: ‘God Grew Tired of Us’ Catch a glimpse of this documentary, narrated by Nicole Kidman, about the Lost Boys of Sudan. God Grew Tired of Us “God Grew Tired Of Us” tells the story of three of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan–a group of 25,000 children, ages 3 to 13, who fled the famine and war in their villages, traveled together for five years, and eventually made it to a United Nations refugee camp. Nearly 4,000 of them–including the... Read more

I am back in L.A. supposed to be working on writing projects today. Which is, of course, why I am taking Internet quizzes. This one was fun and pretty true. I was born in NJ and learned to talk there. Moved to RI when I was five, too late to acquire the Go-ad in heaven, wicket biz-ah way of talkin’ that my de-ah sistahs have. What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   “You have a Midland... Read more

This just in courtesy of The Seattle Times: The Sundance Film Festival announced Wednesday that Seattle filmmaker Robinson Devor’s documentary “Zoo” has been accepted into the 2007 festival’s documentary competition. The film examines the widely reported case of an Enumclaw man who died in 2005 after having sex with a horse. I don’t suppose anybody has any idea about the appropriate vehicle to protest this? Is there a way someone can say to the overlords at Sundance that bestiality is... Read more

I went to see Casino Royale last night. Profoundly disturbing film. Much of the movie is really the stuff of a top action film. But I think it may have singled-handedly ruined one of my favorite screen characters for me. Rah. The people who are saying that the film is the best Bond movie ever are mistaken. It isn’t really a Bond film, is it? The whole tone of the movie is different. Whereas the Bond films are famously tongue... Read more

My sisters and I ran out to see the latest movie with Emma Thompson in it, Stranger Than Fiction, because we have been huges fans of hers since Dead Again. Well, the picture fails terribly in many areas – casting, direction, production design, and, of course, writing, and so it would be lamentably forgettable, except for one thing. The film repeats over and over a shocking technical blunder that we just don’t get to see in Hollywood films these days.... Read more

My beloved friend, writing mentor and Act One faculty member Delle Chatman died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. She fought recurrent ovarian cancerfor just over four years, and each year she rebounded and spent precioustime teaching at the opening retreats of our Writing Program. Shejoined us as recently as this July to teach at the 2006 Summer WritingProgram retreat in Malibu. I first met Delle at Northwestern University where she headed up the screenwriting department. I remember thinking... Read more

Gonna take a two second time out from Jane Austen and Santa Barbara polo writing to deride and dismiss Clint Eastwood’s latest directoral over-hyped disappointment, Flags of Our Fathers. A friend of mine had warned me aout the movie in advance by saying, “I wanted to walk out at least twice it made me so angry.” Myself, I didn’t get as angry, because I have taken to watching the relentless and pathetic ravings of grayhaired baby-boomers with kind of a... Read more

Brace yourselves. I am long overdue for a rant… I am just about on my way out of town for a few months to sequester myself with nothing but polo and Jane Austen. This script is due in February and is the primary reason why I have not been blogging lately. How can I authoritatively whine to my producer that I can’t get the script done, if he can just log on and see me procrastinating for free on this... Read more

I think The Prestige was a disappointment. I’m qualifying myself here on the off-chance that the film might actually be brilliant, and I just missed it. But I don’t think so. I think it ended up wanting to be much more clever than it really was. Which is unfortunate, because it had a very nice message about not letting revenge and obsession become, well, vengeful obsessions. But they had set up so long the idea of “THE PRESTIGE!” that they... Read more

I really enjoyed this film. What could be better than two hours of one of those great Brit actresses walking through palaces and Scottish highlands all while acting emtionally understated and discomfitted? Very fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, the script wasn’t what it should have been. It felt unbalanced to me. The opening few minutes were terribly written, and then suddenly there were a few scenes which were well-written. Made me think that there must have been two or more writers... Read more