Word: screenplays
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...Harvard Crimson: You know, the first thing that struck me when I saw the film was: my god, what a fantastic, witty screenplay this must have seemed when you first came across it. What went through your minds when you first got involved with American Beauty...
Shatter stylishly, one must add. The writing by Alan Ball, whose first produced screenplay this is, consistently surprises--not so much in what it says, but in how it says it. He even risks having his story narrated by Lester from beyond the grave and makes Billy Wilder's old trick seem fresh. And the stage's Sam Mendes, also making his first film, dares a touch of expressionism, which we happily indulge, partly because he knows when to stop, mostly because the energy and conviction he and his cast bring to this movie do not permit second thoughts...
...While TV has turned the camera on itself from The Dick Van Dyke Show to The Larry Sanders Show, the current mirror gazing is not just more insider-oriented but harsher. Rob Petrie's foibles were along the lines of tripping over the ottoman, not buying a $250,000 screenplay from "the wrong Jew" in a case of mistaken identity, as Jay Mohr's smarmily obnoxious producer, Peter Dragon, does in Action's pilot. Beggars, a sharp satire set at the fictional bottom-tier network LGT, updates Network for broadcast's era of decline. Action and Beggars compare show business...
Neil Cuthbert's clever screenplay is a parable of class. The three main Mystery Men may not be much, but when they audition other heroes in preparation for battle against evil genius Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), they discover there are nicely delineated levels of mediocrity. The Waffler, with his magic Truth Syrup, White Flight and the Black Menace ("We work together")--all are unworthy of joining even this pickup team. But there is talent out there. The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) has a magic ball with her father's head inside; Dad nags her from beyond the grave. Spleen (Paul Reubens...
...with MTV, which has a joint venture with Pocket Books, and with the Internet and kids' ease in processing information in unconventional formats. Smack is told by multiple narrators. Monster, the latest novel by veteran children's book author Walter Dean Myers, is recounted in the form of a screenplay. Louis Sachar's Holes, last year's Newbery and National Book Award winner about a boy erroneously sent to a juvenile detention center, shuttles between past and present...