The Dead Girl and other Hollywood joys

My time here in LA is going well. Spent the morning interviewing Haskel Wexler - what an incredible person! Spent the evening with a friend from Grad School - Dan Aznavorian. Dan's a good guy. Dan's a methodical guy. Tomorrow - Peggy Rajski. It's a full week of work.

However, one of the great joys of coming to LA is always the free movies. Last trip, I staked out the Burbank movie plex to get a free pass to some movie being test screened. This trip I just waited for free movie passes to show up in my inbox from 'Creative Screenwriting' magazine.

Ding goes the e-mail, and boom, we went to see "The Dead Girl" from Karen Moncrief, director of "Blue Car." Interesting movie. It's one of those multiple vignette movies, which I like the idea of but am not always fond of. The guy beside me was writing something - I'm hoping a term paper. At the end he says, "What's the point of all these vignette movies anyways?" After I gave the nod of agreement, I realized he was actually asking a question. "I think it's to make the theme like a blunt instrument." If you see that in a review, that's mine.

If that was the case, I missed the point. Mrs. Moncrief, who was in attendance, said the movie was about the community of violent crimes. Well, yeah, now that you explain it to me.

It was a very nice movie with some good stories and weaker stories. I doubt it's going to take off because of the somber tone, but it's definitely worth watching once. The performances were very rich. Even from Brittany Murphy who I keep forgetting can act because she's had such poor choices in material lately. Ditto for James Franco, who was in easily the best portion of the film with Rose Byrne.

Next free movie - Little Children. Let's see if I need the Q&A to figure this one out.

j.brown