Last week's report
- I finished reading Happiness by Will Ferguson. He is a very gifted writer, and if he can have someone like me, who detests books and thinks they are just for people who live in timeless and movieless dimensions, hooked on throughout the read, then I say well done. Unlike others who actually seemed to have fallen in love with his basic premise, I was more interested in his writing style and the expressions he uses. And that is where book writing is so much more different than screen writing. Screen-writing is a lot more dumbed down, since you are reaching out to a much bigger market, or at least hope to. Books have the freedom to express themselves in whatever way possible, without having to worry about the after-effects. And unless you write and direct yourself, screenplays are never ever going to turn out to be as good as you had written them, no matter what the Kaufmans would have us believe. Heck, isn't that one of the biggest reasons why CK is directing the next one himself?
- And talking about screen-writing, I am currently in the process of penning my 17th movie script. A hobby not many people know about, so this is more of an out-of-the-closet indulgent post. And I am as charged up about it than I have ever been. But the one thing that keeps bothering me, and has done over the last 2 scripts I have written, is the thought of how much better my idea would have been in CK's hands. But, good news is that I am slowly trying to get that thought out of my system, and gladly enough, enjoying some mild success at it.
- And I have seen some movies too. Mulholland Drive - well, frankly it did have its steamy moments, a major reason for me to rent it out. But I don't understand the David Lynch following. The movie is as bizarre as it gets. I am ready to forgive a little self-indulgence on any writer's part, comes with the territory. But this is stuff that you make and show off to close friends and shut up about. The problem with such movies is how much of our time they waste before they give us that flashy technically-brilliant moment, which frankly never manages to make anyone other than the writer himself to sit up and take notice. And I finally did see Bicentennial Man, which ends up as one you'd find on everyone's "Nice Flicks" lists. It is neither brilliant nor lackadaisical, but it sure has its moments, all involving Robin Williams. If you like sci-fi and are willing to forgive a lack of logic for the sake of humor, on a put-a-smile-on-me-coz-I-am-a-sucker day, you might actually end up finding it quite amusing, like I did.
Over and out.