In Real Time
Since I started reviewing again, I’ve been overwhelmingly positive about exactly two scripts: 1. Passengers 2. Birdman That’s out of [counting today] nine reviews. Six other writers completely struck out […]
Author Archives: Joel Barish
Practical Ontologies
Segment 14: The Author’s Obligation in Refabrication Part of me feels bad for making up another new word, but only for a moment and then that moment is gone. The […]
Rothchild
I opened this script with high hopes… I mean, this was the fifth highest rated script on The Black List, it would have to be good, right? The dude who […]
The Antipodes of Literature
I have decided to begin this [experimental] section with an old post from my blog. It is fitting because it shows where the title of the book came from [I […]
Kill Your Darlings
Segment 2B A Reviewer’s Perspective: The next step in continuing to look at screenwriting from a practical [rather than a theoretical] perspective, is to examine your finished product through the […]
Passengers
I’ve had this script for three years. It’s one of those that was always near the top of my reading list, but for some reason, never made it to that […]
The Portland Condition
This was [by miles] the most unbelievably bizarre script I’ve ever read. It has an amazing hook which is not mentioned until page 7. That hook is then ignored as […]
StoryQuarks
How Some Sequences Are Like the Quarks in a Proton: After several failed attempts to metaphoricize (106) my ideas about individual sequences, I finally hit upon the comparison stated above. […]
Man of Tomorrow
This script comes from the 2012 Black List. I began opening scripts from that file on my computer, and kept opening them until one of them [this one] propelled me […]
The Flowers of Failure
Part Two A Practical Approach Segment 13: A Blueprint: A big part of me doesn’t want to include this segment. The most valuable parts of this essay are any parts […]
Searching for Charlie Kaufman 