tense little neo-noir from England, written and directed by Bryan Forbes who started out doing some minor classics (Whistle Down the Wind, The L-Shaped Room, King Rat, The Wrong Box, The Whisperers) who eventually ended up doing more mediocre mainstream films later in this career (The Slipper and The Rose, The Stepford Wives). With Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley (who got an Oscar nomination for her performance). In an earlier version of the story, both the leads were gay; the movie was offered to Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay, both of whom turned it down.
FIRST RUN and OPENING: April and the Extraordinary World, Everybody Wants Some, Krisha, The Dark Horse, Standing Tall
REVIVAL AND ART HOUSES:
AMERICAN CINEMATEQUE at the Egyptian: Not Film, 4/1 and 4/8; The Jerk, 4/1; Planet of the Apes, 4/2; Taxi Driver, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, 4/3
AMERICAN CINEMATEQUE at The Aero: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Stalking Moon, 4/1; Notfilm, 4/2; Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, 4/7; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, 4/8
LACMA: The Maltese Falcon, 4/5
CINEFAMILY at the Silent Movie Theater: Withnail and I, 4/1; News From Home, I Don’t Belong Anywhere, 4/2; Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, 4/3; The Bad News Bears, The Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three, 4/3; Louder Than Bombs, Reprise, 4/5
Howard Casner - Rantings and Ravings 