Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 24
April 2, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Do Your Research
During COVID, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic thriller Contagion was a surprise streaming hit. That was likely due in large part to its writer Scott Z. Burns’ dedication to research. The movie felt like a kind of documentary all those years later for the simple fact that Burns surveyed all the infectious disease experts he could …
March 27, 2023
Screening Room: A Remake of ‘Vertigo’?
I wrote a self-explanatory article titled “Please, Please Don’t Remake Vertigo” in response to news about a new version being planned by Robert Downey Jr. You can read it at Eyes Wide Open: The real question, though, is not whether a new Vertigo would have value but why make it? Hitchcock was not precious about remakes: He …
March 26, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Go for a Walk
The answer to dealing with many different downturns or challenges is invariably quite simple: Take a walk. As Andrew McCarthy notes in the Times, this simple practice has broad benefits that have been noticed by many learned types: Hippocrates proclaimed that walking is man’s best medicine.’ The good doctor also knew that walking provided more …
March 19, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Have Fun and Carry On
You might think that a writer like Douglas Adams, who not only wrote for Doctor Who early in his career but also collaborated with Graham Chapman and even appeared in a Monty Python sketch, would have no problem with confidence. But as Writer’s Desk has previously noted, Adams was an infamous procrastinator, the kind who …
March 17, 2023
Screening Room: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’
Back when he was just Ted Theodore Logan, who would have guessed that Keanu Reeves would eventually become the last true action star? If that still seems strange to you, check out the epic epicness that is John Wick: Chapter 4, which opens March 24. My review is at PopMatters: The air was charged at …
March 12, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Take Readers on a Journey
Nigerian writer Ben Okri frequently blurs lines between reality and the beyond. His breakout novel, The Famished Road, is about the spirit of a child (named for Lazarus) who has never quite left the physical world but is being enticed to do so by other spirits. Often categorized as an African magic realist, Okri has …
March 5, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Read, Read, and Read Some More
At some point, the writer has to get up out of their reading chair, move to the desk, and get to work. But before they do that, maybe they could read another book? To the untrained eye (as well as the trained, if we are being honest), this looks like procrastination. But really it is …
Continue reading Writer’s Desk: Read, Read, and Read Some More
March 1, 2023
Screening Room: Berlinale Film Festival Redux
My full writeup of the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival just went up at Eyes Wide Open. In short, I’m a fan. Also, there’s a lot of great movies (and some mediocre ones) coming to theaters and screens near you very soon. Keep your eyes open.
February 26, 2023
Writer’s Desk: Making Up the Truth
John Rechy, who scandalized and thrilled with his vividly scabrous novel City of Night, drew heavily from his own life. That does not mean that he felt bound to the record of what actually happened or how: When you use ‘real people’ as characters, there may come a time when the real person and the …
February 22, 2023
Screening Room: Berlinale Film Festival
Back from this year’s Berlinale Film Festival, which was packed with celebrities, retrospectives (Spielberg), buzzy premieres (Sean Penn’s Ukraine documentary for Vice), and a very strong lineup. I wrote up a few movies for Slant, each of which should (hopefully) be hitting a theater near you in the coming year.
