You Can Critique a Script, But Not a Story

The other night I had to sit in my filmmaking class at school and watch the rest of my class start a fifty-minute tirade critiquing and tearing apart my latest film idea. I'm not going to lie, I was frustrated beyond belief, trying so hard to articulate why I was feeling that way to the teacher and my fellow classmates, and finally it dawned on me, you can't critique a story.

In the film world, I do believe it is possible to critique a script. After all, screenwriting is an exact science. It is possible for someone, other than yourself to come in and critique a line of dialogue, tell you whether or not a scene is working, and make some suggestions as to how to open your script up a bit more cinematically. What I think is impossible, not just in film, but in storytelling in general, is to critique another author's story.

Every writer draws from their own life experiences, whether they realize it or not. That writer's personality dictates what type of stories they write, and I strongly believe that this is why you can't critique a story. A story is a reflection of the writer's heart-and-soul, and their own personality, their own beliefs in which they harbor toward life. To try and critique a story is like critiquing the individual writer.

In my opinion, any good writer worth their ilk does this. I can assure you Shakespeare wrote this way, even in more modern terms, folks like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling write this way, all good writers do it. Do you think someone like Stephen King would change his story just to appease some reader who doesn't like an aspect of it? No, because it's his story, not theirs.

There is no such thing as a universal story. Every single person on Earth is different, but that is what makes us all so interesting. No two people are alike, just how no two people are alike, no two people are going to agree precisely on the same things. Stories are meant to be told, but if they were meant to appeal to everybody, then there would be no more good stories left because the only way something could appeal to everyone is if it was diluted to the point to where it was devoid of any soul.

The point is, the reason we love to read a Stephen King novel, or a J.K. Rowling adventure, is we like to see that particular writer's take on the world and how it works. Will there be haters of what they write? Yeah, but for every person that hates it, there is going to be someone out there that loves it. In this situation, all you can simply do is write the story from your heart and don't care what anyone else thinks. Which is tough to do, on all accounts, but no one likes to read, hear, or watch a soulless story. The reason stories are so fascinating to begin with is because of the soul that the individual writer infused within.

Coming back to the world of film and my film class. At the end of the day, the people critiquing my film in class are not me, they have not had the same life experiences as I, they do not share my same personality, nor my same values or beliefs, thus it is impossible for them to critique my story for those very reasons. If I come across as stubborn or bullheaded, I'm sorry. I just want everyone to save your critiquing for when I've come up with what the story is, and rather tell me how you'd take the vague concept of the film and make it your own, let me make it my own, write the script, and then I'll listen to critiquing, cause as I said, screenwriting is a science, but storytelling is an artform.

Spider-man Has Cast a New Webb, MLK To The Big Screen, and Maleficent With Her Own Story?

It's official, (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, is to direct Sony and Columbia Pictures re-imagining of Spider-man. I personally feel a lot more optimistic about this reboot at this time, this is a fantastic choice for a director. Just watching (500) Days of Summer was in some respects like watching Peter Parker's tangled web of romance unfold in the Spider-man comic books, so I have no doubt Webb is the guy who can pull off a truthful version of the character.

Not to mention, more on this reboot was revealed today. The film is gonna focus less on the badguys and more on the emotions of being a teenager with super powers, which is what initially attracted me to the TV Show Smallville. The word is the film will be filled with a bunch of unknowns and shot for a budget of about $80 million, so they're clearly trying to cover themselves if this reboot doesn't succeed. It is being said though that the film is being tailored after the New Millenium comics, Ultimate Spider-man and not the original Amazing Spider-man from the '60s which was what the first three Raimi films were tailored after. Ultimate Spider-man is the fantastic retelling of a high school aged Peter Parker and it has inspired countless TV Shows and video games, in particular the amazing cartoon The Spectacular Spider-man on Disney XD. To be honest, now that more has come to light about this reboot, I'm a little bit more optimistic, but I'm still a touch skeptical, especially since this Spidey film has such big boots to fill (seriously, the first two Raimi films were no slouches).

Moving on, it's been reported that director Tim Burton is mulling about possibly making a film detailing the villainous soreceress Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent was the vile sorceress who ensnared Princess Aurora in her comatose state in the animated Disney classic. I find this interesting. While it is by no means official yet, I see it in many ways as a big gamble, but that is assuming it will be live-action. Tim Burton has such a history in animation, this could be an animated film, possibly stop motion. It also makes me wonder whether the film will be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent's side of things, because if that was the case, and it just turned out to be live action, I would prefer them just to take the classic Sleeping Beauty cartoon (which is one of my favorite Disney classics by the way), and simply do that in live action. Just my two cents, but that could, in my opinion, be an Oscar caliber film, bringing back a good ol' musical with some Lord of the Rings action and not this junk like High School Musical.

Finally, it has been announced that Dreamworks has found a writer to pen their biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr., in screenwriter Ronald Harwood who wrote The Pianist and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It was announced back in May of last year that Steven Spielberg had acquired the rights to direct a film about the life of Martin Luther King, but seriously, am I the only one sick and tired of straight forward biopics? I think Clint Eastwood's Invictus really cracked open the safe on how to tell a good, convincing biopic without making it a greatest hits compilation of that person's life. What Invictus did was it let you know who Nelson Mandella was, get a feel for his character, but it only took one event in his long and illustrious life and focused on that, and that is what made that film so entertaining to watch, I believe if a similar approach were applied to MLK's film, it could be a masterpiece, especially with Spielberg at the helm.

Seriously, the Beard is, in my opinion, too good to be doing your by the number biopic. I say, they should take King's essay, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," and adapt that whole scenario of King being arrested in Birmingham, AL, into a film. We could get a feel for who King was, see him get thrown into jail, and then watch how his experiences in the jail and trace experiences in his plea for equality in the days leading up to his being tossed into jail (revealed through clever flashbacks) inspired everything within that essay he wrote. This is just my idea. If ya want it Steven, hire me, fly me out to LA, and I'll write it for ya.

Oscar Watch: Foreign Language and Docs, and Will Avatar Win Best Picture?

Another week closer to the Oscars, it's time for another edition of Oscar Watch. As we draw steadily closer to the 82nd annual Academy Awards, certain trends are becoming ever clearer. Avatar is shaping up to be the film with the most nominations come February 2nd, and unless the DGA, PGA, or SAG can come up with an out-of-left-field winner, it's pretty much a two-horse race at this point. But let's get this thing started off talking about the final two categories I've yet to name my predictions for, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Feature.

In terms of Best Foreign Language Film it's really down between A Prophet from France and The White Ribbon from Germany (which brought home the Golden Globe). While some would like to put stock in Mexico's Backyard or Peru's The Milk of Sorrow, I doubt they will show up other than as a nomination, same goes for China's Forever Enthralled. Seeing as how such critical favorites like Broken Embraces, Red Cliff, and Sin Nombre missed the shortlist, I think it's safe to assume that this is pretty close as to how it will pan out.

As for Best Documentary Feature, really the only one I think with a genuine shot is The Cove, about mistreatment of dolphins off the coast of Japan. Some would like to put their clout behind Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, but I don't see it happening for him, not this year. Filling things out will most likely be Food, Inc.; The Beaches of Agnes; Mugabe and the White African; and Under Our Skin.

If you wanna know what this looks like, here it is:

Best Foreign Language Film
Forever Enthralled
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The Milk of Sorrow
Backyard

Best Documentary Feature
The Cove
The Beaches of Agnes
Under Our Skin
The Mugabe and the White African
Food, Inc.

As it is, the most exciting category of the year is shaping up to be Best Picture! This is exciting, purely because it has been a few years since this category has been so strong and could pretty much go any which way. The acting categories are pretty much locked into place after this past weekend with Christoph Waltz, Mo'Nique, Jeff Bridges, and Sandra Bullock most likely bringing home the Oscar; the only potential spoiler could be SAG this upcoming weekend (I'm still pulling for Carey Mulligan in Best Actress), but if there are no surprises, which I predict there wont be, then you can expect to see a pretty lackluster year for the acting categories. Still, with the likes of Best Picture and Best Director so heated up, I can overlook this miniature setback to this award's season; better than previous seasons when by this point we already knew who'd be taking home the gold in Best Picture and Best Director as well.

I think the talk of Avatar winning Best Picture is entirely reasonable, especially after Sunday night where it won Best Motion Picture-Drama at the Golden Globes. While some critics say too much stock shouldn't be put into the Golden Globes and their lean more towards commercialism in their own awarding process, it is still a major award all the same, putting it alongside The Hurt Locker, which brought home Best Picture at the Critic's Choice and their lean more towards arthouse fare Friday night.

At the end of the day, the Oscars is kind of where commercialism and art blend into one, so at the moment it is hard to really tell which film has the better shot, but that could make it all the more possible for a film like Inglorious Bas**rds, Up in the Air, or Precious to swoop in there and take the award away. Of course, the only one I think that has that shot is Up in the Air, and The Hurt Locker and Avatar are riding too high at the moment. While Inglorious Bas**rds has a lot of love and will most likely win Best Ensemble at SAG, that does not necessarily make it a better Oscar hopeful than Up in the Air, just because Inglorious had an ensemble cast. As for Precious, I think it peaked too early in the Oscar race and has to play some major catch up if it wants to hear its name called come time for the Oscarcast.

So at the moment it's a footrace between Avatar and The Hurt Locker (same for the directing category, though Quentin Tarrantino is lingering in the wings waiting to strike). Really, neither one has started to pull away yet, making it all the more exciting, and while I haven't seen The Hurt Locker yet, I'd really love to see a movie that I enjoyed a great deal win the Oscar, so at the moment I'm pulling full on for Avatar.

Farewell Conando

I've been trying to wait for something official before I decided to write about Conan's departure from The Tonight Show, but alas, it's pretty much over for Coney. According to Variety an announcement is expected from NBC today announcing Conan's departure and Jay Leno's return to The Tonight Show.

I really despise this whole situation. Conan has always been, and always will be my favorite of the late night talk show hosts, and for him to be treated in such a manner really ticks me off. Jay Leno just can't accept the fact that his contract had expired, and rather than move on he tried to get his old show back, which was never fair to O'Brien. I mean, seriously, NBC didn't even given Conan a full year at the reins of The Tonight Show before their failed experiment with Jay Leno failed at 9 p.m.; really, no matter how NBC tries to spin the numbers, The Jay Leno Show was a failure out the gate. Of course, according to Variety NBC is paying Conan anywhere from $30-$40 million to break his contract, so I don't think Conan will be hurting, but he still was mistreated in all respects by the NBC brass, I've even read from many celebrities that are siding with Conan, which will hurt Leno when he tries to find guests in the future. The main question everyone has, is what's next for Conan?

I doubt Conan will stay with NBC in any regards. The rumors are that Fox is interested in attaching Conan to a late night program, but as of the moment there is nothing official on the table according to Variety other than Fox's vested interested in going into business with Conan. We should know what Conan will do soon, but I actually love the idea of Conan getting his own show on Fox. He can pull a Letterman and finally go toe-to-toe with his biggest enemy at the moment, Jay Leno, then we can see who really deserved The Tonight Show seat. To solidify my comment about celebrity feelings toward this situation, just watch Ricky Gervais's opening speech from the Golden Globes last night:

Update: Predicting the Golden Globes

Update: So I guess I should just stop trying to predict the realms of television, cause on that front I was 2-9, but in terms of film I was at the least 7-7. Seeing as how the Globes tend to like to go out on a limb, I based my predictions on that factor; some of 'em, like my predicting Robert Downey, Jr., panned out, my others like predicting Penelope Cruz, not so much. I did say that the Globes have tended to lean more towards commercialism in recent years, as is evident by the big haul from Avatar winning both Best Director and Best Picture-Drama. Really, as a whole the Globes kind of played it safe this year, mimicking the rest of the award's circuit in giving Best Actress-Drama to Sandra Bullock, over my personal favorite Carey Mulligan, but what can you do. I do have to say I wasn't too terribly surprised to see The Hurt Locker kind of being overlooked entirely, seeing as how it is an American made film about the most unpopular American war in my known knowledge.

Overall, the show was a blast to watch. In all actuality, they made all this big deal about having a host for this year's show, and apart from a short little speech to kick the night off, Ricky Gervais did nothing of any particular interest, I'd actually say Kristen Chenoweth had more to do at the Critic's Choice the other night. The true highlight of the night was seeing Marty Scorsese receive the honorary, Cecil B. Demil Award, not to mention Arnold Schwarzenager introducing Avatar. Really, I was satisfied to see Avatar be the big winner, but with Up in the Air only showing up for Screenplay both tonight and at the Critic's Choice Friday, I think it's safe to say the Oscar race is pretty much down between Critic's Choice champion The Hurt Locker and Golden Globes king of the world, Avatar. Time will tell, but it's exciting. Not to mention, Best Director is split down the middle at the moment between these two films, perhaps the DGA can mend it in the coming weeks.

Original Post: When in regards to award's season, the Golden Globes tend to be a completely different machine than the Oscars. The Golden Globes is voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press, which basically means a bunch of respecting overseas film & television critics. The Hollywood Foreign Press rarely matches up with the Academy, part of this is due to them splitting up the major categories between Best Drama and Best Comedy/Musical (save for Directing and Writing, which I find odd), for this reason alone it is impossible to see it an exact precursor to the Oscars. Not to mention, in recent years the Hollywood Foreign Press has started to lean more towards commercial filmmaking rather than the arthouse and indie circuits that the Oscars and stuff like the Critic's Choice tend to favor.

For what it's worth, I'm extremely excited for this year's show. For the first time since the early '90s, there will be a host, comedian Ricky Gervais. That alone is worth the price of admission, not to mention this is the only award show out of all of them this year that if there is to be an out-of-left-field surprise, this is where it will be. So I've decided to sit down and try my best to decipher the Golden Globes and predict who I think the winners of each respective category will be. Let's get going:

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Michael Emerson, Lost

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Jane Lynch, Glee

Best Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Brendan Gleeson, Into the Storm

Best Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Grey Gardens

Best Actor in a Television Series-Comedy or Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Best Actress in a Television Series-Comedy or Musical
Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Best Television Seris-Comedy or Musical
30 Rock

Best Actor in a Television Series-Drama
John Hamm, Mad Men

Best Actress in a Television Series-Drama
Glenn Close, Damages

Best Television Series-Drama
Mad Men

Best Original Song-Motion Picture
"I Want to Come Home," Everybody's Fine

Best Original Score-Motion Picture
Michael Giacchino, Up

Best Screenplay-Motion Picture
Quentin Tarrantino, Inglorious Ba****ds

Best Directing-Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Foreign Language Film
Broken Embraces (Spain)

Best Animated Feature Film
Up

Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Ba***ds

Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Penelope Cruz, Nine

Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical
Robert Downey, Jr., Sherlock Holmes

Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical
Julie & Julia

Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actres in a Motion Picture-Drama
Carey Mulligan, An Education

Best Motion Picture-Drama
Avatar

Alright, that does it for my predictions. What do ya'll think? Sound off in the comments below if you have any thoughts, and if not, join in with me tonight in watching the Golden Globes on NBC to see who won.