Movie monologues are always a gamble. Stripped of fancy camerawork and the crutch of computer-aided imagery, it reduces the artform to it’s most basic expression. Screenwriters and actors come together to crystalize a thought in riveting real time, risking the ridicule of a heavy-handed assesment gone wrong. Whether a speech, a mission statement, or a […]
Author: Danilo Castro
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10 Famous Movies That Were Supposed to Be Sequels to Other Movies
Sequels are everywhere in Hollywood. It’s a practical pastime of the trade that successful products get return trips, though this trek may not always prove as easy as it seems. Outlandish pitches, hack scripts, or even the genuinely clever follow-up have filtered through studio funnels, to the point where plans are eagerly announced to the […]
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The 15 Best Writer-Directors of All Time
On the surface, writing and directing a feature film are two wildly different gigs. The image of a closed-off writer typing away in a dark room directly contrasts with the bombastic ideal of the director sporting a megaphone and a viewfinder. But if one looks closer, such responsibilities have more in common than meets the […]
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10 Ways Orson Welles Changed Cinema Forever
In the century since his birth, George Orson Welles has come to embody the definition of a misunderstood genius. A well documented prodigy of stage, radio, and film, his career would ultimately take a path of obscurity and unpredictability, falling far from the carte blanche infamy of his Hollywood origins. For a great many decades, […]
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The 10 Best Neo-Noir Films of The 2010s (So Far)
For all its visual baggage of fedoras and femme fatales, film noir has acclimated quite well to the modern age. Musicals, westerns, and gangster movies have since come and gone, leaving these dimly lit crime drama to trudge on alone as part of the international psyche. Granted, the trenchcoats and “copper” talk have been swapped […]
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The 10 Best Hostage Movies of All Time
A hostage situation is one of the rare plot devices that can pop up in any genre, be it action, suspense, or drama. It provides a hothouse of emotional conflict between captors and victims, often times yanking out both the best and the worst of every person involved. For filmmakers, it’s the perfect excuse to […]