Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 8
February 2, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Make Readers Believe
Every writer is a fantasist. Whether they’re writing a kitchen-sink domestic drama, romance, YA series about talking dragons, or a mystery novel about a blind accountant who solves crimes, the challenge is the same each time: Make readers believe the world you are creating and the people who inhabit it. J.R.R. Tolkien explained the importance …
January 27, 2025
Screening Room: ‘Anora’ Wins Best Picture from OFCS
A good bit of film-related news here: one of my writers’ associations, the Online Film Critics Society, just named Anora the best film of the year. They also paid good attention to Dune: Part Two in technical areas, at least Challengers a couple nods, largely ignored Emilia Perez, and recognized All We Imagine as Light …
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Screening Room: This Year’s Weird Oscar Nominations
I wrote about the 2025 Oscar nominations and what happened as a result of their overloading the list with too many nods to a pair of highly mediocre films (Emilia Perez, Wicked). The article is at Eyes Wide Open: The Oscars can be weird. We all know this. Some of us, despite remembering that strange …
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January 26, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Avoid Interruptions
It seems so obvious and yet turns out to be so difficult in practice. Finding a good writing space is one thing. Carving out the time on a regular basis is another. Ensuring an uninterrupted run of minutes and hours is always harder than you think. But without those blocks of time, creating something new …
January 19, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Kill Your Adjectives
America’s greatest aphorism factory since Ben Franklin, Mark Twain had a lot to say about a lot of things. Since he was a pretty efficient writer, supposedly averaging about 1,400 words a day, Twain thought a lot about the mechanics of his craft. One of his most frequently quoted pieces of advice came in a …
January 16, 2025
In Memoriam: David Lynch
As in many cases, Mel Brooks said it best. Trying to describe the slightly blank Warholian gee-whizness of David Lynch, Brooks called him “Jimmy Stewart from Mars.” Our beloved alien is no more, departed at the age of 78. I wrote about his last feature film, Inland Empire, on its release in 2006. Unsure if …
January 12, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Write Like You Read
The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice.
January 7, 2025
Screening Room: ‘Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Collection’
Yep, every one of those films in fully remastered 4K Ultra HD. Plus extras. And a cool bookshelf case. My review of Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Collection is at PopMatters: Far from lazy, Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Film Collection delivers a delectable sampling of the director in the late bloom of his career. These six films—Rear Window (1954), To …
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January 5, 2025
Writer’s Desk: Umberto Eco’s Rules
Umberto Eco was the kind of writer many aspire to become. Witty, pugnacious, ridiculously well-read, and generally up for anything, whether it was an ornately detailed conspiracy theory, heavily researched mystery novel, or punchy political essay. Given that, he had a lot to tell other writers about their craft, even if he failed to follow …
December 30, 2024
Screening Room: Best Movies of 2024
My year-end movie review was published at Eyes Wide Open: The weirdest aspect to moviegoing in 2024 was just how weird it wasn’t. That doesn’t mean COVID and streaming haven’t reshaped the industry, likely forever. But with a few standouts, things have settled into a familiar pattern. Audiences flocked to cinematic comfort fare that gave …
