Film: The Counselor, 2013, Directed by Ridley Scott

Cormac McCarthy, the author of the screenplay, is a graphomaniac. The proof is in works like "All the Pretty Horses", "The Road" and finally - this film which helps highlight all the symptoms of the condition. Even a skilled director like Ridley Scott could not pull out a cogent 'story' not to mention some sense out of this pretentious textual mess. What do you think of this piece of wisdom: "When it comes to grief, the normal rules of wealth do not apply. Because grief transcends value. A man would give entire nations to lift grief off his heart and yet, you cannot buy anything with grief, because grief is worthless. What the ...?!!! What does this mean? Nothing. It's a strаin of the mind of a pseudo-philosopher and pseudo-writer who is desperately trying to be original...I should rest my case only after this quote but can't help mentioning the drug lord citing the poet Antonio Machado. Not that it can't be done, but Mr. McCarthy does it in a dumb way.

"No Country for Old Man" was a good movie only thanks to the Coen brothers who wrote the screenplay.

Film: Runner Runner, 2013, Directed by Brad Furman

After a streak of very bad movies, it was a relief to watch this one. The movie is not great, but it is skillfully written and well-acted. Its plot is a variation of "Wall Street" and "Boiler Room" - with the same main male characters in the trio - ambitions, entrepreneurial, and smart college drop-out, a mentor, a father. The details differ but the moral is the same - greed is not good. The dramatic quality of the two older films is better. The latest version is more entertaining than anything else. Some very snappy dialogue (written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien) contributes to the pleasure.

Film: "Labor Day", 2013, Directed by Jason Reitman

The film is based on some very bad novel and it is mind-boggling that Jason Reitman would try to resuscitate it. The result is so poor that at certain points, when the plot defies any logic, it turns into its own parody. Examples: mother is given her baby (whom we just saw being still-born) all dressed up and pretty?! ; father roams the pubs, baby in hands, looking for his no-good wife; convict and lonely mother mix together sugar and peaches with their bare hands in a scene, reminiscent of Ghost's famous pottery scene...
The author of the terrible piece of "non-literature" is Daphne Joyce Maynard, the woman who became famous for being briefly involved with J.D.Salinger and tried to capitalize on that writing about his exploitation of young women, or was it the opposite, him being exploited by young women...
The sad thing here is that Jason Reitman was very desperate for a script, and that eventually he exhibited such a bad taste in choosing/writing this one. Early success, as J.D.Salinger points out, is treacherous.

TV: Happy Valley: BBC Drama Series, 2014 Directed by Euros Lyn, Sally Wainwright and Tim Fywell

The script (Sally Wainwright) has some of the ingredients of a soap opera - a child born of rape, his mother committed a suicide, the grandparents have problems accepting and raising that child, the latter exhibiting some violent tendencies. The father of the child is a brutal criminal but has a soft spot for the child, etc.
On the other hand the series' plot revolves around an accountant, a looser-character reminiscent of the insurance salesman Lester from "Fargo." This, and some of the dialog help distinguish the series from a soap-crime series. The directors are quite good but they could have been more thrifty with the flashbacks. The flashbacks, in their case, are just illustrations of what is going on in the character's mind, which is always a symptom of helplessness to express a psychological process in alternative ways. In other words, the viewer should be able to deduce what is going on in the character's mind via different, purely dramatic, subtle devices.
Good performances by Sarah Lancashire and Steve Pemberton.