Lessons from the big screen
I don't go to the movies much. My freetime is more valuable than gold and I hate to waste even a minute watching a mediocre film.
This week I got lucky and saw two great movies. Both flicks had sharp casting and as a writer, what also impressed me were the wonderful screenplays.
The first movie was the meaty
The Departed, a graphic study of crime and cops in South Boston. Jack Nicholson plays a mob boss even more profane and dangerous than the Joker.
When I joined the Army that was the first time I'd ever run into someone from Boston and they were as foul-mouthed and physical as the Southie police sergeant played by Mark Wahlberg.
Later in the week I saw
Little Miss Sunshine, a zany satire of modern American life. As loopy as
The Departed was violent,
Little Miss Sunshine provided great story-telling by Michael Arndt, who set the characters up for one humiliating emotional pratfall after another. Each new plot development skillfully provided clues about the characters. Greg Kinnear portrays a father preaching winner-take-all self-improvement babble while staving off bankruptcy. Alan Arkin snorts heroin and plays a doting grandfather to Abigail Breslin, a pudgy preadolescent girl determined to win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pagent.
Catch these movies on the big screen.
Next week, check out my scary Halloween story at
www.bookloons.com.