Review: The Florida Project.

Last week I managed to watch a movie that my manager thought I should watch at some point. She recommended that I should watch 'The Florida Project, a film that was well received and that wasn't that different from my own project.

After all, since my own screenplay was also about kids and about them growing up, she thought that I should check the film and compare it to my own story. She thought that I would get a good feel about what this 'genre' is about.

In any case, having now seen the movie, it has to be said that I have some mixed feelings about 'The Florida Project'. Even though this wasn't necessarily a bad film, there are some things about it that didn't really work at all.

So when it comes to the movie, very likely the biggest problem that I had with the film - that is about a single mom and her daughter - is that it has a relatively weak story. The screenplay for the film is lacking and doesn't have all the necessary elements in it.

By that I mean is that even though most of the characters in the film are fairly relatable and likable - especially the kids and the hotel manager (the wonderful Willed Dafoe) - they don't have proper story arcs in the movie.

What this basically means is that instead of the characters evolving and changing over the course of the story, they more or less stay the same. There's no noticeable change in pretty much any of the characters over the course of the film.

This lack of progression is unfortunate, because storytelling really is about characters changing - progressing or regressing. It's essential that you have people in your story that transform and become better (or worse) as human beings.

After all, nobody likes to watch a movie where characters just do stuff that doesn't have an effect on anything or anyone. Nobody wants to watch a film where too many random things happen without any real meaningful consequences.

In that sense, when I think about 'The Florida Project', it's clear that the film suffers from not having enough of these meaningful and progressive scenes. It's clear that the movie has problems when it comes to telling a story that has a point.

After all, even though there are a lot of good things here - the kids making the best out of their situation and the humanity in Willem Dafoe's character - that isn't enough. It's not enough to hold my attention throughout the length of film.

In the end, the movie would have been better, had it paid more attention to its script and to its story arcs. It would have been better had it made sure that there was more to the characters and that more things actually happened to them.

After all, just because the mother gets taken away at the end and just because the kids manage to temporarily 'escape' from their situation, that's a bit too little a bit too late for me. That's not enough drama or change to win me back.

In that sense, even though you should still probably see the film, I can't recommend it that much. I can't recommend it that much, because in my opinion, there are too many basic story problems in 'The Florida Project' that weigh the movie down a bit too much.

Know your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

When it comes to being a good writer, it's really important that you know your abilities well as a writer. It's important that you have a good grasp of what you're capable of doing as a writer and that you know what your strengths are when it comes to the craft.

After all, the more you are aware of your capabilities, the easier it becomes to make right decisions. The more aware you are of your skills, the more likely it is that you'll get your projects done they way they should be.

The reason that I'm writing about this is that even though I think I have a relatively solid grasp of my abilities as a writer, this hasn't always been the case. There have been times when I have overestimated my skills and have failed with my tasks. 

For example, years ago, when I tried writing my first movie screenplay (in 2008), I did not get the project completed. I wasn't even close to coming up with a script that made sense and that had potential to become a movie.

The biggest reason for this was that when I tried writing the movie script, I didn't know the fundamentals of storytelling. I didn't know that I was still an amateur and only at the beginning of my journey as a screenwriter.

By that I mean is that when I started writing the movie, as a writer, I had only managed to complete my very first television spec scripts. I had just finished my 'Boston Legal' scripts, which gave me confidence that I could write movies too.

Naturally, even though I felt confident about myself, I was still clueless about the craft as a whole. Even though it took a lot of talent to write tv scripts, I had very little knowledge about the story structure or how to create my own material.

After all, when it comes to those drama specs for Boston Legal, I was writing for an existing television series. I didn't have to know anything about creating characters from scratch, coming up with overarching storylines or anything else.

So not surprisingly, when it came to this movie writing task, it was just a total failure. I spent months writing stuff that had no organic premise, no interesting characters or anything that would have given the story any direction or momentum.

As a whole, the whole thing was such a disaster, that it took almost ten years before I had the courage to try writing movies again. I didn't have the nerve to try again until I had learned more about the craft and felt that I knew enough to give it a go again.

In that sense, when it comes to the craft of storytelling and writing in general, it's so important that you're aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. You should be aware of what you can do and what are the things that you don't know enough about.

After all, even though it's true that you don't need to know everything about the craft before you start writing, you should know at least the basics. Writing movie scripts is too much of a crapshoot if you don't know how the fundamentals work.

In the end, in my case, being so clueless about the fundamentals clearly hurt me as a writer. It was so unfortunate that I didn't know the basics of story structure and that there were so many things that I still needed to learn as a writer.

After all, had I known about the basics of story structure earlier (Blake Snyder's beat sheet for example), that would have helped me immensely as a writer. It would have made my learning curve so much easier than it turned out to be.

In that sense, I can only hope that those who think about writing movies manage to learn the basics first. I hope that they manage to pay attention to the fundamentals of story structure instead of getting too excited about their strengths and abilities as writers.

After all, if they manage to do those things, writing movies will become so much easier for them. It will become so much easier to come up with screenplays that are good enough and that have the potential to be produced for the big screen too.

Review: 'The Death of Stalin'.

Last week me and my friend managed to watch a film  that I thought would be worth watching. We managed to watch 'The Death of Stalin', a historical drama/comedy, that had gotten good reviews from the critics (96% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes).

After all, when a historical movie gets positive reviews, it's not a difficult decision to give the film a chance. There's a pretty good likelihood that you'll enjoy watching it and that you'll learn something new about history and how the world works.

So having now seen 'The Death of Stalin', it has to be said that I have somewhat mixed feelings about it. Even though I don't think that the movie was bad per se, there were some problems with it that shouldn't be overlooked.

When it comes to the flaws in the film, the biggest problem with the movie is that it's simply too long. The film doesn't manage to keep your attention from start to finish, and goes on for at least thirty minutes longer than it should.

By that I mean is that when we get past Stalin dying - the most interesting part of the movie, the film stops being funny. Instead of the film bringing out laughs and entertaining you, it starts to drag and takes itself too seriously.

The most obvious example of the movie getting too serious and running out of ideas is that when we get to the second hour of the film, it becomes too vulgar. There so much foul language in the movie that it becomes distracting to watch it.

This is especially true when we get to Stalin's funeral and the inevitable power struggle that ensues. In these scenes the characters become completely obsessed with spouting lines that are as obscene and as crass as possible - which does not work at all.

This use of foul language as a crutch wasn't actually that surprising, because the writer and the director of the movie - Armando Iannucci - has been known for using these cheap tricks. His show on HBO, 'Veep' is all about cursing and being obscene.

After all, on 'Veep', the lack of substance, interesting characters and plausible storylines on the show are replaced with vulgarity. The show uses foul language and four letter words to distract you and to make you forget that the series isn't about anything meaningful.

In that sense, when it comes to 'The Death of Stalin', it's unfortunate that the movie resorts to these kinds of cheap tactics. It's unfortunate that it does these things and doesn't pay enough attention to its story and its characters.

After all, when you consider that the premise of the film is pretty interesting, one would have thought that the producers of the movie would have taken their story more 'seriously'. They should have made sure that the script worked from start to finish.

In the end, even though 'The Death of Stalin' obviously isn't a bad movie, it was still pretty disappointing as a whole. It's clear that the film was lacking storywise and that it didn't always know what it was supposed to be about.

After all, considering that the film switched from comedy to drama in its second half, it was hard to care about what was going on after that point. This change in the movie's tone and the excessive amount of cursing in its second half didn't work at all.

In that sense, even though I recommend the film as a history lesson, I don't recommend it as a 'movie'. I don't recommend it as a movie, because even though the film has its moments, there are too many problems with its length, tone, characters and its overall story.