FrankenScript :: Lee Gabel's Screenwriting Journal/Blog

George Clooney chose wisely having Ryan Gosling play the lead of this political boiler. He’s terrific. In fact the whole cast is terrific. This story heats up like you’re watching a slow-cooker, and it gets better and better as we go along. You get a good look the internal machinations of running a political campaign [...]

This is the film that started a series of sequels of diminishing returns. Luckily, this is the only film of the trilogy that you need to see. The nice thing about this film is not only is it fun and funny, you also learn things you may not have known about Australia. Kozlowski and Hogan [...]

Right from the very beginning you feel something’s wrong. By the time I found out the “twist”, I just didn’t care anymore. The characters were not compelling, and I had a hard time believing that a man would go through all that trouble “after the fact” to make another’s life hell. It’s silly. There’s no [...]

This is a sprawling epic, with great performances from both Kidman and Jackman. The film looks fantastic too but at 165 minutes, it’s much too long. The problem with historical dramas sometimes is the filmmakers want to put it all in. In films, you need to focus on certain aspects of history, much like when [...]

I just can’t get enough of Ryan Gosling these days. Again, he plays a character unhinged, able to offer the tenderest moment and focused rage in a single moment. This is a powerful drama based on a true story, involving one man’s influence on the lives of his son and daughter-in-law. Gosling plays a chameleon [...]

This is a very good film. It is introspective and slow to get going, but it takes that time to build depth to its characters, even with the main character being a man of few words. He drives. He loves to drive. Driving is his life, but even that is not enough anymore. He holds [...]