Beverly Hills Film Festival 2008

Have I mentioned that I'm a finalist!? The fest has been running all week, and tonight is the awards ceremony, including honors for writers. I entered on a very old draft of The Bloody Duchess, which has no chance in hell of winning and plus I can't afford the outrageous airfare to LA right now.
If any other entrants followed this link from the online exchange, firstly, welcome to my blog! And congratulations to us for placing, and especially to whoever gets the grand prize. Options and nice weather is what I wish for everyone!
UPDATE: Congratulations to the top 3 winners! The director estimated over 500 scripts were entered, and 69 were chosen as finalists. The top 14th percentile isn't too bad, is it?

Almost An Evening, by Ethan Coen

Hot off winning an Oscar (finally!) along with directing brother Joel for "No Country For Old Men", Ethan Coen hits the mean floorboards of Greenwich Village with a trilogy of plays, now running at the Bleecker Street Theater. And his Beckett influence jumps to the forefront here, although there's still room for his signature slapstick and jaundiced eye.
F. Murray Abraham, who's got an Oscar himself, is the most recognized name in the cast, and (with Lebowski-esque hair, natch) plays God, literally - and then plays playing God. He also delivers a f-bomb laced monologue that had me and the whole theater rolling. Carlin himself would be proud. The whole cast, eight actors playing over twenty roles, is aces. The other leads are Tim Hopper as a shady Briton who has a crisis of character, and Joey Slotnick as a man who can't get out of his doctor's waiting room. Enjoy!
Tickets are readily available, or you can make a reservation and get a cool personalized ticket package at www.broadwayoffers.com. And the requisite link: www.almostanevening.com Maybe one day we'll see that fourth play?

Remembering The Wire

Five seasons, 60 episodes, and at least a dozen distinct storylines later, the grungy, truthful, uncannily real series is retired from HBO. It just gave me a reason to pay for cable, and I hope carved a path for more shows that will redefine their genres the way The Wire redefined the police drama.
One interesting aspect is the way it not only illuminated the world the detectives and their quarry, the druglords, create and inhabit, but it also illuminates other professions: dockworker, teacher, newspaper writer and editor, coach, priest. Compare this with the insulting two dimensional portrayal created by a lesser TV writer for, say, CSI. They may have read a little about someone like Cutty the boxing coach, or the Sobotka family of the Baltimore Stevedores union, or Gus the overly ambitious cub reporter. They may have read about a Detective Jim McNulty too, or Omar The Terrible (the only openly gay gangster I've ever seen, and a character for whom the word 'sissy' is quite inappropriate), or Stringer Bell. This show, however, is written by people who were these people, or neighbors or best friends or even family of these people. And David Simon and Ed Burns, leading a crew of superb writers (including star novelists like Dennis Lehane and Richard Price) were in a rare position to not have anything held back in telling their stories.
Not to mention the cast. Clarke Peters as The black Sherlock Holmes, Lester Freamon. John Doman as the cruel and conniving Major, then Deputy Commissioner Rawls. Wendell Pierce as the dapper Bunk. There's a whole lot of characters here, a guide to which can be found here: http://www.hbo.com/thewire/orgchart And lots of changes are made in the finale "30", which may feel disappointing but is entirely appropriate to what the show means. The Wire is about the world, and specifically urban America, the way it really is: good guys don't triumph, underdogs don't win, and power doesn't ever fail. It's not pretty or heartwarming, but it's true.

2007 Schoolin' at the Movies

Ladies and Gentlepeoples, lock up your scotch and talk to your daughters-it's the 2007 year at the movies, through my entirely opinionated view. Away we go:
MOVIE OF THE YEAR: No Country for Old Men
RUNNER UP(S-a tie!): Eastern Promises, Inland Empire
A: Black Gold
A: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A-: The Lives of Others
A-: Grindhouse (Theatrical Presentation)
A-: The Darjeeling Limited
B+: Michael Clayton
B: Planet Terror (Grindhouse Feature)
B-: A Sidewalk Astronomer
B-: Plagues and Pleasures of the Salton Sea
B-: Rescue Dawn
B-: Hot Fuzz

C+: Paris, Je T'Aime
C+: The Simpsons: Movie
C+: Sicko
C: Sunshine
C: 28 Weeks Later
C-: Evan Almighty
C-: Death Proof (Grindhouse Feature)
DUNCE CAP: Pan's Labyrinth
COOL REVIVALS: The Big Lebowski, Planet of the Apes, Duck Soup, Jaws, Psycho, Mafioso, The Birds

Links going up at DVDTalk.com and highlighted at TriggersTreet.com, right away! A year where even the stinker of the year, wasn't horrible, is a good year.
Maybe my standards, and need to compete, are waning in my middle age.

Screenplay Updates

I've posted about my script The Prodigal Son before. The current draft will only be up on TriggerStreet a few more weeks, at which point an entirely new draft with a better title (and logline) will replace it. Even better, my 3rd fully drafted feature, The Propeller, is doing considerably better in the review department on TrigSt. Maybe I should just stick to heist comedies and leave the horror stuff to more capable hands?

Next week is the last week of the year, and you know what that means. Also, next guy who comes up to me singing about Chestnuts Roasting and magical snowmen gets a poke in the eye. Friends, you've been warned.

The Theft Of Imagination

The leader of the Meetup group I participate in, David Negrin has written and produced a wonderful play about the soul of negotiation and the possibilities of peace. There's still time to catch it's run in NYC -- well off-Broadway and not subject to the strike -- on the historic MacDougal St. Players Theater. Go here for info about the troupe and a link to buy tickets.
In related news, Trigger Street now posts plays - awesome!

Back in Business

I haven't posted for awhile, but I have two things to mention. It must be the icy weather that motivates me.
On the music tip, my new solo guitar demo for 2008 is ready for pressing. Well, you know, burning in iTunes and handing out at cafes and restaurants, but still...request it and see if I've got the stuff to liven up a weeknight at your cafe (or dress up your movie/video/etc.) I still have rock demos here.
On the writing tip, my first feature screenplay, The Prodigal Son is a semi-finalist at the Script Shark Insider contest. Wish me luck! My second screenplay is No Prince Charming, and I've finished a full length draft. Like it matters now that the Writers Union is striking, but the point is I finished it. BTW let's all show our support for a better residual and a quick end to the strike!
And here are some sites where I post in lieu of a blog post here:
The Dilbert Guy
My screenplays
I know this site says not to, but sometimes being an asshole is the only way to be noticed in this crazy world.