Directed by Robert Altman I almost don't know where to begin with The Player.  There are so many layers and at the same time everything is right there on the surface.  It's a movie about the death of Hollywood, and the ending tells you it has already died.  This is coming from a director, Robert Altman, … Continue reading The Player (1992)

Paul Trillo's Short Films: https://vimeo.com/paultrillo A while ago, maybe a little more than a year, I was looking online for experimental, time-lapse and hyper-lapse films because I was trying to make a time-lapse film of my own.  This vimeo-based research led me to some of the works of a New York based director named Paul … Continue reading Some Stuff I Like Vol. 1

Directed by James L. Brooks Broadcast News is a romantic comedy about a producer, her reporter friend and the new hotshot reporter who knows nothing about the news.  Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), is a news producer who thrives for authenticity and never seems to sleep.  She works most closely with her friend Aaron Altman (Albert … Continue reading Broadcast News (1987)

Directed by Dan Trachtenberg 10 Cloverfield Lane is a horror/thriller set almost entirely in an underground bomb shelter, leaning heavily on only three people to carry the movie.  It's terrifically intense and creepy, but the story doesn't seem to want to commit to extreme horror or something more nuanced.  Instead we're right in the middle, … Continue reading 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Directed by Terry Gilliam I haven't seen a lot of movies from the 90s, but I think I've seen many of the most influential ones (Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Saving Private Ryan, Reservoir Dogs, and a lot of others, maybe even American Pie), and I want to say that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the … Continue reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Directed by Tom Hanks That Thing You Do feels like a parody of every music biopic I’ve ever seen.  It’s predictable and playful and sets up all the ways the characters’ success can be undone, but then it mostly ignores those set ups and loses all momentum, choosing to end on a romance that never … Continue reading That Thing You Do (1996)

Written by Rebecca Miller, Karen Rinaldi (114 pages) Maggie's Plan is a story about a character, Maggie, who has to be in control of everything in her life.  She cannot stand the idea of leaving something up to chance.  Her need for control is only hinted at in the beginning and made very clear by … Continue reading Maggie’s Plan (2015) [Script Only]

Directed by James Cameron Almost right away I decided that I didn't like this film as much as I liked Alien.  This decision was based on me not wanting to like this movie as much as that one, and an early nightmare Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has that felt like a cheap attempt to scare the audience … Continue reading Aliens (1986)

Directed by Ridley Scott Well, this film scared the hell out of me.  I guess I should've remembered that this is a horror film set in space, particularly with the tagline "in space no one can hear you scream," but somewhere along the way I forgot and thought of this as another thrilling jaunt through … Continue reading Alien (1979)

Directed by Sydney Pollack In Three Days of the Condor, we follow a bookish CIA agent named Joseph Turner (Robert Redford) run and fight for his life against unknown assailants who have murdered his entire team of CIA analysts.  As the title says, this films is very condensed, particularly the first act of the film.  Joseph … Continue reading Three Days of the Condor (1975)