-
Westerns, Anti-Westerns and Neo-Westerns
Western is a genre set primarily in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th century in the Western United States, the “Old West”. Before WW2, these stories were a celebration of American expansionism.
-
People In Hell Just Want A Drink Of Water by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“People In Hell Just Want A Drink Of Water”: When it comes to neighbours who’ve been through terrible hardship, no one asks all that much of you. You’re not going to fix their problems, but you can extend just a little kindness and that’ll go a long way. “People In Hell Just Want A Drink […]
-
The Blood Bay by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
At around the same time Annie Proulx published “The Blood Bay”, an episode of Six Feet Under saw Claire in big trouble for stealing a severed foot from her family’s funeral business and taking it with her to school. That episode, like this story, was darkly funny and made use of someone’s severed foot. It […]
-
Job History by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
Reading “Job History” in 2017, I propose an updated subtitle: “The Life and Times of a Trump Voter”. Annie Proulx doesn’t seem to go public with her voting decisions but her interest in the environment and the ideas in her fiction suggest she’s probably not on board with what’s going on in the USA this year: [Annie Proulx’s] […]
-
The Mud Below by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Mud Below” was first published in the 1998 summer issue of The New Yorker and is the second short story in Proulx’s Close Range collection, retitled Close Range: Brokeback Mountain And Other Stories after the movie adaptation.
-
The Half-Skinned Steer by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Half-Skinned Steer” by Annie Proulx is, as said by Mary Lee Settle “as real as a pickup truck, as ominous as a fairy tale.”
-
The Homesman (2014) Film Study
With similarities to Million Dollar Baby, The Homesman is a film about an old man who has regrets but no character arc after meeting a young woman in desperate circumstances. The 2014 Homesman film is closely based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, first published 1988. Glendon Swarthout died just four years after this novel […]
-
Carrie by Stephen King Film Study
I want to talk about the 1976 movie based on Stephen King’s 1974 (breakout) novel, Carrie. Critics don’t like the new one much. The criticism is mostly that the remake was unnecessary because the first adaptation was so good. The original has a slower, more sinister pace and the main thing the reboot did was […]
-
Desperate Housewives Storytelling Tips
Desperate Housewives ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012. This show is a great example of a ‘cozy mystery’. TAGLINES Taglines are for the marketing copy. Season One: Everyone has a little dirty laundry…/Secrets. Romance. Murder. All On One Street. THE LOGLINE/PREMISE For maximum narrative drive the premise should be all about the plot. […]
-
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) Novel Study
Me And Earl And The Dying Girl is a metafictive coming-of-age film based on a young adult novel by the same name. The book is an example of ‘sick-lit‘. Greg […] is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films […]
-
Storytelling Tips From Kings Of Summer (2013)
Sometimes when you find out a story used to be called something different right up until the marketing team stepped in, the original name can offer extra insight. Kings of Summer was originally called “Toy’s House”. The main character is called Joe Toy, and I did spend a bit of time wondering if this is a symbolic […]
-
The Edge Of Seventeen Film Study
The Edge of Seventeen is a coming-of-age movie about an American girl called Nadine who struggles to fit in. That could describe many of us in our teen years, but with Nadine there’s a bit more to it. STORY STRUCTURE OF THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN The film opens to a witty, high stakes dialogue scene […]
-
Adventureland Storytelling Techniques
Adventureland is a 2009 coming-of-age movie written and directed by Greg MottolaIn. In the summer of 1987, a college graduate takes a ‘nowhere’ job at his local amusement park, only to find it’s the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.
-
Cowboys, Westerns and Lonesome Dove
Here’s the premise of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove: Two Texas Rangers decide to move cattle from the south to Montana running into many problems along the way. CONTROLLING IDEA Detail a legendary journey while including the harsh realities of Wild-Western life to show that the ‘legends’ of the Wild West were ordinary men working in […]