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There are a lot of reasons why I love the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Yes, still, even as a forty year old woman.  Those who hate the movie might find this hard to believe, but Napoleon Dynamite is, at heart, about the deep value of relationships and how they  change us. The movie uses Understatement in a major way, which I think makes it slow-paced and boring at the beginning. If you don't finish the movie, it will be hard to like it, imo. At the beginning of the movie, it's as though the major characters are muffled. Their emotions, their expressions, even the tones of their voices contain little emotion. This is where Irony comes into play. Secondary characters at first appear more alive than main ones. But as the story unfolds, as conflicts are introduced and relationships forged, the primary characters become the ones I root for. And by the end of the movie, a very interesting thing happens. The discovered relationship and connection between the main characters has...

One thing I think writers tend to do is tell motivation. I think sometimes we want to explain a character's past and why they're doing something. I'm not talking about backstory dumps or huge paragraphs of telling. It could be only a line. The movie Georgia Rule inspired this post. The granddaughter tells someone she was molested, but then she says she made it up. The viewer is left to figure out the truth based on nothing more than the character's actions. That's showing motivation. In the movie, we're not told: The mom's an alcoholic so the daughter is an enabler Instead, the daughter acts in certain ways and the informed viewer can guess at her motivation. The daughter was molested Instead, we're shown how the daughter acts with the opposite sex and we're left to draw our own conclusions on why she does what she does. It's tempting to tell the reader why a character is acting a certain way, but sometimes I think the story is much stronger i...

I just saw the movie The Proposal and I really loved it. There were a few shocking scenes but otherwise I was laughing throughout the entire movie. And feeling teary during some parts too. In so many ways, this movie was formulaic. It stuck to the romance formula with some wonderfully spunky dialogue. There were several plot points that I could identify and I could even wedge the characters into their "types". Yet, I really, really enjoyed the movie. In a romance, the reader has to wonder how the two main characters will ever overcome their issues and hook up. This movie epitomized tension. I KNEW they would end up together, but the beginning conflicts were so strong I didn't know how. But I allowed myself to get involved and to enjoy the relationship because I knew that, in keeping with a romance, these two would fall in love and live HEA. :-) Do you write "formulaic"? Is it a box to you, or a safety net?

Last night hubby and I watched a comic strip movie. You know, one of the ones with a genetically altered superhero? I'm not going to say the name 'cause I don't want to spoil it for anyone. Anyways, I really liked the movie, up until the end. To me, the heroine was a great foil for the superhero and through her gentle strength he discovers how to control his own power. It was great. And then the ending... Had nothing to do with romance or their love, but basically sets up questions for a sequel. All well and good, but not fulfilling in any way because the sequel was never hinted at in the movie. They just up and bam it at you in the end. The last scene was in the wrong place, in my opinion. For the movie to have left me with satisfaction, I think it should have ended with the heroine gazing at the pic she has of the hero, or something to that effect. The trail laid was one of love conquering anger. At least that's what I got out of it. Then, at the end, it's suddenl...