Well, it’s over. And I have lots to say as a requiem. Unfortunately, I am swamped for the next two days with legitimate writing work. And really, I think I am still a bit too grief stricken to write yet. I will soon, however, as I think there are some key lessons about bad storytelling, [...]

Here is my talk about haunting moments in storytelling, from the Storytelling Conference that Act One hosted last October. Following my talk there is about thirty minutes of discussion with our panelists which included Dr. Peter Kreeft (Socrates and Jesus), Bill Marsilli (screenwriter Deja Vu), Karen Hall (writer Judging Amy), Christopher Riley (author, The Hollywood [...]

Watchmen WE WALKED OUT. Awful. Disgusting. Degrading. Vile. Barbarous. The kind of entertainment the Roman mobs were watching just before the barbarians came over the walls. Did I say depraved? I meant to. If you let your kids go to this piece of absolute unmitigated garbage, you deserve whatever nightmare lives they end up inflicting [...]

A feature written and produced by Act One alumni Rajeev Sigamoney (WP ’02) and Dan Ewald (WP ’99) just got a  great review in Christianity Today.   The project is based on their hit web series (which had more than 500,000 views).  It is a mockumentary about Christians and the arts and features a top-flight [...]

I’m teaching today and then am going to have to disappear most of the week to work on writing commitments, but wanted to register a few thoughts about last night’s liturgy for Hollywood’s High Holy Day, the Oscar telecast. Overall, I thought it was a great show. The only real way I can think it [...]

I shocked myself this week by really enjoying Clint Eastwood’s latest offering Gran Torino. I thought it was charming in many places and it made me laugh out loud several times. The violence was surprisingly unbrutal for an Eastwood film, and most refreshingly of all, unlike almost all of Eastwood’s projects, Gran Torino knows what [...]

Very, very spoilery. You’ve been warned. There have been some undeniably brilliant moments in the last few episodes of Season 4.5. “The Oath” about the squelching of Gaeta’s/Varek’s rebellion was as great as anything we have seen since Season One, or even those first amazing four episodes of Season 3… Remember those? Sigh… But the [...]

Here is an astounding piece by actor, Gary Graham (Star Trek: Enterprise), posted over at BigHollywood.com, about his journey from being a pot-smoking, baby-boom, free-lover and pro-choicer, into being a shell-shocked, “I killed my own children” pro-lifer. I can’t tell you how much courage it takes for someone in the Hollywood cosmos to say clearly [...]

Sometimes I live in the country Sometimes I live in the town Sometimes I get a great notion To jump into the river an’ drown (from the song Goodnight Irene, by Lead Belly) Oh dear. They blew it last night. The revelation of the final cylon was far from “a great notion” and seemed to [...]

Still making my way through the stack of award screeners. I wish I could say I have found lots of movies to love, but my feeling is most of the critically acclaimed movies made in 2008 will be quickly lost to cinematic history. One can hope anyway. Let’s jump in… _________________________________________________Short Changed-ling Directed by Clint [...]

Happy Christmas everybody! I got back from Portugal on the 21st, and since have been making merry, praying and watching lots of “For Your Consideration” screeners. I must admit, I like the free screener part of being in the WGA very much. There isn’t time to do decent reviews of all the movies I’ve seen, [...]

Just so bad. Sooooooooo bad. I think the point here was for Anne Hathaway to prove she has “real” acting chops, by appearing in one of those quirkily brilliant little indie features. Oh well. This movie is not brilliant, and mistakes weirdness for quirkiness. And Hathaway really ends up just being wedged into a wincingly, [...]

I remember when I was in Australia last year that somebody explained to me the local euphemism in which something very nice is called a “dinky di.” Well, let’s just say the new movie Australia by director Baz Luhrmann needs a whole new euphemism, maybe, “dinky doo-doo”? It is a spectacular mess. That is, it [...]