The Lost Leonardo
I saw the Danish filmmaker Andreas Koefoed’s new documentary The Lost Leonardo at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s currently playing at Film Forum. Like the Netflix film, Made You Look: The Story About Fake Art, it documents an art world so obsessed with money that its players are willing to deceive themselves in order to […]
I'll Come Running
Although many indie filmmakers—Gus Van Sant, Matthew Porterfield and Joe Swanberg, among others—have used more minimal forms of scripts, such as outlines and treatments, Spencer Parsons and Line Langebek [Knudsen] have argued in favor of a more detailed and “overwritten” script, which they term the “spacious screenplay.” As they explain, “The screenplay is chiefly written […]
Young Bodies Heal Quickly
Andrew T. Betzer’s debut feature Young Bodies Heal Quickly (2014), a bizarre road movie about two brothers on the lam, might not be the most legible film, but it more than compensates through its weirdness, unpredictability, and sheer visceral impact. The film begins with a toilet sitting atop a tall sculptural contraption. We see a […]
The 8th Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) International Conference Call for Papers
The 8th Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) International Conference Call for Papers Screenwriting: Text and Performance The 8th Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) International Conference will take place at the University of London, UK on Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th September 2015. It is organised by a committee from different institutions grouped around the London Screenwriting Research […]
Butter on the Latch
Josephine Decker’s evocative feature Butter on the Latch (2013) manages to create and sustain a palpable sense of anxiety, dread, and foreboding throughout its riveting 72 minutes. Using a five-page treatment rather than a traditional script and employing improvised dialogue from its three main characters, Decker’s film probes the psyche of a young woman who […]
Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
Sam Fleischner’s Stand Clear of the Closing Doors (2014) tells the story of a thirteen-year-old autistic boy who gets lost in the New York subways in the period leading up to Hurricane Sandy. Although the film employs a dramatic framework – a family’s search for a lost child with a disability – the film is […]
See You Next Tuesday
In Richard Linklater’s recent runaway indie hit, Boyhood (2014), it is the parents who make a mess of their lives while the two children suffer quietly but somehow grow wiser from the experience. In his debut feature, See You Next Tuesday (2013), Drew Tobia presents a much different spin on the dynamics of a dysfunctional […]
Night Moves
After a slow start to her career, Kelly Reichardt has gradually emerged as one of the very best American filmmakers. Her trajectory has been a consistent upward slope since Old Joy (2006) brought her back into the limelight twelve years after her debut feature River of Grass (1994). None of her films has been a […]