Premier assignment....

This was my first assignment for cool Doc. Palakeel screens writing class. I had to post my top ten favorite screeplays of all time (or say just in the last fifteen years)....enjoy!

Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater 1994)-
A witty slacker talk fest transpiring solely between two twenty-something Gen-Ex wayfareres. Ethan Hawke plays Jesse, a heartbroken american vagabond zipping across Austira via Eurorail. He meets Celine (Julie Delpy) twenty minutes before his Vienna stop. Celine in en route to Paris and after terse flirtatious swap Jesse cozens Celine off the train inviting her to embark on an immortal night of self-realization, dreams and young-adulthood discovery. The two sojourners only have one night together before Jesse's flight leaves for the States and the entire film evolves entirely around philosophical dialougue narrowing in on those who are young enough to still dream and not get mired in the brink drudgery of a routine career-oriented existence. Linklater's script is as crystal and ephemeral as his movie--the elusive pot of rhetorical gold momentarily found at the end of the dwindling rainbow. The movie, as well as its recent sequeal (Before Sunset), serves as the best definition of true unalloyed love this writer has ever witnessed.

TRAINSPOTTING (Danny Boyle 1996)
Based on Irvine Welsh's International Bestseller (ten times better than his bleak book) the film adaptation offer a comical take on hardcore heroin abusers as well as hardcore Scotish Brouge. Ewan McGregor offers a superlative perfomance as Mark Renton who has a very operative choice to make. "Choose life. I chose something else." I saw this film six times in the theatre back in 1996. The scenes of London are hard to beat.

Babe 2: Pig in the City ( George Miller 1998)
This was one of Siskle and Ebert's best films of the year. There rationale being, it's the type of movie that inspires young writers to want to write movies. A picaresque, spasmodic romp. Little Pig traverses to the city only to discern that the it's a cruel world indeed. Visually very appeasing.

Sliding Doors ( Peter Howitt 1998)
A cross between Joseph Conrad's "Secret Sharer" and Bill Murphy's adorable GROUNDHOGSDAY. Gwyneth Paltrow misses a London Tube stop (or does she) and her body splits into duals. A soapdish philosophical anglophile gem!

Waiting For Guffman ( Christopher Guest 1997)
A docu-comedy that shines with hilarity when a small town endeavors to take their play "RED, WHITE and Blaine" to the lights of broadway. The narrative of this film takes place solely in "interview" sequences. A superb, portait of rustic american and their unfounded (yet absolutely tear-splintering hilarious) vizionary dreams.

GOOD WILL HUNTING (Damon/affleck 1997)
Unlike our beloved prof, I (to this day) still adore this movie. It captured South Boston and Cambridge academia PERFECTLY. The mathematical chalk board proofs extrapolated by the films protagonist almost persuaded this lil' writer to doff his word processor and don a pocket calculator. Backed by cool Eliot Smith guitar rifts, this is one film that rewards the viewed and somehow lulls them at the same time.

Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson 2001)
Optically, this Indie film looks like it could have been shot in the Vinyl vector of a Salvation Army thrift shop. It ranks with Babe 2 as a movie that compels young film writers into a full-fledged life in the arts. The film is about a lackluster father (Gene Hackman) trying to rectify his familial foibles by pretending he has cancer. Incidentally this was the first movie I saw after my father's swift death (from cancer) and I laughed so fucking hard I cried out all my grief. When a film hits you like this, it's nothing short of a divine aesthetic solace. I'll always be thankful for this film...it served as an emotional sleeve at a time when tears were cumbersome.

LEGENDS OF THE FALL (1994 Edward Zwicks)
I used to have dreamy long dreads just like Tristan. The Montana scenary is stunning. A brawny movie for those boys whose obssesions with Marlboro Men and horses lasted far beyond Trigger.

FIELD OF DREAMS (Costner 1989)
Purely a film for visionaries.

CAST AWAY (ZEMECKS 2000)
This film is brilliant because Tom Hanks relates to an inanimate volleyball WILSON as a fully sentient human being. I love the absence of dialougue and the lulling rake of the ocean smashing upon an isolated shore. A movie for the loner and lover burrowed in all our skulls.