I’ve said for as long as I can remember that there’s no such thing as a bad year for movies. To be sure, there are some years, such as 1999, that are positively crammed full of classics. To be also sure, there are other years where the number of quality films is…uh…a little reduced! But […]

There’s an old rule in screenwriting that posits the idea that your main character should be likable. Like many rules in the art world, it’s completely wrong. Cowardly studio executives and shallow screenwriting gurus drill down on this concept because it’s easy. They assume that if viewers are stuck with a protagonist that isn’t morally […]

Like all great romances, it began with a connection. He was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, in an enthusiastically Catholic household. Was it the fixation on blood, death, and rebirth that steered his imagination in a certain direction? Perhaps, but who can say for sure? The only thing we do know is, starting from a very […]

In order for a film to be considered successful, the rule of thumb is that it must make back at least twice its production budget.* Crimson Peak, the newest film from visionary director Guillermo del Toro, had an estimated production budget of around $55 million. So far, it’s only made back about $16 million. It’s tanking hard, […]