One was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch critic who reviewed films, plays, and restaurants. When the writer retired, the paper split up the tasks. To learn more about writing films, I watch a lot of movies. I've always thought that the ideal job meant getting somebody to pay you to do what you want to do anyway. So I write film reviews.
Every film starts with a script.
When I was a child, I didn't know that. I used to sit in the theatre with my mom, or with my sister, or with both of them and stare at the screen as though I was watching real life unfold. Part of me knew it was pretend, part of me believed it. Now I know so much about screenwriting that most of the big-screen magic is gone. The first time I watch a film, it's as though I'm reading the script.