Tag Archives: documentary

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Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show – Review

showrunners poster

When I first heard about the documentary Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, I was understandably intrigued. I mean, you don’t start a movie and TV review site without  a curiosity about the behind the scenes work involved in putting these programs together.

Showrunners is excellent. I can see this documentary becoming required viewing at film schools nationwide. If you are someone who wants to write for film and television, you must watch this movie. It’s 90 minutes of advice from the current top showrunners in the industry. JJ Abrams. Joss Whedon. Bill Prady. Michelle and Robert King. Damon Lindelof…among others. Part of what I like about the film is that Director Des Doyle didn’t limit the interviews to just network shows or just cable shows. Some of the showrunners interviewed debunk the notion that having your show on cable is a better. Though it does seem that everyone who runs a show on HBO loves working for HBO.

showrunners joss whedon

The real beauty of the movie is that it covers the entire job of being a showrunner. It doesn’t just focus on the creative side, and it doesn’t just focus on the business side. A showrunner is more than just a head writer. A showrunner is the one whose vision is guiding the show forward. A showrunner is also the one who answers to the suits at the network. It’s an interesting skill set that is required to being a good showrunner, and it’s discussed in the documentary. One of the showrunners interviewed in the film points out that not all good writers make good showrunners. Sure, you need thick skin to succeed as a writer, but to be a good showrunner, you need to be a good writer, have thick skin, and be a good manager. The more I think about it, the more I can see this becoming a movie shown not only in film classes, but in business classes as well.

showrunners writers room

Even if you’re not interested in having a career in television, I would recommend watching this movie. Unless you’re someone who doesn’t own a television, there is a good chance that the person behind one of your favorite shows is being interviewed here. The Big Bang Theory. Sons of Anarchy. The Good Wife. Boardwalk Empire. The people at the top of these shows are all interviewed, among others.

Showrunners is my favorite documentary of 2014. If you’re a writer, watch Showrunners, then read the book of the same name, and then rewatch the film on  a regular basis to keep the fire of inspiration burning in you.

This review contains an Amazon product link. Purchasing items through these links helps support Tuesday Night Movies. 

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Chasing Ice – Review

4/5 – An Engaging Inconvenient Truth

If you liked the idea of An Inconvenient Truth, but found the movie itself to be as exciting as, well, a PowerPoint presentation, I recommend checking out Chasing Ice.

Chasing Ice is much more personable than An Inconvenient Truth. It puts a human face on climate change. The film  follows environmental photographer James Balog in his quest to document the melting occurring at glaciers around the world. Balog and his team create their own camera housings that can withstand subzero conditions day after day and still function. They also have to trek out to hazardous and inaccessible frozen locales. It’s a project that takes its toll on Balog, both physically and mentally. This toll is what puts the human face on the project. Chasing Ice involves the science that made An Inconvenient Truth what it is, but seeing Balog struggles while undertaking this important project is what sets Chasing Ice a step above Gore’s movie.

What comes out of this project are amazing photographs that show the rapid decline of the polar ice caps. These are photos that should put any climate change naysayers to rest. Chasing Ice is the Food Inc. of climate change. It’s a movie that you must see, but also one that will leave you shaken after you see it.

While I usually catch documentaries at home, I suggest seeing Chasing Ice in the theater if you can. Seeing James Balog’s photographs blown up on the big screen is an awe-inspiring sight. The man is a tremendous photographer. The big screen allows you to really take in what is happening to these ice caps, and serves to make it more dramatic when they fall.

I caught Chasing Ice at the Sebastiani Movie Theater in Sonoma, CA. Expect a post all on its own about that theater soon. If you’re ever in the area, I really recommend catching an evening show there after you’ve spent an afternoon wine tasting at the various wineries’ tasting rooms that dot village square.

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On The Couch 2011 #23: Young@Heart

Young@Heart hooked me right at the open. An elderly woman with a British accent is belting out The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go almost as if it were spoken word poetry before being joined in at the chorus by the rest of her choir.

You haven’t heard “Should I Stay or Should I Go” until you’ve heard this lady sing it.

While watching Young@Heart, I couldn’t help but wish that I have the high levels of energy and enthusiasm that these senior citizens have on display throughout the entire film. Even when their choir director Bob picks a song for them that they don’t initially like, they jump into it, learn it and end up singing it in a way that I think any of the writers of the songs featured in the movie ever envisioned them being sung.

But man, Young@Heart is vicious movie. Unlike The Expendables, not everyone is makes it out of this documentary in the end. It was like watching Lost: as soon as I was really into one of the people in the movie, they died. The fact that these are real people and not characters made it even harder to accept. But Young@Heart turns the deaths in the movies into positive messages. At its core, the movie is about living life to its fullest, and picking up and carrying on when a loved one passes away.

I immediately gave this movie five stars after watching it. I kind of want some of the songs on my iPod as well.

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At The Movies #20 Exit Through The Gift Shop

After weeks of Brooklyn Heights Cinema having movies that I either saw already or weren’t that interested in seeing, it has filled its two theaters with two movies I have been looking forward to catching, Exit Through the Gift Shop and Holy Rollers. The movie poster above and the title of this post may have given away which I went to see first.

For those who don’t know, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary about Thierry, a novice filmmaker, and his immersion into the world of street art.

Or is it? There seems to be some debate whether this is a documentary or a mockumentary in the vein of This is Spinal Tap. The director of Exit Through the Gift Shop is not Thierry, but is the mysterious street artist Banksy, one of the subjects of the movie, who is from the onset the most enigmatic. He is cloaked in shadow and his voice is digitized, which immediately makes him seem like he’s the only one who knows what’s really going on.

No one knows Banky’s true identity.
I suspect he’s Chancellor Palpatine.

Another reason why this all might be fake: Thierry’s facial hair makes him kind of look like Harry Shearer in This is Spinal Tap.

Zey call me zee French Derek Smalls.

If it is fake, that makes the art show for Mr. Brain Wash towards the end of the movie all the more awesome, since it was covered by LA Weekly, attended by big stars and fetched high prices for a potentially non-existent artist.

Or was it?

Whether it’s a real documentary or not, I enjoyed Exit Through the Gift Shop tremendously. It’s highly educational for anyone with even a passing interest in graffiti, or the Obama campaign for that matter. Shepard Fairey is one of the artists featured in the film. From watching his segments, I’m surprised that the vandalism squad of the police force doesn’t have every Kinko’s on lock down.

This might be my inner geek talking, but this is my favorite kind of graffiti.

You should go see Exit Through the Gift Shop, and when you do, catch it at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas. It’s a great place to see a movie.

If we had seen it a day earlier, we might have run into Michael Showalter, according to Twitter. He only tweeted that he saw the movie and liked it; he didn’t indicate where he saw it. But he lives in Brooklyn Heights, so there’s a decent chance he saw it at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas. Hmmm, maybe I’ll carry around my State DVD boxed set and a sharpie with me next time I head there for a movie.

What do you mean stalker-like tendencies? 

I liked Exit Through the Gift Shop so much that I plan on Netflixing the DVD as soon as it’s released, to see the movie again and to check out the bonus features to get insight into the film. Finally! A movie where I’m actually excited for the bonus features section of the DVD. When was the last time you said that?