Word: scripted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...agents gave an anonymous sample of Saddam's handwriting to a leading graphologist recently, the analyst said the writer suffered from severe megalomania with symptoms of paranoia. Graphology is even less of a science than long-distance psychiatry, but there is other evidence besides the loops and whorls of script. Saddam had himself photographed not long ago in a replica of the war chariot of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king whom Saddam apparently reveres as his hero. Despite a bout of insanity, which is recounted in The Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar made his name in history by destroying Jerusalem...
...peace, decides it is time to clear out of Miami. He follows a welsher to Los Angeles and, in the process of collecting some money he is owed, becomes fascinated by the movie business. He wants to direct films, of course, and he has an idea for a script about a good-looking, sympathetic loan shark. The author's lovely, slightly malicious joke (Leonard has worked in Hollywood) is that among the movie town's barracudas, electric eels and ink-ejecting squid, a loan shark fits right in. Chili clearly has a great future, despite a disagreement with his prospective...
Havel's creative script is not wasted on director Orion Ross. Ross molds the play into a dimension not only of sight, but of sound. The play opens with China Forbes off-stage, singing in her clear, strong, beautiful voice, while John Ducey and Blake Spraggins bumble about in pantomime as social scientists Karel Kriebl and Emil Machal. And in the first true scene, Ross creates a breakfast interlude in which the clanking of silverware, plates and glasses speak as much as the characters at the table...
What is at times disappointing is Lee's script. At some points, Lee's writing shines. Particularly noteworthy are the exchanges which go on between the band members backstage, in practice, and at parties. There, Lee's wit comes through in humorous and insightful glimpses into the machoism of contemporary Black males. Lee's scripting of the female characters is considerably weaker. Their personalitites are a bit flat, if not stereotypical, and their dialogue, far from natural and convincing, consists of contrived speeches which Lee lazily uses to move the plot along...
...Gotta Have It, than with his two later, more overtly political works. This, taken with the film's use of Hollywood cliches and Lee's self proclaimed radicalism, is what gives Mo' Better Blues the self-indugent hypocritical air I spoke of eariler. Yet despite the uneveness of the script, solid performances (especially Washington's), lush visuals, a sensuous music score and Lee's subtle wit, easily elavate Mo' Better Blues into the class of strong, if not great, films. Lee's standards are very hard to live up to, even by the controversial filmmaker himself...