AFI film school #42: American Graffiti -- Let's Cruise

So many movies begin with the word “American,” from American Beauty to American Psycho to American Gun to American Hustle

Better Call Vince -- Ideas for More Breaking Bad Spinoffs

Breaking Bad, one of the best and most popular shows of all time, spawned the spinoff, Better Call Saul…one of the best and most popular shows of all time.…

The Most Underrated Ingredient of Great Art

For a great example of creativity vs creative bankruptcy, watch Star Wars episode 5, and then watch episode 9. I’ll wait. Or you can just continue reading too because I’ll extrapolate…

AFI film school #41: Rear Window -- It's an Active Live

Part of Hitchcock’s greatness is that he’s both a artistically gifted filmmaker and a very entertaining one. He creates work with deep messages that also happens to be fun every minute along the way.…

AFI film school #40: Sunrise -- Tripping the Light Fantastic

When I had covered Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush, it made me realize the value that silent films have to offer.

They work within a constraint (no spoken dialogue), and with that constraint, filmmakers have to pull off a very pure trick.…

Who Analyzed Roger Rabbit?

34 years ago, a movie happened that was unlike any other movie in so many ways, and it’s actually pretty amazing that it exists…

Game Over -- How the 1950's Quiz Show Scandal Affects Us Today

On the topic of television and manipulation, nothing quite demonstrates how our attitudes have changed from the 1950’s to today more than watching the movie Quiz Show.…

AFI film school #39: M*A*S*H -- A comedic war romp

The last film, The Grapes of Wrath, came from a novel that’s fame overshadows the movie, despite the movie still making the AFI list. This one, instead, led to a TV series that also overshadows the movie.…

AFI film school #38: The Grapes of Wrath -- Adapting meaning

Many of the movies on this AFI top 100 list are based off of books. Funny enough, some of them are much more remembered for the movie they inspired, like The Godfather and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.…

AFI film school #37: All the President's Men -- Breaking news and structure

Sometimes it’s easy to take for granted that certain genres of movies exist. We have seen so many mockumentaries, slasher films, Adam Sandler movies, that it’s easy to forget that they had to start from somewhere.…