“Can a play show us the very truth and nature of love?” is a question posed by Queen Elizabeth to Viola De Lesseps. I have a question of my own to pose: “Can a movie show us what perfect screenwriting looks like?” Yes, it can – if that movie is Shakespeare in Love. Shakespeare in […]
Entries Tagged as 'Comedy'
Shakespeare in Love
October 29th, 2009 · No Comments · 1998, Ben Affleck, Christopher Marlowe, Colin Firth, Comedy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Mid-Point, Miramax, Nudity, Original Screenplay, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Romeo and Juliet, Screenplay Structure, Sex, Shakespeare in Love, Stuttering, Swearing, Tom Wilkinson
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Terms of Endearment
October 14th, 2009 · No Comments · 1983, Adaptation, Color, Comedy, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, James L Brookes, Paramount Pictures, Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment
Finally! A nice, light comedy. Or is it? True, James L. Brooks, who directed and wrote this movie, is known for his remarkable pedigree in television – everything from Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Lou Grant, Room 222, and Taxi, to The Simpsons (Woo-hoo!). Heck, James L. Brooks even wrote two episodes of my favorite sitcom: […]
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Annie Hall
October 8th, 2009 · No Comments · 1977, Annie Hall, Color, Comedy, Diane Keaton, Original Screenplay, Out Of Print, United Artists, Woody Allen
Ah! Look at all the lonely people! Paul McCartney and Woody Allen have something in common. Both are able to express, quite eloquently, life’s ironies – the chief of which is the irony that love is both pleasure and pain, something that cuts as well as cures. In short, life isn’t always negative. And it […]
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Sting, The
October 4th, 2009 · No Comments · 1973, Color, Comedy, Composer: Marvin Hamlisch, Original Screenplay, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Sting, Universal Pictures
I was 13 when The Sting came out. I wasn’t old enough to drive, and neither was my friend. But my friend’s sister drove us to the theater. That theater, on Alpine Avenue, is no longer there. Too bad. A lot of memories were hatched there. In addition to The Sting I also saw American […]
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Tom Jones
September 24th, 2009 · No Comments · 1963, Adaptation, Color, Comedy, Henry Fielding, Hugh Griffith, Not Released In United States, Tom Jones, United Artists
After the grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones looks like the work of a film-school student who didn’t graduate. This is sloppy, virtually unwatchable stuff. In fact, this may hold the distinction of being the worst Oscar-winning movie ever made. (To this point, at least.) The direction and cinematography are amateurish and off-putting. The […]
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Apartment, The
September 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment · 1960, Apartment, Billy Wilder, Black and White, Comedy, Inciting Incident, Jack Lemmon, M-G-M Studios, Mid-Point, Original Screenplay, Panavision (Widescreen), Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Screenplay Structure, Shirley MacLaine, Swearing
Ah, Billy Wilder. After the length, depth, and heaviness of Ben-Hur a good Billy Wilder film is just what the doctor ordered. As nuts as I am about Gene Kelly, I’m equally as passionate about Billy Wilder, a writer/director I’ve come to respect above all others. Hallmarks of a Billy Wilder film include incredibly clever […]
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Around the World In 80 Days
September 17th, 2009 · No Comments · 1956, Adaptation, Around the World in 80 Days, Cinemascope (Wide Screen), Color, Comedy, Composer: Victor Young, John Gielgud, Michael Todd, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Around the World In 80 Days isn’t a movie to be analyzed. It’s a movie to be experienced. So that’s precisely what we’re doing – me with my St. Pauli Girl and pizza (albeit Sam’s Club pizza), she with her Quenchers White Grape soda and pizza. The story behind the making of this movie is […]
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Marty
September 16th, 2009 · No Comments · 1955, Adaptation, Black and White, Comedy, Ernest Borgnine, Inciting Incident, Jerry Paris, Marty, Mid-Point, Paddy Chayefsky, Plot Point I, Plot Point II, Screenplay Structure, United Artists
What a sweet, kind-hearted movie! Marty is the story of an overweight, average-looking, 34-year-old man who lives with his Italian mother, a lady who means well but who constantly harps on Marty to meet a girl and get married. Even Marty’s customers (he’s a butcher) tell him he should be married. Inciting Incident: At around […]
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It Happened One Night
August 26th, 2009 · No Comments · 1934, Adaptation, Alan Hale, Black and White, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Columbia Pictures, Comedy, Frank Capra, It Happened One Night, Robert Riskin
The difference between It Happened One Night, the seventh Oscar-winning movie, and the one that preceded it, Cavalcade, is the difference between night and day (no pun intended). While John and Lionel Barrymore may have been considered better actors in the early 1930s, when Clark Gable hits the screen it’s movie magic. I mean, this […]
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