Saturday Night Movie: North & South (BBC and Richard Armitage!)

Another long movie (4 hours ish?), but again, SO WORTH IT!!! Like Jane Eyre, there are moments in this movie that give me chills just thinking about it. And hello. Richard Armitage.



I don't watch these movies just for the beautiful men, I promise. Ok, so mostly for the beautiful men, but its freaking Elizabeth Gaskell and the BBC, which also most definitely add to the awesome. Weekends are obviously good movie times, and if you're not going to be reading the book, then the BBC is quite a good alternative. Although, read the book too. And did I mention Richard Armitage?

Take a few hours this weekend and bless your life.

Sarah Allen

Saturday Night Movie: Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre, 2006)

Picking ONE and ONLY ONE favorite movie (or book) is so impossible its ridiculous. However. If someone asked me if I could watch only one movie ever for the rest of my life, my answer could quite possibly be:



Its long, yes, (about 4 hours) but so worth it its ridiculous. And Toby Stephens. Oh help my melting single soul. Did I mention its ridiculously good?

Sarah Allen

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides

Ok. It's late, but here are my quick thoughts, after my second time seeing it.

Happy happy happy for any chance to see Johnny Depp and Geoffory Rush, and Captain Jack is sexy.

So relieved to be rid of Kiera and Orlando. Sorry, but its the truth.

The first pirates is still totally the best, and I still think they should have stopped there, but I think I actually enjoyed this new one more then 2 and 3.

Plot was not great, kind of sketchy.

Cleric dude and mermaid story was cute, they both provided the eye-candy they were meant for. Meh. Whatever.

Some great Jack and Barbosa moments, which is the main point for me anyway. "We shall need a cross-bow, an hourglass, three goats and one of us must learn to play the trumpet while the other goes like this." And come on, the whole movie is worth it just for the part when Barbosa puts on his really big hat.

Most of all I want that screen shot of Johnny coming up in the fog as the wallpaper in my room, with the famous grinning over his shoulder from the first movie for the other wall. And the music of course was awesome.

What did you think?

Sarah Allen

Fun Film for Friday Night: Grumpy Old Men with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau

I mentioned a bit ago that I had watched a movie called Grumpy Old Men with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau. It really is one of those films thats right up my alley. It is absolutely the kind of story with the kinds of characters that I find most fascinating, and that I typically try for in my own writing. That basically means crusty weathered men who finally have someone recognize their sweet side. So if you're bored or looking for a movie for your weekend, here's one that made me beam.



Do you have a movie that just hit you as exactly the kind of thing you try to write?

Sarah Allen

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

Last night a few friends and I went and saw the midnight showing of Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'. The first thing I want to say is that it was very worth seeing, and I highly recommend it. Very well done.

I'm usually not a fan of whimsical, fluffy, somewhat weak female lead characters (i.e. Cozette, Juliette...Bella Swan) and Alice can definitely tend that way, but I was actually very impressed with Mia Wasikowska. She gave Alice some spunk and likeability, and when she came out in her suit of armor she was actually pretty kick-butt.

The script, a combination of Carrol's work, was awesome! This was sort of Through the Looking Glass round II, and I think it worked. It started me thinking of what other authors you could combine/sequel like that. C.S. Lewis? Dickens? Shakespeare?

Having said all that, the best thing in the movie was by far Johnny Depp. Not surprising, considering he's usually the best thing in everything he's in. His slight gap-toothed lisp was perfect, and the exact quirk we as the audience need to get us really into the character. To put it simply, he is unnaturally natural in unnatural characters. Everything he does intriguing. It is interesting how the little quirks like that can delve so deeply into a character. This role is just another feather in Johnny Depp's hat. Pun intended.

Putting Ann Hathaway into a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp world absolutely did not work. I'm sorry, but she was terrible. Distractingly so, in my opinion. Her inflections and physicalities seemed awkward and forced, like she didn't quite know how to keep up with Depp and Bonham Carter.

So what are the artistic lessons to take from this? The best characters have quirks that bring you in and attach you to them. All the characters need to be of equal quality, if not equal importance, or the weaker ones will distract like a sore thumb. Give your main characters some determination and umph.

Go see this movie! It is very Tim Burton-esque, which I consider a good thing. It's not one I'm dying to go pay ten bucks to see again, but most definitely worth paying for a first time, and most definitely worth seeing. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Sarah Allen

The Meryl Streep/Sandra Bullock Theory

In comparing these two phenomenal actresses, I have come across some interesting ideas, which, though inspired by actors, can apply to any kind of art, including creative writing.

These two actresses demonstrate two different approaches to art, or two different kinds of artists. See which category you mostly fall under, and see what you can learn from the other.

The Bullock Way: If you think about it, Sandra Bullock really only plays one type of character: herself. In most her movies she looks and acts basically the way she is in real life. And she does it brilliantly. She has made an art out of being herself. She takes her own personality and uses it to mold whatever character she's given, and it turns out hilarious, down-to-earth, and just very natural. You can apply this to any art form, but its harder to do then it seems, because if its going to work you have to be utterly honest with yourself and expose that inner part of you that relates to and is accessible to everyone. Maybe try sitting down and just write something and focus on being utterly you. See what you come up with.

The Streep Way: Ms. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, has never played the same character twice. She is one of the most diverse, prolific and stunningly genius actresses of our time, and the list of characters she's portrayed is huge. Witchy fashion boss to Julia Childs. Singing, flower power mamma to vindictive nun. And that's only her recent stuff. Don't get me wrong, obviously she puts part of herself in to every part she plays; the thing is, she is able to put herself into such a variety of characters. This is also hard to do. Its risky and potentially uncomfortable. But it can also turn out incredible stuff if you let it. Try genres, formats and mediums you haven't tried before. Create characters and stories that are way out there for you. For example, I've never tried YA or speculative fiction, so maybe my next short story will be a YA fantasy. I think lyrics would be really hard for me and doubt I'd be that good at it, so at some point I want to stretch myself and try it.

Both sides have benefits, and creating stuff in both veins is probably a good idea. What are your thoughts? Do you see the dichotomy or am I way off base?

Sarah Allen

Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

This movie has been out for a while, and I've wanted to see it since then, but tonight I actually got to. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Here is what I think creative writers can learn from J. J. Abram's success.

Pull no punches: Give your characters everything you've got. As I heard somewhere, chase them up trees. Then throw rocks at them. I don't think I could count on one hand the number of times Kirk was nearly throttled to death, every time by someone new. Because no punches were pulled in this movie, there was never a dull moment. Something important was always going on, and the characters will always in significant, meaningful situations. Make sure every moment in your book is meaningful. If it can get worse, make it worse. If its too easy, it won't be that big a deal to your character, therefore, not that big a deal to your reader. Make your characters work for everything they're worth, and then when they finally emerge victorious in some way, then they and your reader will feel that they've truly had a meaningful experience.

Show the inner marshmallow: On the outside, Spock is completely intellectual, stoic, and apathetic. After all, he's Vulcan. But he's also part human, and we see this in his break down moments, and moments of romantic affection. This is why the emotionally driven human audience can relate to him as a character. Whether your characters are human or not, we need to be able to relate to them in some way. Even some human characters aren't completely "human". Think of Ebeneezer Scrooge. But even then, by the end of the book, we see how utterly human he truly is. And this is why we love him.

Hit the cultural core: Imagine you're a lifelong trekkie, devoted to the show since the beginning. Now, almost half a century later, yet another Star Trek movie comes out. As you sit there watching, the one and only Leonard Nemoy appears on the screen. Not only that, but the ending sequence of the movie is Nemoy himself, reciting the infamous Trek monologue. Those kind of things makes the movie mean that much more. Its a bit of art that has already proven itself, so much so in fact it has become part of our culture. Use it! Pull in bits of art and culture that already mean something to people, and when you do it right, you pull in those people.

So what do you think of this movie? What did you learn from it?

Sarah Allen

Avatar vs. Sherlock Holmes

As the two big movies of this month, I thought it might be fun to compare the two and see what we can learn from them. So here goes.

Avatar: The most exciting thing in this movie was definitely the graphics. They did a good job with the spectacle aspect. Also, I thought the general premise was interesting, but I didn't quite feel like the film as a whole lived up to its premise. The story itself was pretty cool, but the actual writing wasn't anything special. Neither was the acting. It wasn't particularly awful, but it wasn't great either. Like I said, the graphics were definitely the most exciting thing, and I really didn't think it lived up to all the hype.

So what can writers learn from Avatar? An exciting premise is a wonderful starting point. Have the adventure and excitement and spectacle. But don't let those things get in the way of subtle plots and sub-plots and deep characters. You want characters that your readers can really relate to and that they will remember for years to come.

Sherlock Holmes: Really, really great character acting by both Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law. It is so awesome to see good looking guys willing to get crazy and dirty. The story itself was just as good as Avatar's, and I would say better, and the actual writing of it, the dialogue and everything, was much, much better. It was fantastic, in fact. I think both the story and the characters had the subtlety I was missing in Avatar. It was great visually as well, with wonderful cinematography. It ended with a very obvious cliffhanger, which makes me excited for the sure-to-come sequel.

What I learned from Sherlock Holmes is this: you've got to have characters that readers can really root for. RDJ played a wonderfully quirky Holmes that we can enjoy, and RDJ as a person is someone movie goers have come to admire and support. We love struggling yet somehow victorious characters, and both Holmes and RDJ give us that. Also, though spectacle is fun and exciting, more memorable and successful stories are created with subtlety and ambiguity. Subtle stories are also ones that you want to read over again, and when you do, you catch something new.

And the winner is: Sherlock Holmes, definitely. It has more intriguing subtlety and plain old good writing and acting then Avatar, and would be more exciting to see a second time. The story and characters are much more memorable, and not just because Holmes has been part of our culture for a long time. To me these movies show just how important character is; more important then setting or plot in terms of creating literature that will become part of the culture for years to come.

So create memorable, subtle characters. Happy writing!
Sarah Allen

Movie Spotlight and Creative Writing Lessons: Julie and Julia

I'm going to try to keep this from becoming just a Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci love fest, and actually take some good writing lessons from the movie, but I want to just start out by saying how incredibly talented and stunningly superb both Streep and Tucci are. They are both so believable and, in this movie, utterly adorable. I could very easily go on, but let's look at some specifics and see what we can learn.

Adaptability: If you look at the last movie Streep and Tucci did together (Devil Wears Prada, another amazing movie), you see the stunning adaptability both of them show in going from the characters in that movie to the new ones. Particularly Streep. She went from being one of the most believable snarky witch bosses ever on screen to a very successful portrayal of a sweet, vulnerable, real life woman. Within a book, you've got characters as diverse as those ones that have to come from your own head. Look to Streep's performances as a brilliant example of how its done. And this is applicable not only for character, but genre. If you've never written speculative fiction, get out of your comfort zone and try some. Maybe try a screenplay or poetry, if that's something you haven't tried before. It may turn out to be fun, and will most likely improve your writing in whatever genre you typically write in.

Vulnerability: The lesson from this is that there absolutely must be conflict. In this movie, the Childs' marriage is practically perfect, and provides some wonderfully poignant and passionate moments. The conflict is not between the two of them. But then we get these scenes of vulnerability, where we see how unsatisfied he is with is job, and how she wants a baby so badly she sometimes just can't take it. These moments show how much the two rely on each other for emotional strength and support, and makes the happy moments in their marriage mean so much more. So if you want a sweet, poignant romance in your book, that is wonderful and will touch many readers. But the trick is to make the characters vulnerable in other ways, to show how much the happy relationship is needed. Every character must be vulnerable in some way so we can relate to them.

Balance: Streep way out-performed Amy Adams, not just in talent but in story. Make sure that if you have two leads you either deliberately make one better then the other, or make them equal. Even with antagonist and protagonist, you can't make one less powerful or interesting then the other. They need to be deliberately matched, or else its unbalanced, which, if thats what you're going for, then great. I think this is just something to be aware of so we don't misuse it.

Hope this helps! I highly recommend this movie/Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. Learn from it, but also, just enjoy it!

In the words of Julia Childs, Bon Appetit!

Sarah Allen