Tales from the Script

 

Story:

Dozens of acclaimed Hollywood screenwriters discuss their successes and failures, share amusing anecdotes and insider insights, and reveal their experiences with big-name actors and directors in this fascinating documentary. Writers include William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver), John Carpenter (Halloween), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and many others. (Netflix)

Review:

As a writer, I’m always interested to hear what other writers have to say about their craft.  Unfortunately, the direction and editing of Tales from the Script takes an interesting topic and morphs it into 105 minutes of mindless chatter.  There is a clear attempt to create a story by isolating specific areas of conversation and editing the various interviewees’ musings together; however, the lack of compelling footage makes for a film that is utterly uninteresting.  The series of talking-head shots may have been engaging had it been of different, perhaps more recognizable personalities but unfortunately that is the nature of the screenwriter profession (no on is recognizable).

Bear in mind that the story told in this film is a cautionary tale.  The writers collectively spend most of the conversation talking about why one should NOT go into the field of screenwriting.  The fact that writers for the theater are treated as gods and writers for the screen are completely steamrolled may, in fact, come as an intriguing reveal to many of this film’s viewers, but I’d be willing to bet that it does not come as a great surprise.  The writers’ tales of woe run the spectrum of being underpaid to being kicked off a film days before it was nominated for an award.  The storytelling that happens in the editing tries to redeem its subjects endeavors in the last few minutes by stringing together the writers’ final words on why it is that they do what they do, but it seems at this point to be too little and far too late.

Reviewed by Emily Comisar for Documentary Film Online on July 30, 2010

In Conclusion: