My recommendations for film watching this week in L.A. 12/18-25/15

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. 12/18-25/15

ON NETFLIX: Tangerine, written by Chris Bergoch and the director Sean Baker, is a marvelous independent film about a transgendered woman and working girl who spends her Christmas Even hunting down her pimp when she finds out he cheated on her while she was in prison. Funny, moving and marvelous acted, this is one of the best films of 2015. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor are wonderful as the two best friends at the center of the story.

ON HULU: Underappreciated at the time of its release, Cadillac Man is one of Robin Williams’ best performances. In this manic comedy written by Ken Friedman and directed by Roger Donaldson, Williams is a used car salesman whose boss has put an impossible quota on those who work for him. But interrupting the day is a relative early Tim Robbins who crashes the sale and holds everyone at gunpoint because his girlfriend is sleeping with someone at the lot. Hysterical.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: Son of Saul, Star Wars: the Force Awakens, He Never Died, Dreams Rewired, (T)ERROR, The Big Short, Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words, Chi-Raq, Theeb, Youth, Creed, Brooklyn, Carol

IDENTITY CRISES: The Danish Girl and Creed

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

 

The Danish Girl, a movie about the first recorded sex change operation, is a drama made with such good taste, Merchant/Ivory would probably have been proud to claim it as one of their own.

Now why anyone would make a movie about the first recorded sex change operation in such good taste that Merchant/Ivory would have been proud to claim it as one of their own, is certainly beyond me.

Actually, why anyone would make a movie about anything with such good taste that Merchant/Ivory would have been proud to claim it as one of their own, is even more also certainly beyond me.

That is, except for Todd Haynes, who is possibly the only filmmaker who can take good taste and raise it up to art.

But here we have screenwriter Lucinda Coxon (from a novel by David Ebershoff) and director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Miserables) who don’t do much that is particularly exciting with the subject matter except to make sure it’s dressed up as beautifully as a picture by John Singer Sargent, with gorgeous costumes, marvelous sets and beautiful cinematography.

My recommendations for film watching this week in L.A. 12/11-12/18/15

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. 12/11-18/15

ON NETFLIX: Written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (based on a novel by Uzodinma Iweala), Beasts of No Nation is not an easy movie to always sit through. The plot revolves around Agu, a pre-teen who, during a civil war, is abducted by some guerillas and forced/manipulated into becoming a warrior for their side. The ending is possibly a bit too hopeful for the subject matter; it’s unclear that the story has really earned it. But it’s a very well done, well written and powerful story about the situation in some unstable countries in Africa.

ON HULU: Blind Chance is one of writer/ director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s finest films, as well as one of his most influential. A young man drops out of medical school and runs to catch a train. His story is played out three ways: if he makes the train; if he doesn’t make the train with no repercussions; if he doesn’t make the train and gets in trouble with the authorities. A haunting, beautiful film with one of the most shocking endings in film.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: The Big Short, Bleeding Heart, Boy and the World, Christmas Again, In Jackson Heights, Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words, Chi-Raq, Janis: Little Girl Blues, Theeb, Hitchcock/Truffaut, Youth, Creed, Brooklyn, Carol

My recommendations for film watching this week in L.A. 12/4-12/11/15

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. 11/27-12/4/15

ON NETFLIX: Adapted by Daniel Taradesh from James Jones’ novel and directed by Fred Zinneman, From Here to Eternity was one of the new adult movies (even though it was watered down from the book) that Hollywood started making in response to the new freedom in foreign films and an audience that was looking for more grit in their films after going through World War II. It follows various characters around a naval base in Hawaii in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, especially the story of a private (Montgomery Clift) who refuses join the boxing team and is persecuted for it. And all start cast including Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Ernest Borgnine, Donna Reed (as a bar hostess because she couldn’t be a prostitute), and Frank Sinatra (in the role that supposedly a horse’s head got for him). It showed all these actors in a new light and won Oscars for Sinatra and Reed. Thirteen Oscar nominations (including five for acting) and the winner of eight.

ON HULU: Betty Blue is Jean-Jacques Beineix’s follow up to his breathtaking film debut Diva, coming after the incredibly disappointing misstep of Moon in the Gutter. A study of two young people in love, often sexually frank. Zorg is a handyman who one day finds Betty, a wild and free spirit. But as their relationship goes on, Betty spirals more and more out of control as her mental state becomes more and more unstable; can Zorg’s love for her save her and their relationship. From a novel by Philippe Djian.

FIRST RUN and OPENING: Chi-Raq, Janis: Little Girl Blues, Night Owls, Theeb, Hitchcock/Truffaut, Youth, Creed, The Good Dinosaur, Brooklyn, Carol, James White, Legend, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2, Room, Spotlight, Trumbo