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A review by nico1000
Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
4.0
I watched Chinatown.
The message is good, but the examples...
It's very TCM. And not that classics aren't classic for a reason, but I don't think you should tell people to aspire to be a TCM movie. Movies and screenwriting have come a long way, and sure there are some Transformers movies mixed in there, but we're also just entering a Golden Age of TV. This is the time of Dunkirk and Civil War, so all in all it comes off a bit like "Can someone stop Grandpa from arguing about how things were better in his day? He's getting angry again..."
The tone is off, but the core content is good, and he approaches that with such a wild glee, that his enthusiasm is contagious. It got me to watch Chinatown, after about two decades of passing it over. And I finished it. That's how hard he sold it.
I like gurus who drink there own kool-aid. It's not as instructive as [b:The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller|1383168|The Anatomy of Story 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller|John Truby|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316636763s/1383168.jpg|1373171] but all he's really trying to do is get people to take a greater pride in what they do and stop half-assing it.
The message is good, but the examples...
It's very TCM. And not that classics aren't classic for a reason, but I don't think you should tell people to aspire to be a TCM movie. Movies and screenwriting have come a long way, and sure there are some Transformers movies mixed in there, but we're also just entering a Golden Age of TV. This is the time of Dunkirk and Civil War, so all in all it comes off a bit like "Can someone stop Grandpa from arguing about how things were better in his day? He's getting angry again..."
The tone is off, but the core content is good, and he approaches that with such a wild glee, that his enthusiasm is contagious. It got me to watch Chinatown, after about two decades of passing it over. And I finished it. That's how hard he sold it.
I like gurus who drink there own kool-aid. It's not as instructive as [b:The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller|1383168|The Anatomy of Story 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller|John Truby|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316636763s/1383168.jpg|1373171] but all he's really trying to do is get people to take a greater pride in what they do and stop half-assing it.