Month: November 2015
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Movie Review: “Spotlight” (Tom McCarthy, USA 2015)
In the early days of the synchronized sound motion picture, Hollywood had to seek out people to write dialogue. It was no longer a matter of the occasional title card, so the writing had to be stronger than it had been before. Lacking a substantial pool of established writers in the forms that the new…
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Movie Review: “Sicario” (Denis Villeneuve, USA 2015)
The film opens with an explanation of the word “Sicario” that ends with saying that in Mexico, it means “hitman.” That opening makes the film predictable and telegraphed. But I really don’t think that Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan care. They made it really obvious what they wanted to say, to the point that televisions…
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Movie Review: “Steve Jobs” (Danny Boyle, USA 2015)
For many years, Aaron Sorkin was one of the best dialogue writers in Hollywood. Even when he was writing dull stories, they were often entertaining just for the sparkling language. Then, The Social Network (David Fincher, USA 2010) happened. While that film had some moments where Sorkin’s dialogue retained remnants of its old glory, it…
Crowd of Full Pockets 