dianeseattle
Member
I think it would be impossible to measure Aaron Sorkin's IQ. It must be higher than Einstein's. I don't say that admirably, but only in an effort to explain to myself how this guy knows, remembers, regurgitates, invents and succeeds in the complicated tasks he takes on.
At this moment, his Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird has made more than $40million, which makes it the highest grossing play in the history of stage. Ever. More than Hamilton or Cats or Rent. And when I heard he was doing this, I predicted, and HOPED, it would be a flop, because I can't imagine how anyone could make that sacred book into a play and I didn't want Sorkin to put his stank on it and ruin it somehow. I still haven't seen it and I won't, because just because a thing is popular doesn't mean it's good, especially in our time.. There is no end to fools and how they spend money.
The day after the 2016 "election," Sorkin wrote a letter apologizing for the mutation of Democracy to his wife and daughter and published it in the New York Times as a full-page ad. He's also written a number of editorials for that newspaper that have been published, including an attack on Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of "assaulting the truth." This after piloting The Social Network to the success it became.
Full disclosure: I hate Steve Jobs and I hate Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, so I haven't seen these movies and have no desire to
Still, I will never deny his genius, and the reason I'm doing a mental retrospective because he directed and adapted Molly's Game, and did it masterfully.
Everyone loves something Sorkin has done, like "Steve Jobs" or "The Social Network." He's also responsible for A Few Good Men, The American President, Sports Night, The Newsroom, Moneyball and The West Wing. He made a brief story arc starring as himself in Entourage, depicting his real-life experience of being in rehab for drug addiction. And now, Molly's Game.
Some of the problems I have with him include his endless need to mansplain everything, his repetious, nay, identical dialog in most of his productions ("Snark is the idiot's version of wit"), right down to reusing titles like "What Kind of Day Has This Been?" in both the Newsroom and the West Wing and I'll bet, Sports Night.
But he's a freaking encyclopedia, and extremely insecure, by his own admission. That's probably why he reuses titles, because his self-esteem is so battered he probably believes people didn't notice the first time or didn't watch or care.
What I love/hate about him is his depictions of women. We have C.J. Cregg (First of all: you're wrong. Second of all: shut up.) from the West Wing, Lt. Col. Joanne Galloway (I outrank you) in A few Good Men, Sydney Ellen Wade in The American President (People vote for who I tell them to vote for), Casey Beane in Moneyball (You're such a loser, Dad), Mackenzie MacHale from The Newsroom (Don't forget that for one hour a week, I OWN you) and Sloane Sabbith (And seriously, Don, I don't care that you're dumb), to misquote just a few. However, no matter how elevated the female character, he always finds a way to objectify them or put them in positions where the male characters make decisions for them in the name of some mutant chivalry. The men are always the main characters because that's what Sorkin wants to be.
How can a person know so many facts, both relevant and unimportant, about so many things, from sports to gamblinge to journalism to politics to science to television to art to history to music and almost any other category you can name and still be an asshole with failed friendships and marriages strewn throughout his wake? And by the way, he's credited with a style of filming known as "The West Wing Walk and Talk," where the characters have complicated and lengthy conversations while walking from hallways into offices into official rooms, without a break. They say he invented this, but he didn't. Watch the first season of St. Elsewhere and you'll see it there, and of course, it was copied by ER way later, but is hardly a modern invention in cinematography. It's been in movies since the silent film era.
And the more you watch Sorkin productions, the more irritated you get with his endless scenes where someone overexplains or educates someone. It's as if he actually writes lines for Jeff Daniels of Martin Sheen that are designed simply to correct your grammar.It's positively insufferable.
So naturally, when I saw his name attached to Molly's Game, I thought for sure the script would have been sorkinized and disappointing. Was I right? I'll tell you all about it in my review of the film, coming soon.
At this moment, his Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird has made more than $40million, which makes it the highest grossing play in the history of stage. Ever. More than Hamilton or Cats or Rent. And when I heard he was doing this, I predicted, and HOPED, it would be a flop, because I can't imagine how anyone could make that sacred book into a play and I didn't want Sorkin to put his stank on it and ruin it somehow. I still haven't seen it and I won't, because just because a thing is popular doesn't mean it's good, especially in our time.. There is no end to fools and how they spend money.
The day after the 2016 "election," Sorkin wrote a letter apologizing for the mutation of Democracy to his wife and daughter and published it in the New York Times as a full-page ad. He's also written a number of editorials for that newspaper that have been published, including an attack on Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of "assaulting the truth." This after piloting The Social Network to the success it became.
Full disclosure: I hate Steve Jobs and I hate Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, so I haven't seen these movies and have no desire to
Still, I will never deny his genius, and the reason I'm doing a mental retrospective because he directed and adapted Molly's Game, and did it masterfully.
Everyone loves something Sorkin has done, like "Steve Jobs" or "The Social Network." He's also responsible for A Few Good Men, The American President, Sports Night, The Newsroom, Moneyball and The West Wing. He made a brief story arc starring as himself in Entourage, depicting his real-life experience of being in rehab for drug addiction. And now, Molly's Game.
Some of the problems I have with him include his endless need to mansplain everything, his repetious, nay, identical dialog in most of his productions ("Snark is the idiot's version of wit"), right down to reusing titles like "What Kind of Day Has This Been?" in both the Newsroom and the West Wing and I'll bet, Sports Night.
But he's a freaking encyclopedia, and extremely insecure, by his own admission. That's probably why he reuses titles, because his self-esteem is so battered he probably believes people didn't notice the first time or didn't watch or care.
What I love/hate about him is his depictions of women. We have C.J. Cregg (First of all: you're wrong. Second of all: shut up.) from the West Wing, Lt. Col. Joanne Galloway (I outrank you) in A few Good Men, Sydney Ellen Wade in The American President (People vote for who I tell them to vote for), Casey Beane in Moneyball (You're such a loser, Dad), Mackenzie MacHale from The Newsroom (Don't forget that for one hour a week, I OWN you) and Sloane Sabbith (And seriously, Don, I don't care that you're dumb), to misquote just a few. However, no matter how elevated the female character, he always finds a way to objectify them or put them in positions where the male characters make decisions for them in the name of some mutant chivalry. The men are always the main characters because that's what Sorkin wants to be.
How can a person know so many facts, both relevant and unimportant, about so many things, from sports to gamblinge to journalism to politics to science to television to art to history to music and almost any other category you can name and still be an asshole with failed friendships and marriages strewn throughout his wake? And by the way, he's credited with a style of filming known as "The West Wing Walk and Talk," where the characters have complicated and lengthy conversations while walking from hallways into offices into official rooms, without a break. They say he invented this, but he didn't. Watch the first season of St. Elsewhere and you'll see it there, and of course, it was copied by ER way later, but is hardly a modern invention in cinematography. It's been in movies since the silent film era.
And the more you watch Sorkin productions, the more irritated you get with his endless scenes where someone overexplains or educates someone. It's as if he actually writes lines for Jeff Daniels of Martin Sheen that are designed simply to correct your grammar.It's positively insufferable.
So naturally, when I saw his name attached to Molly's Game, I thought for sure the script would have been sorkinized and disappointing. Was I right? I'll tell you all about it in my review of the film, coming soon.