BY RON MWANGAGUHUNGA |
This Week's Best Online Film Writing: 'The Armstrong Lie' Fascinates; Who Is the Best Screenwriter in Hollywood?
A round up of this week's insightful commentary, debates, twitter feuds and nice. long weekend reads on the subject of film, the industry and storytelling.
- Neil Genzlinger pronounces Ass Backwards "A comedy without much comedy in it." Chris Packman disagrees. "The episodic story and minimal budget result in a small canvas over which these two large characters dominate."
- Alex Gibney set out to make a feel good documentary about Lance Armstrong. Midway through filming it became The Armstrong Lie. Also: The juiciest moments of The Armstrong Lie, from Rolling Stone. Bonus: The Armstrong Lie opens strong with an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
- "Suddenly this spot had morphed from something I was dying to shoot to something I was terrified to shoot!" - SNL DP Alex Buono tells the full story of filming the show's awesome Wes Andersoon horror spoof "The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders."
- Appalachia is a complex, beautiful and troubled region. Unfortunately, it is mostly known for the "squeal like a pig" love scene in Deliverance.
- Anatomy of a scene: The Book Thief.
- "Who is the best screenwriter in the film industry?" asks Quora. Thoughts?
- The Oscars announce the Best Animated Films Shortlist.
- "The new ratings system, which was created by a handful of theaters in Sweden, states that in order for a film to get an 'A' rating, it must pass what is known as 'The Bechdel Test.' Its a metric created by comic artists Alison Bechdel in the 1980s and is often used to evaluate the representation of women in media," writes Angela Watercutter.
- The Diana biopic failed to attract an audience.
- New hearing aids have allowed filmmaker Austin Chapman to opportunity to finally hear his soundtracks.
- Now playing on HBO: Seduced and Abandoned. Also: James Toback on Charlie Rose.
- "To direct the story of the two women Ms. Barreto wanted her son Bruno, whose credits include the international hit Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and the Oscar-nominated Four Days in September. But it would take more than a decade to convince him, and several more years before she could raise $6 million the film ultimately costand assemble a cast that includes Miranda Otto as (Elizabeth Bishop) and Gloria Pires as Lota," writes Larry Rohter in The New York Times.
- Stephen Gaghan, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Syriana, talks of taking on the role of writer for Call of Duty: Ghosts, the tenth installment of that franchise. "There was no all powerful director who determined everything. He realized that game creation is more like a collaboration between an entire troupe of indie filmmakers."
