…on writing, education, and pivoting!
Check it out! https://canvasrebel.com/meet-stephanie-platter/
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S.Platter WRITES!
It took me forever to admit it. I should have detected the signs.
Three signs that you might just “be a writer”:
- Life is story.
- You don’t just go on blind dates. You welcome them…for the story fodder.
- You don’t just go out to coffee shops or restaurants to eat… you people watch.
- You didn’t just get therapy for the years of misunderstanding a world of social and verbal cues… you used it as a memoir study.
- You don’t really take vacations, per se. You say yes to anyone’s cabin near the water and haul off, just you and a toaster, to finish that chapter or scene.
- Of all the majors…
- Some people major in areas that they can indeed find lucrative future work in.
- You chose words. Well, English, but words. As a major.
- Some played sports and did their undergrad. You might have used spare time getting lost in the library and penning future screenplays adapted from the book you just couldn’t put down or sleep until you finished.
- 3rd grade tells all.
- When listing heros, yours was Judy Blume. And when the big opportunity to meet her came around, you wrote a grief memoir about your best friend dying. You still came in second to Philip who wrote fiction about ducks.
- When given options at the Mideaval Fair – you chose the unmentioned “Storyteller” as your trade and walked around performing “How the Sea Became Salt.” Can barely barter with the pennies people tossed your way, but it was a worthwhile career to you.
I could go on, but I’ll let you chew on that for now. Just know, that it took a conversation on a bench at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, TX for me to admit, finally, that I am a writer.
But we will save that story for another day. I must make some coffee and catch the sun while it’s out.
S.Platter, the writer, begins her journey!
An updated “About the Author:”
When I was a little girl, my grandmother would call me her “mon petit chou chou” or her little cabbage. It was a term of endearment that she gave to me when I would sit on the coffee can and laugh just so everyone would join in.
An entertainer to the core, I carry on in this coffee-can mode hoping to engage and enlighten readers. A student initially set me up with this platform so I could write about movies as I saw them. She said, “You need an outlet, Splatter!” (In case you are wondering, Splatter is the name my students called me – not the wild film genre). Film is art. I am drawn to it, changed by it, and forced to appreciate it for its details. So, archived here, you can read my unsubtle, biased perspectives on films as I saw them for a period of about 8 years.
Now, I’m moving into a new season of writing – my sabbatical year(s). A year of seeking representation and hoping to publish novels and to option screenplays.
Love and Joi de vivre to all who read on and bravely follow me on this journey!
(Image above: Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash)
MAKING THE CUT (2020) Amazon Prime TV series
Tim Gunn & Heidi Klum revive a Prime version of Project Runway with higher stakes and harder challenges. 
Each is fighting for the million dollar prize. They also sell looks straight to Amazon after every show. They fight to become more accessible and yet more profitable. They aren’t designing clothing this time, they are inventing a brand. Each person in this challenge is already successfully designing and often running stores and selling clothes. 
This crew doesn’t spend their time whining and sewing. They have hired seamstresses for that. This group gets to design, shop, cut, and build – working toward the next big storefront and worldwide label. Rather than a single runway show at the very end, each episode ends with a show. Each episode of Cut seems to pack the punch of a final PR show. 
Heidi and Tim take time in each episode to explore the city they are filming in at the time: Paris, Tokyo, New York. They go on dates and flirt like mad. It’s saccharine to the rest of the show’s savory tone, so either a welcome reprieve or an odd indulgence.
The judges are vicious in their commentary. But, like it’s predecessor, this show makes for addictive viewing since you know who you want to win and lose each week and have to wait to see who Makes the Cut.
JOJO RABBIT (2019) movie review
REVIEW in HAIKU:
Waititi’s Hitler
Youth film laughs while the world breaks
Moral conundrum 
REVIEW:
A MUCH darker film than is advertised. I wasn’t going to see it. I’ve seen enough WWII films. Everyone knows that the Holocaust wasn’t funny.
Then the trailer suggested a playful new take from the Hitler youth side about a boy whose imaginary best friend is Adolf Hitler.
And it is playful and funny, so over the top it’s like satire. Until it isn’t. Until it gives up the game we are enjoying and slaps audiences with the weight and reality so hard and fast, you’re left reeling. I get it. War is ugly. But the set up and smash hurt too much.
Acclaimed director Taika Waititi must have known the rollercoaster he’d be sending people on, known that making a PG-13 film about a war isn’t possible.
It opens much like a Wes Anderson scene from Moonrise Kingdom, young scouts at camp with a bit of a bumbling scout master. Now switch scouts for Nazis and camp games to battle tactics. Boom and the games are up and the rest of the film is recovery time for the boy, then home with his mother and imaginary friend, Hitler, until he finds a young Jewish girl in his attic.
It’s violent and dark and makes us laugh. This is NOT a children’s film. I’m not certain what audience this was made for. But it’s brutally awakening, as it should be. It’s either a wickedly brilliant social commentary on the politics of present day, or it’s a cruel Jekyl & Hyde creating a humorous play within a hideous scenario. A perfect scene is the little boy who has scrounged through garbage cans for food scraps, sitting at a dinner table across from Adolf gorging himself on the feast of a unicorn head. It’s gruff and grim and cannot possibly be as happy as it looks. The payoff does not match the promise. And perhaps that’s the point.
RATING: C+ …it adds up= A for visuals and unique story, perhaps even for social commentary… F for fooling me into loving characters who were going to be killed in such an abrupt and unforgivable manner… I’m still not all right.
Back again…
Remember the jingle from those Saturday morning specials in the 80’s…
“after these messages, we’ll be RIGHT BACK!”
So… I took a bit of a break from reviewing films so I could start writing some. I need to put my money where my mouth is… start subjecting myself to the same gauntlet that I was seemingly putting other screenwriters and filmmakers through. It was time. Did I stop watching films? No way! I think I saw more than ever. And I couldn’t help but review them a bit… a few got a reviews in haiku, a few a simply rated, and others got a full write up.
If you have requests, I’m open to reviewing what you are curious about.
I’ll try to bring you some quick film reviews in the next few weeks. Perhaps these will help you navigate streaming while you wait out at home protecting those you know and do not know.
Blessings,
SPlatter
YESTERDAY (2019) movie review
REVIEW in HAIKU
Starving artist wakes
to a world with no Beatles.
It’s fame or girlfriend.
REVIEW in PROSE
In short: See this sweet British rom com that is unapologetically syrupy with a quirky premise that sways honest and endearing. If you like Beatles music at all, you’re sure to love it.
Director: after Slumdog Millionaire, Steve Jobs, and Trainspotting, Danny Boyle jumps into a pillow plush genre to prove that he can parade in the lighthearted RomCom as well as he can the darker
dramatic.
Writer: Richard Curtis – also wrote Notting Hill, About Time, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Bridget Jones’s Diary. He’s prolific and perhaps THE quintessential British romcom writer.
Actors: Himesh Patel stars, showing off his prowess as both actor and musician. Lily James, too, plays the likable teacher, girl-next-door, pretty face who believes in him when he’s a clumsy nowhere man. Anglophiles will both get their fill and be delighted by Ed Sheeran’s lengthy screentime.
Basic premise: What if you, a talented and hopeful musician doing tiny shows at dive bars and county fairs woke up one day as the only person who has heard of the Beatles? You’d “write”and perform hit songs, make it big, struggle with the pressures of fame only to, like Dorothy, conclude that there’s no place like home.
Audience: A film for friends, families, and music fans alike. It’s a quick jaunt on tour in a sweet film that ebbs gradually through the playlist of favorites, tokening titles with memorable, laughable moments.
Loving Vincent (2017) movie review
One of, if not THE most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. No work like it exists. It’s an experience.
125 artists over 6 years animated 65,000 oil painted frames. An unbelievable task to translate oil to big screen, but it’s an experience not to be missed.
It’s Van Gogh’s story in Van Gogh’s style. Each moment a painted canvas, a memoir, a token to his art.
Loving Vincent investigates the mysterious events and characters surrounding Van Gogh’s death, presuming based on his many existing letters that he was perhaps murdered though it was called a suicide.
Beautifully acted first, then painted, then animated. Audiences play detective as they follow the trail across the French countryside into the very canvases for paintings that made Van Gogh’s short life and career legendary.
The film has been widely approved by artists worldwide and by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and by the Musee d’ Orsay in Paris where you can visit many of his great works today.
THE FATE of the FURIOUS (2017) movie review
F8 delivers everything it promises full throttle. It’s a vibrant, violent, comedic rampage through curious destinations with Vin Diesel at the wheel. His character, Dominic Toretto’s motto has always been “family first,” his repeated line: “It’s all about family, bro.”
This eighth installment, sans Paul Walker, adds rookie cop, beauty Scott Eastwood and reunites the classic bro squad with The Rock and Jason Statham. 
Of course they step into a crowd and the sheer force of one arm sends armed soldiers flying and flailing. Statham flings himself off of stories-high railings landing perfectly and spinning into action. 
Fighting hoards at a time, these two don’t quit despite the new “daddy” theme. The team is aging, settling down somewhat, and it takes a truly evil antagonist to bring them back into the game.
Charlize Theron plays a cold, soft-spoken terrorist. She adds such professionalism and acting swagger, she’s almost out of place. The film’s tone sways serious and cruel as fatalistic Furiosa brings her A-game to double A ball. 
These films classically don’t take themselves as seriously as most. They hire more stunt people on a shoot than a Costco employs.
As classic Fast & Furious franchise films go, the eighth is no exception, despite the tone shift. They take on a tesla army in New York, they race the Cuban mile, and they outrun a nuclear sub.
It’s become my birthday tradition to see a Fast & Furious film in the theater, and I hope they never stop. You ride, I ride, bro.
RULES DON’T APPLY (2017) movie review
Warren Beatty’s recent pet project feels like it may have been a little too precious to him.
Casting himself as the billionaire playboy philanthropist Howard Hughes seems more an egocentric volley for attention than a good casting call in this. Here Hughes has similar credentials, history, and reputation with women as the fictional Marvel bad boy Tony Stark without the panache to hold attention. This Hughes is aged and reclusive, most scenes performed behind a curtain or in the dark in shadow, which may be true to history but it doesn’t make for good film.
A brilliant cast encircles Beatty in this anticlimactic race to discover the life lesson that money does not buy happiness.
I wanted to love this film. It stars the fresh-faced, lovable future Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich. It has the distinct glow of the golden era, the warm magic of Hollywood’s bygone times. But, this seemingly gleeful period piece takes a dark turn when Hughes impregnates then alienates the mid-west innocent female lead, played by Lily Collins. She runs home to mommy, played by Beatty’s real-life wife Annette Benning. The build to that gross climactic scene is so gruelingly slow, I had sadly already lost interest in the sweeter, hopeful, age-appropriate alternate love story after about an hour of flirtatious tension and let down.
The loose premise also winds down Hollywood hills for far too long to warrant waiting for Alec Baldwin’s semi-coy cameo and for all of the other famous names and faces to stand in for momentary Beatty glory.
Alas Beatty, moved to attempt a memorable almost Woody Allen-esque tribute, fell short. It lacks structure, a tight script, clean editing, and character development. Even Matthew Broderick’s character, in so many unremarkable scenes, falls flat as another boy in Hughes’s frat.
Sadly, I wonder if Beatty just felt above it all, as if the rules of good storytelling just don’t apply to him.
Splatter: on FILM 