The Town

I finally saw Ben Affleck's The Town. It's definitely one of my top ten favorite movies directed by Ben Affleck. I really did enjoy it, but I found myself thinking over and over, "Haven't I seen this already?" It's not a good sign when I leave a movie trying to come up with a this-meets-that which adequately describes it. In this case I was thinking something like Heat meets Good Will Hunting. It has common character arcs with both. And both are in my all-time top ten list, but originality is what makes a movie great, which is why Inception is my favorite movie of the year, followed by Scott Pilgrim.

Seven Pounds (spoilers)

I can't figure out why I think the movie Seven Pounds is very good but not great. I really liked the dialog, the directing, the acting, and the premise/twist, but felt somewhat unsatisfied when the credits rolled. Does it have something to do with losing the main character? I felt the same way about Children of Men, which also had a bittersweet ending. The Empire Strikes Back has an ending far more bitter than sweet, so maybe I'm on the wrong track, since it's possibly the greatest movie of all time, but I'm a tad too young to remember the experience of that ending without the knowledge of what was to come (Ewoks and redemption and so forth).

I don't want to make whatever mistake Nieporte did that keeps it out of IMDb's Top 250, if he actually made a mistake.

Vonnegut Quotes

Supposedly Kurt Vonnegut once said that the first three chapters you write are for you and not the reader, and that you should get rid of them. I like that idea, I think it applies to screenplays as well--though my problem is making the third act long enough but not ridiculous.

"Those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand." -Vonnegut