(no subject)
I read a review of FAST FOOD NATION a few days ago where the writer was saying that the movie deliberately looked like crap to reflect the tackiness of the fast food industry. That soundeed like a fabricated justification for the movie not looking good. Now that I've seen the film, I sort of agree with the comment. In a weird way, I can't picture the film being as affecting if it didn't look like garbage.
So now I'm getting some work done on my computer with the LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN commentary playing (don't ask me why; I don't know) and Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu start talking about how great the dialogue is because all the characters talk the same way. This is like praising a film for visible boom mikes. On a dialogue level, it's exactly what's wrong with too many recent screenplays. Writers who write every character in the same voice annoy the hell out of me. They suck. It's something that screenwriters (and much of the public) assume is good, moreso over the past 12 years as they find it's possible to ape the writing style of Tarantino and Kevin Smith.
Crediting LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN's dialogue to a 1930s movie aesthetic isn't good enough. Josh Friedman's BLACK DAHLIA script has archaic genre dialogue, but still uses variations in different characters' speech and thought processes. Shakespeare had a uniform style, and could do that too. LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN is just bad writing.
So now I'm getting some work done on my computer with the LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN commentary playing (don't ask me why; I don't know) and Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu start talking about how great the dialogue is because all the characters talk the same way. This is like praising a film for visible boom mikes. On a dialogue level, it's exactly what's wrong with too many recent screenplays. Writers who write every character in the same voice annoy the hell out of me. They suck. It's something that screenwriters (and much of the public) assume is good, moreso over the past 12 years as they find it's possible to ape the writing style of Tarantino and Kevin Smith.
Crediting LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN's dialogue to a 1930s movie aesthetic isn't good enough. Josh Friedman's BLACK DAHLIA script has archaic genre dialogue, but still uses variations in different characters' speech and thought processes. Shakespeare had a uniform style, and could do that too. LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN is just bad writing.