by Tom Pope
Pope makes the point early in his book that you can learn as much from a bad film as from a good one. If you know what to look for, that is. This book proves the point: the chapters are worth re-reading from time to time.
Tom Pope
The strength of the book is that Pope pin-points why a film does or does not work, particularly in the realm of structure. One of my favorite chapters is the analysis of Singing in the Rain, giving the history of how a story was built around a list of songs. But the analyses of the failures of Cutthroat Island and Falling in Love also serve as warnings against running into storytelling with too little preparation and insight.
The book is a very useful refresher on important aspects of storytelling, from the necessity of keeping a focused story spine (the failure of The Abyss) to the need for interesting characters to connect to (the problem with Falling in Love). Although the analytic skills Pope brings to the task are sharp, he also has a very accessible prose style that engages the reader in his discussions
