The new Supergirl was on HBOMax so I was like, how bad can this be? By that measure, it’s not bad at all. Milly Alcock, who I loved in Game of Thrones, is great. Matthias Schoenaerts is a fabulous actor, even under crazy makeup. I think a lot of the bad buzz came from the usual “bro crowd” who don’t like a girl beating up dudes in a movie. It may be that stupid, but that’s where we are. I understand this was based on a well-regarded comic series, Woman of Tomorrow, but it’s n

AI script coverage is exploding and I hope people take it with a grain of salt. It’s genuinely useful to get free and instant feedback, but you have to know how to use it. For one thing, there is no reason to use a paid service when you can just use Claude (the smartest of the LLMs) for free or for a basic subscription. I hope people understand that Greenlight Coverage did not actually build an LLM themselves? They just run your script through ChatGPT, with their own “wrapper

I forgot to mention I saw Project Hail Mary on the plane during last month’s vacation, and thought it was excellent. I liked the score, too, with its sort of galactic hymn-and-world music approach. It’s funny because if this was made in 1983 we’d have a top-five all-time Jerry Goldsmith score, but times have changed and so have audience sensibilities. Lord and Miller definitely have an approach that works, but to think they tried to make Solo full of this kind of jokiness—tha

I watched Pulp Fiction last night, maybe for the first time in its entirety since it was in theaters. One of our college friends was a big Reservoir Dogs fan at the time—I didn’t really know about it—and took us to see Pulp Fiction, and it was right when it was becoming a phenomenon. Yes, it totally holds up, and is a masterclass in holding the audience’s attention with dialogue and human behavior. It’s iconic and full of so many indelible moments. I remember the theater bein

There’s a lengthy and very engaging interview with John Ottman on YouTube courtesy Half a Picture: Good stories!

I am really enjoying Sugar on AppleTV—I am catching up with the first season as it starts its second. The big twist was spoiled for me but it hasn’t detracted from the enjoyment, and might have even helped because I wasn’t thrown for a loop. (I will not say what it is.) Great cast, great L.A. locations, and a great protagonist played by Colin Farrell. Good taste in music too, both the score and needle drops. I am eager to keep watching.

I have created a new blog/community/portal called PROTOCALIA, which is a word I invented to encompass a certain kind of elevated genre storytelling—concerned with the systems created by human beings, and the pressures they put on the individual. It’s simultaneously the thing I want to do most—build an audience to make the kinds of films and TV shows I love—but also the thing I find most daunting, because of the heavy lift involved...and the fact I’m starting from scratch. But

I had such a great time at Disclosure Day. Spielberg’s still got it! No spoilers here, so this will have to be brief. What a gift to have a new John Williams score! Screenwriters should study this for one of the all-time great “in medias res” openings. There is a massive amount of exposition built into an opening chase. The degree of difficulty with this is almost off the charts. Spielberg is the GOAT, what can we say? Just for the moving masters alone. Wow. Can’t say much mo

I’ve been watching some returning TV series and I don’t want to say which ones (I know that’s annoying, sorry) but it just feels like they’ve gone stale. I find my mind wandering, and checking the timeline to see how much is left. It feels like the series architecture was never designed to go this long—that new crises are manufactured and thus not very interesting. Characters have long, static, sit-down scenes about their huge life dilemmas, and the filmmaking points towards

As I wrote before, I’ve been rewatching the Star Wars films by showing one of my daughters (she asked to see them). We got to the sequels and at one point she asked, “Do these movies make you angry?” I think she was responding to my grumpy answer to one of her questions about who was who and what was what. I think the only fair thing to say is that there are some things that disappoint me, and probably disappoint most fans, mostly having to do with the change of directors an

I wish I understood Tenet . It hurts my head. This video tried to help: I’m still struggling. I do think it’s time to retire the “good guys have to help the bad guys achieve their goals in order to trick them into thinking they’ve succeeded so they really lose” plot. That last Mission: Impossible movie did it in.

I read the Scriptshadow blog, and I’m not always sure why. Today he had a mega-rant about The Secret Agent , which is 98% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes . This is somebody who charges like $500 for script consultations. I would really take all these script gurus’ advice with a very large heap of salt.

I have not seen The Bride! I didn’t even know there was such a movie. I loved Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film, The Lost Daughter . I guess The Bride! doesn’t really work but people sure are laying into it. The vitriol for it seems just so—I guess ugly is the word.

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Robert Carradine. He took his own life after years of battling bipolar disorder . My friend and I once saw him out at an L.A. restaurant. For whatever reason we introduced ourselves—we’re fans—and I remember him sweetly saying, “I’m Bobby” and shaking hands. He played the ultimate, iconic nerd in the Revenge of the Nerds films, but it was a total performance—I remember in person being struck at how cool and un-nerdy he seemed. The o

I like Christopher Nolan’s films, although I don’t spend days and weeks trying to figure them out. (I think even Nolan said Tenet is not supposed to make sense.) But this video on Inception does seem to provide the most conclusive interpretation about the ending: Well done, nerd!

I caught up with One Battle After Another and enjoyed it. It was a reminder how powerful it is when something is shot with real people on real locations. I’m sure there was VFX, out of necessity, but it was subtle. Nothing is more real than reality, especially when it comes to how cars, bullets and people obey the laws of physics.

What an outstanding cliffhanger on Pluribus last night! Now I am annoyed I have to wait over a week for the next episode. Meanwhile, Stranger Things season 5 premieres later today, in which the kids schedule their first colonoscopies.

I am enjoying The Chair Company as it approaches its season finale next Sunday. I admire that it’s one of those things that’s so execution dependent that even describing it doesn’t make much sense. It’s a domestic drama, character study, a conspiracy thriller, and an absurd comedy—with surrealist Lynchian flourishes. Good work! It’s also a reminder that you can kind of make anything work as long as it’s grounded in humanity. Make the feelings relatable and you can get away w

Pluribus by Vince Gilligan on AppleTV is an instant favorite for me. But watching the third episode last night, it feels like there is another shoe that has to drop. (Mild spoilers ahead—but not really.) The Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation were such an awesome villain because they were so completely uncaring, monolithic and unstoppable. But the writers quickly found that writing a hive mind for a villain became boring. When the adversary is incapable of change as its

I only now watched The Hateful Eight (on Netflix) and after a slow start—yeah, I get it. I remember when Pulp Fiction was brand new. I...