Tom Stempel

Tom Stempel is an American film scholar and critic. He is a professor emeritus in film at Los Angeles City College, where he taught from 1971 to 2011.

Summer of ‘89: Zelda Barron’s Shag at 25

I wasn’t the only person to see the connection to Porky’s.

July 18, 2014

Understanding Screenwriting #113: The Bling Ring, The Heat, White House Down, & More

The robbers in The Bling Ring aren’t the professionals scripted by John Huston, W.R. Burnett, and Ben Maddow in The…

July 26, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #112: Before Midnight, Iron Man 3, Stories We Tell, Mad Men, & More

People who saw the film wondered if they met up again. So did the filmmakers.

June 26, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #111: 42, The Company You Keep, To the Wonder, & More

Many reviews have pointed out that 42 is a very conventional screen biography of Jackie Robinson. It is.

June 2, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #110: Trance, Evil Dead, Admission, On the Road, & More

I always like a movie that starts out quick, and Trance certainly does that.

May 8, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #109: The Call, No, Ginger & Rosa, Castle, & More

I’d sell my grandmother for a long shot.

April 27, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #108: Side Effects, Point Blank, Downton Abbey, & More

The peril of prescription drug use is only one red herring that Scott Z. Burns throws out.

April 6, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #107: Quartet, Tabu, 56 Up, The Americans, & More

If you’ve followed the Up documentary series, you know that it catches up with a cross-section of Britishers every seven…

March 26, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #106: Zero Dark Thirty, This Is 40, Margin Call, & More

You would think with this title that Kevin Smith is going all political on the tea partiers and the far…

February 18, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #105: Django Unchained, Amour, & More

Lotsa stuff, including our ideas of history, blowed up real good.

February 10, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #104: Lincoln, Skyfall, Flight, & More

I have always liked Tony Kushner, and not just the concept of Tony Kushner the public writer.

January 7, 2013

Understanding Screenwriting #103: Argo, The Sessions, Cloud Atlas, & More

In comparison with movies like the recent Taken 2, Argo is more about suspense than it is about action.

December 3, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #102: The Master, Robot & Frank, Taken 2, & More

Can we all stop thinking about L. Ron and Tom Cruise and just watch the damned movie?

November 12, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #100: Ruby Sparks, Premium Rush, Hit & Run, & More

Oh, boy, those are danger signs all over place.

October 7, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #99: The Bourne Legacy, Farewell, My Queen, Hope Springs, & More

No, Jeremy Renner is not Matt Damon. Get over it.

September 9, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #98: To Rome with Love, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Newsroom, & More

The shaggy-dog element in the fourth story in To Rome with Love is its very casual surrealism.

August 18, 2012

If I Had a Sight & Sound Film Ballot: Tom Stempel’s Top 10 Films of All Time

If you read my “Understanding Screenwriting” column at The House, you may be aware that I generally do not do…

August 10, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #97: Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave, Bernie, & More

This is the script Tarsem Singh should have directed.

August 5, 2012

Understanding Screenwriting #96: Battleship, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Mad Men, & More

Welcome to another episode of “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

July 16, 2012