Uhh, what’s a “blog talk?”
I do this at the end of every year. I love it! I get to talk with another blogger about the year’s slate of films and the state of screenwriting in general. And this year, I invited the always fabulous Emily Blake to have a blog talk with me! Woo hoo! If you don’t know Emily, she is a teacher, filmmaker, blogger, writer of great zombie scripts (I read one), and potential ass kicker (she knows martial arts).
So here’s what we’ll do. I’ll write a few general thoughts, and then Emily will respond with whatever she feels inspired to write about, and we’ll go back and forth for a total of two articles each.
Hope you enjoy it.
-MM
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My first question to you, Emily, is how did you feel about 2008 in terms of screenwriting in general and the movies that were released?
One word to describe my own personal feelings: Sigh...
It’s a travesty, this whole pitiful slate of films that came out this year. I would’ve done more script reviews, but I would’ve sounded like a broken record – bad endings, lack of tension, and weak characters. Is the best thing we could come up with all year a damn comic book film? Years from now, people will look back at 2008 and shake their heads in disbelief and ask, “Where were the great filmmakers? Where were the great writers? Where were the great visionaries and storytellers?” We, as an industry, have become like so many other industries - lazy, greedy, corrupt, and complacent. Ignorance knows no bounds in our industry. They’re all thinking the wrong thoughts, asking the wrong questions, writing the wrong notes, and all the while greenlighting all the wrong films for all the wrong reasons.
Sigh…
You’ll have to cheer me up, Emily, or perhaps prove me wrong, because I’ve lost a bit of faith. I’ve gone to fewer movies this year than ever before, and I’m cranky. They couldn’t get either Indiana Jones or James Bond right. What the hell? I’ve had to turn to the master filmmakers (mostly old, foreign, and dead) in order to experience some kind of great film I hadn’t seen before. Right now, I should be blogging about the best new films of the world, and I got nothing. Richard Corliss of Time came out with his Top 10 Films, one of which was actually a 2007 film, and number 9 was Speed Racer. Are you kidding me? Where’s the fucking passion? Where’s the push and drive to be great? I don’t believe it’s possible to compile an adequate list of 10 truly great films of 2008.
Consider this sobering list: The Top 100 Worst Movies of 2008. A few years from now, the world will marvel about NOT the great films of 2008 but how 2008 produced the worst reviewed films in the history of cinema like The Hottie and the Nottie, 88 Minutes, The Happening, 10,000 B.C., My Best Friend’s Girl, or Disaster Movie.
Sigh…
Tell me, what’s good out there right now?
-MM
