A grain of salt with your podcast

Lately as I planned lessons and graded papers I've been listening to Creative Screenwriting's podcasts from the post-screening Q&As. These are usually great interviews conducted by Jeff Goldsmith with the writers and sometimes the directors or actors involved in bringing the film to the screen.

You should definitely listen to them. They're chock full of information and good jokes. I particularly enjoyed the one from The Forbidden Kingdom, which reminded me that Chinese people have the awesomest sense of humor of all the nations. Some of the films screened have been truly terrific and the resulting interviews have added to my understanding of technique.

But here's the thing. And I get that Jeff Goldsmith is in a tough position here because even if the entire audience loathed the film he still has to pretend it's the greatest work ever or piss off the artist sitting in front of him.

But it still made me a little ill today when I listened to him kiss Uwe Boll's ass after a screening of Postal.

By the way, right at the beginning of the interview some girl brought Boll a bouquet of flowers and called him a genius. I wonder how much he paid her.

Anyway, Goldsmith told Boll he'd like to take his literature class. He lamented that Boll hadn't spent more time showing the world his genius comedy chops. He was just complimenting the man left and right.

Now in Goldsmith's defense, Boll is known to threaten physical violence to anyone who doesn't think he's the biggest genius in film, so there may have been genuine fear going on there.

Still. This happens a lot. Goldsmith never screened a movie that wasn't terrific. I guess in his position even if he hated the film he can't tell somebody to his face that his story blows, but I guess it's the volume of compliments I've heard the man pay to Lions for Lambs, Postal and a few other less than stellar films that makes me question his opinion on the quality of a movie. Then again, he's not a reviewer so why should I care?

And certainly I'm grateful to him for always being polite as hell as he checks us all off and makes sure everybody who can get in gets into the screening and for setting up the screenings in the first place. For that, Goldsmith is an awesome dude. But I wish he wouldn't fawn over films that weren't all that great.

So I guess I'm saying, listen to the podcasts if you don't already because they can be really great, but be prepared to have to occasionally roll your eyes at the sound of how awesome everybody is.