Leo S. Lo

August 13 – August 19

Films watched:

1. Solitary Man (2009)
2. Dick (1999)
3. Ne te retourne pas (aka Don’t Look Back) (2009)
4. Diner (1982)
5. The Secret of Kells (2009)
6. Ip Man 2 (葉問2) (2010)
7. 2012 (2009)

Books Read: None

Screenplays read:

1. Salt – Written by Kurt Wimmer. Current revisions by Brian Helgeland. Jan. 19, 2009.
2. Whip It – Screenplay by Shauna Cross. Based on her novel.

Films

Solitary Man (written by Brian Koppelman, and direct by Koppelman and David Levien) is a great character study of a sleazy character. It’s a character almost tailor made for Michael Douglas who has a knack of making unpleasant characters watchable.  I can’t wait to see Wall Street 2.

Dick is one of the most imaginative, funny and smartly written teen movies I have seen in a long time. The fact that it is a teen movie set against one of the biggest political scandals is clever (and daring) enough. The two actresses (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) play dizzy brilliantly. Dan Hedaya plays a hilarious Nixon.

Kudos to a fresh and daring execution of a tried concept. Ne te retourne pas (Don’t Look Back) features two of the most beautiful European actresses, which is reason enough to see it. It is more of an experiment, which means that there are flaws. But there is enough intrigue in the set up to last most of the 110 mins. The score and some of the atmospheric shots , however, maybe a bit overdone and forced.

I really like the natural dialog in Diner. Barry Levinson’s now iconic first film is a slice of life ensemble piece, which is always difficult to pull off. Hollywood is usually more at ease with a single protagonist because they like to believe that average viewers would have a hard time following more than one main character. Come on viewers, let’s show Hollywood we’re smart enough!

The Secret of Kells was nominated for an Oscar in the animation category, but it was up against some stiff competition (Pixar pretty much owns the category). The film has some gorgeous and inventive 2D graphics, which is very different from the computer generated animation we see in most films today. The story and characters are a bit underdeveloped, perhaps due to the the short 75mins running time.

Despite its cliché superhero (and a bland one at that) formula, the first Ip Man was enjoyable for its accurate (well, a bit more than your average martial arts film anyway) depiction of the Wing Chun style of martial art. This sequel has an even more flawed plot, more forced conflicts and shameless and simpleminded patriotism, but without the authentic martial arts.

2012 was so long that I was pleasantly surprised that it’s still 2010 when I finished it. I actually finished reading a screenplay while watching it. Every once in a while, a pretty cool destruction of Earth scene would make me look up and go whoa, but the  ”story” part of the movie is still dreadful. Not that I was expecting anything better from the maker of Independence Day and Godzilla.

Screenplays:

This version of the script (January 16, 2009) is still a draft and is still quite different from the movie. The protagonist in the final version is better defined. I like reading this kind of “action” script just to learn the rhythm of writing actions scenes.

I really enjoyed Whip It the movie. The script is written by Shauna Cross, adapted from her own novel. This draft is quite close to the movie version. Now I want to read her book.

Pick of the Week:

Dick

2010:

Total films watched:  219 (in 231 days)

Total books read:  13 (11 to go)

Total screenplays read:  25 (27 to go)