by Gerry Conway
“A Wrinkle In Time” is a disappointing movie.
I went in with high hopes and left deeply annoyed and saddened.
Category: Film Review
Gerry Conway Asks, “Is Comic Book Publishing Doomed?”
by Gerry Conway
EDITOR’S NOTE: We all know how well comic book heroes, villains, and stories are doing on TV and in films these days – they own those media. However, many of us may not know what’s happening with the motherlode, comic books themselves. Gerry Conway’s here to tell us the ironic truth.
Is comic book publishing a doomed enterprise?
Since the days I first entered the business in the late 1960s, one of the perennial fears of creators and industry executives has been the imminent collapse of the retail comic book market.
The Film Every Film & TV Writer Should See
Not surprisingly, our headline above refers to The Rewrite, written and directed by Mark Lawrence back in 2014 and starring Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei. No, we don’t know who rewrote it. But that doesn’t mean a rewrite or three didn’t happen, yeah?
by Pinar Tarhan
Marc Lawrence’s The Rewrite (2014) is absolutely delightful. Of course, your chances of enjoying it are higher if you like Hugh Grant and/or Marisa Tomei, romantic comedies that aren’t like every other romantic comedy and movies about writers. Not to mention, the cast includes J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney. J.K. Simmons’ loving but tough/sentimental (you need to see it) character provides a hilarious contrast to his Oscar-winning, ruthless role in Whiplash.
I’m a fan of the genre, director/writer (Mark Lawrence) and the cast. And as a screenwriter (aspiring, but still), I do have a weakness for movies featuring screenwriters and their world.
Gerry Conway on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and the Death of the American Middle Class.
by Gerry Conway
There are many reasons to watch this show on Amazon Prime set in 1958 New York City – terrific writing and direction, wonderful and funny performances, and mouth-watering art direction – but one possibly unintended benefit is the view it provides of a vanished American species: the upwardly mobile, culturally secure, highly educated middle class.
Midge Maisel’s father is a professor of mathematics at Columbia University. He earns what I would assume was considered at the time a reasonable middle class salary as a tenured professor (he’s not a department head). With that salary, he put a daughter through Radcliffe College, employs a maid, lives in an expansive Upper West Side apartment, and supports a stay-at-home wife.
I’ve read reviews by younger Generation-X and Millennial writers who apparently think this is a ridiculous fantasy. Sadly, that says more about those writers’ experiences and expectations in post-Reagan America than it does about the realism of a show set in post-World War II boom-time United States.
Gerry Conway Says It’s Time to talk about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
by Gerry Conway
EDITOR’S NOTE: This review is slightly longer and more into cultural-political analysis than the previous review of The Last Jedi on this page. Okay, much longer and more into cultural-political analysis, we admit. But hey, diversity is how we roll over here at TVWriter™. (Uh-oh, we used the D word. Hope the White House won’t mind.) Hope you enjoy both POVs.
Time to talk about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
(I’m going to assume that by now, Sunday of opening weekend, you’ve seen the movie, because, if you haven’t, a: what’s wrong with you? and b: why are you reading my blog?)