Inside Out is a creative, even revolutionary film that shows the emergence of the Female Myth in worldwide storytelling. Female Myth was wiped out in Western culture about 3000 years ago, and it was a devastating loss to our collective heart and mind. But in just the last few years we

Guardians of the Galaxy is so much fun it’s easy to misunderstand and underestimate the exceptional storytelling craft that went into it. Recently, a writer at the L.A. Times claimed that Guardians is part of a new trend he calls post-plot cinema, whereby any sense of coherent plot go

Spoiler alert: this breakdown contains crucial information about the plot of the episode. In spite of The Hunger Games’ massive success at the box office, many viewers have complained that the movie is not as detailed as the original novel. I always find this comment ridiculous. While

In all the visual splendor of James Cameron’s Avatar, it’s easy to overlook the script. In fact, the Avatar screenplay has come in for the same abuse Cameron’s Titanic script earned. You’ve heard the complaints: the story is a Pocahontas rip-off. The bad guys a

The first screenplay to be produced by novelist Dave Eggers, co-written by his wife Vendela Vida, is Away We Go, one of the dark horses coming out this summer amongst immense blockbusters.  Directed by Sam Mendes and starring a remarkable duo that Eggers and Vida had in mind from conc

All the praise for Slumdog Millionaire has been focused on Danny Boyle for his energetic and colorful direction. No question Boyle’s direction is terrific. But the real key to the film’s success is the script by Simon Beaufoy. Using a unique story structure and scene weave

The animation world has been taking off the last couple of years and that is cause for rejoicing among writers. With Anastasia, we have a new studio, Fox, entering the big-time, and they’ve done a nice job with the animated Broadway musical form that Disney, until now, has owned

Falling Down is probably the funniest movie of the year. It is also a serious, though not totally successful, attempt at social drama. What is useful for us as writers is to see why this strange mix works so well.  All good writing begins with design, and Falling Down is no exception.

Author’s Predicament: Let’s begin to look at this film by focusing on the author’s predicament. Say you’re faced with the task of writing this script. What do you think would be the great difficulty that you’d have to overcome?  Clearly these writers are

The Mission is a very instructive film. It’s got excellent cinematography, beautiful pictures, excellent acting, and yet it’s one of the most disappointing pictures I’ve seen in a long time. In fact, I think structurally it was a mess.  Author’s Predicament: So