Clerks III: The Screenplay by Kevin Smith

 

(pb; 2022: screenplay)

 

From the back cover

“After suffering a massive heart attack, Randal enlists friends and fellow clerks Dante, Elias, Jay and Silent Bob to help him make a movie about life at the Quick Stop.

“This limited-edition version of the Clerks III screenplay was made for VIPs of The Convenience Tour—Fall 2022.”

 

Review

Clerks III, screenplay and 2022 film, made me laugh a lot and (almost) cry just as much—the latter, in an ultimately great way, because it meant that not only had Smith penned and directed one of his best films, maturity-wise, but he created a oeuvre- and mortality-acknowledging work that flows in a natural-feel pace, showing you can have characterization, humor and heart in equal, effective measure, one that doesn’t feel like it was a written in genre-unbalanced, ham-fisted and talking down to the audience manner. This is how you do it right, sans sappy b.s. scoring, too-cute puppies and players, while throwing in some Star Wars, rude humor and playful takes on religion.

If you like Smith’s overall Clerks and/or Jay and Silent Bob franchises, chances are you’ll find something to like about Clerk III, even if you’re put out by its underlying seriousness. Great work, worth owning.

Alien Resurrection by Joss Whedon

 

(pb; 1997: screenplay)

From the back cover

“This is the real thing: the ultimate insider’s look at the fourth Alien film, Alien Resurrection, the new blockbuster starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. You are about to see the film as the stars saw it.

“This studio-authorized edition contains the final script of the film as it appears on the big screen: unexpurgated and unaltered, detailing every live action scene, every chilling minute of suspense, every unforgettable line of dialogue, and every startling special effect from the eagerly awaited fourth film in the most popular sci-fi thriller series of all time.”

 

Review

Whedon’s script is excellent, fast-moving, suspenseful, mood- and character-effective in its word-spare description and dialogue, which left plenty of room for Resurrection’s director to fully flavor the resulting film with their (hopefully) unique vision. In this case, the director was Jean-Pierre Jeunet, known for being artsy and structured (to the point of obvious artifice); also consistent with Jeunet’s style, Resurrection bustles with eccentric, disturbing characters, and visual and aural elements —this made the actual film less great than it might've been. Still, a deft, entertaining and masterful screenplay, one worth owning and learning from (if you’re an aspiring writer of scripts or fiction that is screenplay-friendly).

Alien Resurrection was released stateside on November 26, 1997. Details for its cast and crew on here on Resurrection’s main IMDb page.

From Dusk Till Dawn by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Kurtzman

 

(pb; 1995: screenplay)

From the back cover

“You’d better hope you don’t cross paths with the infamous Gecko brothers—Richie and Seth. They’re fond of banks—robbing them, that is. They’re tough. In From Dusk Till Dawn, we follow them as they tear a path through the heartland of America on their way to the border. It is there, near El Paso, that they will meet up with their Mexican partners-in-crime to divvy up the loot they’ve acquired.

“Along the way, though, an innocent family will enter their lives—an ex-Baptist preacher, his teenage son, and sexy daughter. We watch as Richie and Seth enlist the family’s help in getting them safely across the border in the family’s Winnebago. When they arrive at their dreamed-about world south of the border, they are met with a terrifying twist.”

 

Review

Tarantino and Kurtzman’s down-and-dirty exploitation screenplay hits all its marks while creating a multi-subgenre stew that incorporates Blaxploitation, Mexploitation, vampires, 1970s road movies, sexploitation, and a lot of other -ploitations. Its well-sketched, sometimes -fleshed characters spout snappy dialogue, as rapid-fire as their wild what-the-hell situations and resulting, improvised re/actions. This is a landmark screenplay (and later, film) that truly felt down and dirty, nostalgic, yet distinctly 1990s direct-to-video sleazy and unique in its elements. Great read and great film, one worth reading, it you like sleazy genre works and swift, twisty action and characters.

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The resulting film was released stateside on January 19, 1996. Robert Rodriguez directed it, with a lot of notable—most of them great—players.

The Movie: "Barfly" by Charles Bukowski

 

(pb; 1987, 2006: screenplay)

Review

Bukowski’s character-driven, sometimes (suitably) booze-setting-chaotic screenplay maintains the warm, fisticuffs-brave tone of Bukowski’s other written work, a successful, charming genre-transitional effort that paid off with a truly independent, frak-Hollywood film with stellar, lots-o’-heart and distinctive characters. Worth seeking out, excellent.

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The resulting film, directed by Barbet Schroeder, was released stateside on October 16, 1987.

Mickey Rourke played Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s fictionalized self. Faye Dunaway played Wanda Wilcox. J.C.Quinn played Jim, daytime bartender for the Golden Horn Bar. Frank Stallone played Eddie, the Golden Horn’s nighttime bartender.

Sandy Martin played Janice, one of the Golden Horn’s barflies. Roberta Bassin played Lilly, another Golden Horn barfly. Gloria LeRoy, billed as Gloria Leroy, played Grandma Moses, an elderly oral-sex-leaning prostitute. Pruitt Taylor Vince played Joe. Book and screenplay author Charles Bukowski played an uncredited Bar Patron.

Alice Krige played Tully, a publisher. Jack Nance played Tully’s “Detective”.  

From Dusk Till Dawn: A Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino

(pb; 1995: screenplay)

From the back cover

“You’d better hope you don’t cross paths with the infamous Gecko brothers─Richie and Seth. They’re fond of banks─robbing them, that is. They’re tough. Cool. Notorious. In From Dusk Till Dawn, we follow them as they tear a path through the heartland of America on their way to the borner. It is there, near El Paso, that they will meet up with their Mexican partners-in-crime to divvy up the loot they’ve acquired.

“Along the way, though, an innocent family will enter their lives─an ex-Baptist preacher, his teenage son, and sexy daughter. We watch as Richie and Seth enlist the family’s help in getting them safely across the border in the family’s Winnebago. When they arrive at their dreamed-about world south of the border, they are met with a terrifying twist.”

Review

Cutting to the point─there is not a lot to say about this fast-moving, character-intense heist/vampire screenplay and film, aside from: if you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, or just like the 1996 film that resulted from this screenplay, chances are you’ll enjoy reading it. If you’re not, you probably won’t. Tarantino keeps the writing lean ‘n’ mean, with no lag in action, sleaziness and sketched-out character development, creating a screenplay/film that is a modern milestone in the vampire flick genre, one that brings to mind the trashy, Americanized thrills of a 1960s/1970s Hammer film. Worth reading and owning, this, if you appreciate Tarantino and Rodriguez’s work, or the film in general.

The Counselor by Cormac McCarthy

(pb; 2013: screenplay)

From the back cover

"In early 2012 it was announced that Cormac McCarthy had written his first original screenplay - news which provoked huge excitement, a swift deal and the appointment of Ridley Scott to direct. But this is no ordinary screenplay. This is a work of extraordinary imagination which draws on many of the themes of McCarthy's work as well as taking it to new dark places. It is also written with great descriptive passages counteracting the dialogue, so the reader is given the full experience of the McCarthy prose. It is the story of a lawyer, the Counselor, a man who is so seduced by the desire to get rich, to impress his fiancée Laura, that he becomes involved in a drug-smuggling venture that quickly takes him way out of his depth. His contacts in this are the mysterious and probably corrupt Reiner and the seductive Malkina, so exotic her pets of choice are two cheetahs. As the action crosses the Mexican border, things become darker, more violent and more sexually disturbing than the Counselor has ever imagined."


Review

McCarthy’s excellent and word-spare screenplay is not for those who like their reading optimistic and warm. Its characters are distinctly McCarthy-esque ─ often cynical and cruel ─  and their dialogue and actions are appropriately bleak, given the harsh, deadly realities that surround them. This is one of my favorite films of 2013, and reading this further confirmed my love of McCarthy’s stark writing and word-lean crime tales. This is one of the best pieces of writing I have read this year.

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The film, later retitled The Counsellor, was released stateside on October 25, 2013. Ridley Scott directed it.

Michael Fassbender played Counselor. Penelope Cruz played Laura. Cameron Diaz played Malkina. Javier Bardem played Reiner. Brad Pitt played Westray.

Rosie Perez played Ruth. Bruno Ganz played Diamond Dealer. Dean Norris played Buyer. Goran Visnjic played Banker. An uncredited John Leguizamo played Coverall Man Randy. Sam Spruell played Wireman.

Up Against It by Joe Orton

(1967; screenplay)

Review:

Orton’s sly, madcap, sexual and plot-lite screenplay [written as a possible silver screen vehicle for the Beatles] subverts – and expands – mainstream mores with its pointed political jibes, episodic sketch-pieces and sexually suggestive, PG-fied post-coital scenes of threesomes and pre-marital sex. It reads like a distinctive product of the Swinging Sixties, and, as such, is a fast and giddy-fun experience.

I did not read Orton's 1971 posthumous novel, Head to Toe, that Against was paired with.