1EQQ8ZzGD

screenwriting
How do screenwriters feel about
bad reviews, in particular claims of
formulaic writing?
Sean Hood, Professional screenwriter and director (See
wikipedia or IMDB). Graduate of USC's School of Cinematic
Arts, and currently an instructor there.
Critics, being writers themselves, love to target the screenwriter
when they write vicious reviews. I know that the original
spec script for "Bad Teacher" was extremely well-received
by readers, agents, and executives across Hollywood, but I can
guarantee that Anthony Lane did not read that spec script
and is basing his pan of the script on what he saw on screen.
This can be very frustrating for the writer if s/he had much
of their original script changed during production and post.
(For example, my brother, Brendan Hood, has had scathing
reviews for a horror movie he wrote called They. Although
he got sole credit for the film, every single word was rewritten
by a team of subsequent writers, producers, and even PA's on
set. The result was that he got called a "talentless screenwriter,"
based on a film that he actually didn't write.)
Though I am an avid reader of the new Yorker, I think
Anthony Lane is an annoying critic. every review of a Hollywood
film he writes can be summarized as follows: Here are
all the numerous ways that I, Anthony Lane, am so, so, SO
much more clever and sophisticated than the movie I am reviewing
and the people who made it.
What is frustrating for screenwriters and movie fans is
not that this isn't true. Anthony Lane IS far more clever and
sophisticated than the movies he reviews. But, why the hell
is he reviewing "Bad Teacher" in the first place? Is it any surprise
that "Bad Teacher" doesn't have a title worthy of Raymond
Chandler? or that some of the scenes are derivative
and that these scenes are not as well executed as those in classics
like "Cool Hand Luke?"
From a screenwriter and filmmaker's perspective, this
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