Free Solo- Alex Honnald attempts a 3,000 foot climb up Yosemite's El Capitan with no rope. Great documentary here that makes me appreciate the ground I walk on much more. This won the academy award for best documentary and I can see why. Great camera work and great look into the life of a thrill seeker. You need to see this.
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Isaiah 5:20 -
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COLD PURSUIT.......talk about some good ole sweet revenge....Liam Neeson is such a great actorComment
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I hate to admit this, but years ago I would download scripts and edit them, reworking the dialogue to improve them. Interesting hobbie, I was single and had too much time on my hands...Originally posted by John Stuart MillRIP: Charlie Munger​Originally posted by Robert “Hoot†GibsonComment
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Figuring out the best way to say complicated, difficult, or sensitive things is a significant part of my day job.
I would truly love to talk to an actual screen writer to ask why so many cringe worthy turns of phrase survive the editing process. I know some of it has to do with actors/directors deviating from what's on the page, but still... When I am reading a novel or watching a movie and there is some clunky dialogue that jarringly fails to resemble how actual people speak, it drives me crazy and pulls me out of the story.
I especially dislike modern idioms in period pieces. I mean, come on man!
George Lucas (post 1980) and Tom Clancy are among the worst popular offenders that come to mind. The Coen brothers and Cormac Mccarthy are among the best.
(Egregiously stupid or impossible physics also bothers me to no end)Originally posted by John Stuart MillRIP: Charlie Munger​Originally posted by Robert “Hoot†GibsonComment
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Their use of incongruously poetic and erudite language from the mouths of rubes, hicks, and idiots is one of the things I love about them. Anachronism can be fun, when it's intentional.
Raising Arizona, Fargo, Oh Brother, and No Country are some of my all time favorites for that reason. I think I have seen Raising Arizona 100 times.Originally posted by John Stuart MillRIP: Charlie Munger​Originally posted by Robert “Hoot†GibsonComment
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The Coen brothers are great dialogue-writers.
I don't really notice bad dialogue a whole lot in the stuff I read but you really notice it if the dialogue is good. Elmore Leonard writes great dialogue. I used to read a guy back in high school named Andrew Klavan who really had a knack for dialogue.
Sometimes getting the speech "just right" can sort of take you out of the narrative. This doesn't happen a lot in movies probably but in books occasionally writers can try a little too hard to make the dialogue interesting. Sometimes dialogue is better if it's simply pushing the narrative forward and giving us more clues.Comment
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The cop writer Michael Connelly is another guy who has a great ear. Which makes sense because he spent the first half of his career as a crime reporter.
His books are filled with these tremendous conversations where his lead detective is trying to suss things out. He's sort of a master at what he does and if you like mystery books you have to read him (if you haven't already).Comment
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That's the Bosch guy correct? He is a big hit with my co-workers. Sadly, as a genre, I don't like police / detective stories at all. Cops, FBI agents, Lawyers, former police... I'm out.
I think I am too familiar with real police and how they function to see detectives as heroic or interested in the "truth"... Same with Jack Reache stories, an "elite" MP!?! LOL! Those guys spend all their time looking for missing lap tops and checking ID's.
I do like the show Law & Order and can suspend my disbelief. I also like those cheesy Tom Seleck Jesse Stone movies.Originally posted by John Stuart MillRIP: Charlie Munger​Originally posted by Robert “Hoot†GibsonComment
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Yes. He's got different kinds of books; his main series is about an LA cop named Bosch, which was turned into the Amazon show. He's got another series about an FBI agent, another about a crime reporter, and yet another about a sort of rogue lawyer (played in the movie version by Matthew McConaughey).
The thing about these books is that most (90%) of these guys aren't heroic at all. Bosch's books are about police corruption. His main character in one series, Bosch, is essentially a brute who bends rules, sometimes in catastrophic ways. The mysteries are great in the Bosch books but the more intriguing parts of them are the gripping exchanges between bad cops and even-worse cops. A lot of his books are almost like workplace dramas.
But to be honest, I'm not a lover of cop books either. My favorite genre is probably toward the more psychological--psychological suspense or psychological horror. But Connelly does what he does at such an elite level that you have to be in awe of his talent. Just generally though cop stories are kind of take-it-or-leave-it for me.
My favorite things are weird one-offs that don't sit neatly into genres. My favorite book of the last few years is the masterpiece I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and if you tell me a genre for that thing I'll buy you a steak dinner.Comment
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