2.Main Content
reviews
Badlands gets a workout in our new Review column
Our regular Script Factory Reviews offer a script-centred perspective on both classic and contemporary films. Appearing once a month, journalist and developer, Trevor Johnston, explores how a produced screenplay can help a screenwriter to better understand his or her own work.
In addition to the reviews below, you can also follow these links to read extracts from previous Script Factory Masterclasses, and find out what's on this month for filmmakers & developers.
AVATAR
Tue, 9 Mar 2010
It may not have quite hit the BAFTA/Oscar jackpot, but it’s no understatement to say that audiences are responding to James Cameron’s Avatar - but are they entranced by the storytelling or simply wowed by the high-tech spectacle? Trevor Johnston, our man in the 3-D glasses, reveals how the script blends quest narrative, dramatic choices, love story and not a little topicality in a killer combination which has hit home at the global box-office.
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The White Ribbon
Wed, 16 Dec 2009
Are the questions more important than the answers? That’s what Trevor Johnston wonders as he furrows his brow and tries to unpick the workings of Michael Haneke’s latest celluloid conundrum, a story of dark deeds and mysterious motives set in rural Germany in the days before the Great War. Spoilers ahead – well, up to a point, as you’ll soon discover – while we untie…. The White Ribbon.
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Up
Mon, 26 Oct 2009
The latest from Pixar is a daring departure even for them, an animated adventure which features – of all things – an elderly protagonist. Does it change things when your central character has more of his life behind him than in front of him? Absolutely! says reviewer Trevor Johnston, our man in the 3D glasses, as he examines how this chronicle of dreams and disappointment puts a whole new spin on heroism. Spoilers ahead as we lift up, up and…away…
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The Hurt Locker
Thu, 17 Sep 2009
The everyday lot of a US Army bomb disposal expert in Iraq is subject matter tailor-made for suspense, but how does writer Mark Boal turn The Hurt Locker into a portrait of masculinity which has much wider resonance that the specifics of this particular conflict? Our reviewer Trevor Johnston ventures into the theatre of war.
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Frozen River
Wed, 22 Jul 2009
Writer-director Courtney Hunt scored an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the admiration of Quentin Tarantino for her very first feature. Frozen River is a terrific example of writing for a specific environment, since it uses the icy current dividing the US-Canadian border, and the distinctive experiences of the people who live either side of it, as the fulcrum of a dramatic thriller with universal resonance. Our reviewer Trevor Johnston probes its inner workings and finds astute observation and ingenious construction combining to make the film as powerful as it is.
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Synecdoche, New York
Thu, 11 Jun 2009
Charlie Kaufman is back! And this time he’s in the director’s chair too, stamping his personality on another surreal tale which could only have emerged from his off-kilter imagination. Synecdoche, New York starts off as the seemingly straightforward story of a theatre director facing a troubled domestic and creative life, but it ends….somewhere else entirely, to say the least. Trevor Johnston traces the steps on a highly individual, utterly Kaufmanesque journey, which, he’s almost surprised to discover, stands as its writer’s most nakedly emotional work to date.
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