Mark Twain, who knew whereof he spoke, wrote that the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug. This is true, and it’s even more so with dialogue. You can get across what a character would say, and tell your story. Or you can, every […]
Because writing is a spectacularly uncinematic occupation, almost all films about writers rely on tricks more congenial to celluloid: to wit, the writer has an adventure, the writer magically produces a book and is instantly famous with complications, the real-life famous writer experiences a spectacular event that prefigures his classic perfectly and establishes that he […]
One small point about John Kasich’s brag that he tried to bully Blockbuster video into banning FARGO — he specifies that it was the word-chipper scene that caused him and his wife to eject the film, “right there in the middle.” People have already waxed eloquent about his arrogance in believing that his personal revulsion […]