Excuse the moment of shameless self-promotion, but people are always asking me if any of my courses are on-line or available outside the university/Act One bubble. Here are a few talks which are available for download, some of them free and a couple of them for what amounts to a piece of chicken.  That’s seventeen years [...]

Stoker  Written by Wentworth Miller and Erin Cressida Wilson Directed by Chan-Wook Park Starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowski At Sundance…. This was one of the big premieres that everyone wanted to see, mainly because Nicole Kidman was in the house, but also because it is the first English language movie from the reputed Korean film [...]

The biggest statement of this year’s Oscar nominations is the extraordinarily fawning attention being given to Amour; a very little French-language film written and directed by the ever-despairing Austrian director, Michael Haneke.  The best review I read of the film expressed the tone and “big idea” thusly: “Haneke is playing with the same themes of alienation and [...]

For years, my friends in Hollywood and I have had one main gripe at every meeting, lunch, dinner and party:  Hollywood-based storytelling is broken, irrevocably broken, and the whole system needs to be rethought or the incidences of good movies at the theaters will continue to be more and more rare. The remote problem is [...]

My friend Daniel McInerny (“Son of Ralph”) has a great piece just out on the depictions of evil and sin in art and storytelling.   There’s a nice big quote from me. Hollywood screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi sizes up the distinction between these two approaches in this helpful way: “The depiction of evil in art becomes [...]

  The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) – Written and Directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on his novel of the same name; Stars Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller; Rated PG-13 for drug use, homosexuality, sexual abuse, bullying, suicide, and every other depressing thing you could throw in a movie about teenagers. This [...]

  Won’t Back Down (2012) – Written By Brin Hill and Daniel Barnz;  Directed by Daniel Barnz;  Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Holly Hunter, and Ving Rhames.  Rated PG for mild language and for showing close ups of union thugs and government schools. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but I [...]

Here’s a nice piece on a new company which I just started to help storytellers hone their work for the screen. “No matter what the project, Vicki and Barbara seek to elevate its story craft and infuse a fresh perspective. Their efforts can bring catharsis, too, to writers and producers struggling with stories they’ve spent [...]

Act One is holding one of its amazing screenwriting weekends next month in Phoenix.  Seats are limited so don’t dally.

Trouble with the Curve (2012) – Written by Randy Brown; Directed by Robert Lorenz;  Starring Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams and John Goodman;  Rated PG-13 for blasphemy and other crass language; With the pacing and Americana scenery of an afternoon at a high school baseball game in anywhere USA, Trouble with the Curve is an enjoyable, [...]