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Aug 26, 2016 · The Hollars. Comedy. 105 minutes ‧ PG-13 ‧ 2016. Matt Zoller Seitz. August 26, 2016. 6 min read. “The Hollars” is just good enough to make you wish that it were better. John Krasinski, longtime costar of “The Office,” directed this modestly budgeted family drama; the writer is James C. Strouse (“ Lonesome Jim,” “The Winning ...
- Lonesome Jim
There was a time when young men and women in fiction went to...
- Lonesome Jim
Aug 22, 2016 · 12 min read. John Krasinski calls getting the role of Jim Halpert on “The Office” a “lottery ticket.” Even after shooting the pilot, he was still working as a waiter. Since the show premiered, he hasn’t turned back, still cashing in on that ticket with his second effort as a director, “ The Hollars,” opening this week.
Aug 26, 2016 · He’s back in the director’s chair for The Hollars, an ensemble dramedy that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, in which he plays John Hollar, a New York graphic artist who...
Aug 26, 2016 · Is The Hollars an original, breathtaking dramedy that says anything new about middle-class suburbia and family? No.
- What Led You Into Screenwriting?
- How Difficult Is It to Edit Real Life Events When You’Re Writing A Screenplay?
- In Your Opinion, What Makes A Good Story?
- Is There A Single Thing A Person Could Change to Improve Their Writing?
- Is There Anything Else You’D Like to Share About The Hollars?
I grew up in Indiana and I always wanted to write, from Kindergarten on. I loved writing. What led me into screenwriting was moving to New York after college. It was the social circles I ran into in New York. I met a lot of aspiring filmmakers and young filmmakers and it flipped a switch in my mind. I was writing a lot of short fiction and I veered...
I’ve never had a problem with drawing from life and exaggerating it. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with me but I always feel like any experience I have is fair game. It can work its way into a screenplay verbatim, or it can be bent to what I need it to do or be in the world of the screenplay. I have a system of experiencing events and the...
I’ve been teaching screenwriting now for six years or so, and my thoughts have really evolved over time. What I look for in a good story is just a point of view – a voice. It’s less to me about plot than it is someone who can convey a unique vision, like Todd Solondz (Weiner Dog, Happiness), or Kenneth Lonergan (Analyze This, Gangs of New York). So...
As I’ve seen it in the classroom, I think the biggest hurdle a writer has to overcome is him- or herself. I have seen many screenwriters in my class who simply aren’t writing. If you’re not writing there’s no magic thing that’s going to happen in the future, you have to write. You have to write, and you have to allow yourself to make some garbage, ...
I’ve only seen it once and I’m excited to see it again. Usually, the stuff I write is so small in scale that I just don’t even assume anyone else is going to want to direct it. This has been fun, to see it through someone else’s eyes. Featured image: Charlie Day as Jason, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gwen and John Krasinski as John Hollar in The Holl...
First and foremost, The Hollars is incredibly well cast. Krasinski and Kendrick make for a believable coupling, partly because they both so completely relax into their characters and partly because both actors vacillate comfortably between wry humor and utter sincerity.
Aug 25, 2016 · As it is, “The Hollars” feels so painfully familiar and so dramatically undernourished that even the great Margo Martindale can only do so much with this cliché-riddled script.
