Wow, JMS seems to be stepping up in the world

While I was a confirmed watcher of B5, and have nearly all of it on DVD, I'm not a rabid fan of JMS. I find his dialog, in particular, mannered, stilted, and ringingly false in a way that just doesn't work (unlike, say, Mamet, who's dialog is mannered, stilted, and ringingly false, but in most cases does seem to work, for some reason). I guess that, to borrow an allegory from Le Guin, most of JMS' settings seem to inhabit Poughkeepsie, whereas, maybe Mamet's seem to really be set in Fairyland.

At any rate, I was of two minds about the new Eastwood flick, "Changeling", not being a tremendous fan of Angelina Jolie. But I really like Eastwood's quiet, measured helming.

Then, I find out that JMS has written the screenplay! ::boggle::

Ebert gives "Changeling" three and a half stars, and rhapsodizes about Eastwood's touches. Now I'm even more conflicted: am I willing to sit through JMS' often uncomfortable dialog coming out of Jolie's over-ripe lips in order to witness another of Eastwood's turns behind the camera? Why, oh why, couldn't he have cast Laura Linney in the Christine Collins role? ::sigh::

Wow, JMS seems to be stepping up in the world

While I was a confirmed watcher of B5, and have nearly all of it on DVD, I'm not a rabid fan of JMS. I find his dialog, in particular, mannered, stilted, and ringingly false in a way that just doesn't work (unlike, say, Mamet, who's dialog is mannered, stilted, and ringingly false, but in most cases does seem to work, for some reason). I guess that, to borrow an allegory from Le Guin, most of JMS' settings seem to inhabit Poughkeepsie, whereas, maybe Mamet's seem to really be set in Fairyland.

At any rate, I was of two minds about the new Eastwood flick, "Changeling", not being a tremendous fan of Angelina Jolie. But I really like Eastwood's quiet, measured helming.

Then, I find out that JMS has written the screenplay! ::boggle::

Ebert gives "Changeling" three and a half stars, and rhapsodizes about Eastwood's touches. Now I'm even more conflicted: am I willing to sit through JMS' often uncomfortable dialog coming out of Jolie's over-ripe lips in order to witness another of Eastwood's turns behind the camera? Why, oh why, couldn't he have cast Laura Linney in the Christine Collins role? ::sigh::