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The Wrestler Film Analysis: Appearance vs. Reality
The Wrestler (2008) directed by Darren Aronofsky remains one of the best, and also one of the saddest, films I’ve seen. Australia’s Margaret and David both gave the film five out of five stars. Logline: A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle. The Wrestler is a tale…
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Why does Schitt’s Creek take a season to get ‘good’?
Schitt’s Creek is a CBC sitcom written by father and son team Eugene and Daniel Levy. You’ll either find it funny or you won’t — I think it’s the funniest thing on Netflix at the moment. That said, I agree with all the reviewers who’ve said something like this: Season 1 is decent, but Season 2 is where it really…
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Fake Gender Equality In The Christmas Chronicles
The Christmas Chronicles is this year’s tentpole festive family movie from Netflix. Directed by Clay Kaytis, the script is written by another two men, David Guggenheim and Matt Lieberman. The nice thing about The Christmas Chronicles is that a few of the old gender tropes have been inverted. Instead of an adventurous younger brother juxtaposed against a surly teenaged older…
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Sarah Marshall Has A Stalker, For All The Receptionist Knows
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a silly, fun film, designed to appeal to an audience of teenage boys. The film was produced by Judd Apatow. The script was written by its star, Jason Segel. Some critics have applauded the film for turning the ‘crazy ex-girlfriend’ trope on its head. (Inversion does not equal subversion.) I don’t aim to review the entire…
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“Good People” Is A Terrible Film
Good People is a 2014 film with a screenplay written by Kelly Masterson, based on the novel by Marcus Sakey. Good People is an excellent example of a film with terrible female characters, created by a roomful of men.
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Dumplin Film Storytelling Techniques
Dumplin is a 2018 young adult film based on the 2015 novel by Julie Murphy. PARATEXT Willowdean (‘Dumplin’), the plus-size teenage daughter of a former beauty queen, signs up for her mom’s Miss Teen Bluebonnet pageant as a protest that escalates when other contestants follow her footsteps, revolutionizing the pageant and their small Texas town. IMDb description At a deep,…
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The Ritual (2017) Film Study
“The Ritual” is a horror film directed by David Bruckner, adapted by Joe Barton from Adam Nevill’s novel. Although this film is pretty standard in its tropes and structure, the CGI monster makes the viewing experience truly scary. This article says more about the monster and its basis in Swedish folklore.
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Character Study: Tony Soprano
Much has been said about the character of Tony Soprano. I’ve explored some of it on this blog; Tony Soprano will always come up in discussions about antiheroes. David Chase (writer of The Sopranos) used every trick in the writer’s handbook to make the audience empathise with Tony Soprano in the pilot episode. It worked. I have described all those…
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Stephen King’s IT Storytelling Techniques
IT is a 1986 horror novel by Stephen King, first adapted for screen in 1990, and most recently in 2017. This blog post is about the storytelling of the 2017 film. THE TERRIBLE MONSTER OF IT I liked what one reviewer had to say about IT: The monster in this film is whatever the story requires him to be for…
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Somersault Film Storytelling Techniques
Last month I wrote about the film American Honey, set in America but written and directed by Andrea Arnold, who is English. If there’s an Australian equivalent of American Honey, Somersault is it. Somersault is a 2004 film written and directed by another (all-too-rare) female filmmaker, Cate Shortland. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN AMERICAN HONEY AND SOMERSAULT Both are written from a female…
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Pixar’s Brave Film Study
Brave was released by Pixar in 2012. At that point, there were no Pixar films with girls as main characters, so this film was welcomed with open arms by people who’d been waiting and waiting for this. Unfortunately, the story isn’t great. Kids are likely to enjoy it — or aspects of it — I know some who fell in…
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American Honey Film Study
American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, is the granddaughter of Thelma and Louise — a road journey with classic mythic structure which follows the coming-of-age (or not) of an 18-year-old named Star.
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Animal Kingdom Modern Fairy Tale
Animal Kingdom is an Australian movie based on a Melbourne family who wreaked a lot of havoc in the 1980s. This movie was the inspiration for the American TV spin-off set in San Diego. Below I make the case that Animal Kingdom is a modern fairytale. Breaking Bad is also a modern fairytale blended with crime and heist plot elements.…
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Happy Valley Season One Storytelling
Despite the rape, suicide, murder and abuse of multiple women in this British crime series, I make the case that Happy Valley is ultimately a feminist story, though still not for everyone.
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The Cat Returns Storytelling Notes
The Cat Returns is a 2002 feature-length anime about a teenage girl who is transported against her will into a feline fantasy world after saving a cat’s life. Writer Aoi Hiiragi also wrote the script for Whisper of the Heart. This is a sort of sequel to that, where the main character writes this story. In written form, this is an ‘urban…
