22 | April | 2023 | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The new movie “The Covenant” for some reason has the name of the director in front of the title. The last time I saw something this was for “Lee Dan Daniels: The Butler”, released in 2013 – hopefully not a new trend with movies.

The Covenant is one of those true stories that are hard to believe really happened, even in this case during the war in Afghanistan that started in 2001 after the terrorist attacks on 911. This film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as John Kinley, who is an army sergeant serving in Afghanistan leading a team of soldiers in 2011. There are several very well-done and believable battle scenes with the Taliban within this story, the most important one involving an ambush where John and Ahmed survived and run for their lives. The second soldier Ahmed, played by Dar Salim is from Afghanistan and had been hired by the United States Army to help translate – in exchange for a promised visa and transport to the United States for him and his family.

After the ambush, both Ahmed and John try to escape the dangerous and mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and are attacked multiple times. In one attack John is shot by the Taliban, badly injured, and then rescued by Ahmed. What follows is an incredible trek by Ahmed to get John out of the country and this is part of this true story that is the most difficult to believe actually happened – considering how difficult Ahmed’s attempts to drag John out of the country over the impossible terrain of Afghanistan.

The remainder of this movie is all about John, the politics of the Federal Government of the United States, and the Army, trying to find Ahmed to honor the Covenant – the sacred promise made to get Ahmed and his family out of Afghanistan and to the United States with Visas. Several scenes I appreciated the most were John’s desperate attempts, over the phone, constantly being put on hold, for hours trying to save Ahmed and his family. This part of this true story was the easiest to believe really happened, where politics and red tape were more important than trying to save a man and his family – who saved the life of an Army sergeant. John’s relentless and undying pursuit to save the man who saved his life about 100 times was the most impressive part of this amazing true story. How many of us would have done what John did, including mortgaging his own house to get the 150K to obtain Ahmed’s visas and airlift his family out of a very dangerous Afghanistan.

I thought that the battle scenes within this war movie were very well done, as was the solid acting throughout. I agree with the 81% rating on Roten Tomatoes and recommend this film.

The new movie “Somewhere in Queens” stars Ray Romano who has now directed his first movie. Romano also co-wrote this very good story with screenwriter Mark Stegemann. In my experience of seeing romantic-comedy-type movies, the story in this film is something I have never seen before. “An extremely shy high school senior, who they call Sticks, played by newcomer, Jacob Ward has developed some impressive basketball skills – and much to the surprise of his parents he also has an extremely attractive girlfriend named Dani, played by Sadie Stanley. Stick’s father, Leo Russo, played by Romano works for this father’s construction company and is extremely proud of his son, who is a standout high school basketball player”.

Things start to happen for Sticks, with some real possibilities of getting a full basketball scholarship to Drexel University – but the problem is – Sticks is deeply in love with Dani and then makes a huge mistake with her. He lets his feelings known too soon, scaring Dani off – a fundamental error many of us make when we are overcome by emotion too early in a relationship. Now Sticks is too depressed to take advantage of the biggest break in his life, and there is an upcoming tryout with Drexel. This is the point of the movie which has a very unusual and highly emotional storyline. Leo does something to help his son with his extreme depression that is going to ruin his tryout with Drexel, but this idea eventually backfires. Some would think this is a noble idea, but so often when we try to help someone with a lie, that lie is almost always revealed and makes everything worse. This is the central and best part of this story and has some Shakespearian overtones. The scenes of love, loss, and the pain of being rejected are all very well done in this film.

One flaw in this movie is Leo’s wife, Angela, played by Laurie Metcalf – who is angry just about the entire movie. Her nonstop yelling, rudeness, and anger in my opinion brought the overall story down, despite some of the funny scenes that involved Angela hating her son dating anyone and him thinking of leaving her for college. The plan was always to have Sticks work for the family’s construction business after high school. Other characters in this very good story include Frank Russo, Leo’s brother played by Sebastian Maniscalco, and Leo’s father Pops Russo, played by Tony Lo Bianco.

This is another old-style movie, like the recent movie AIR, reviewed in this blog, and a refreshing return to the way movies are supposed to be, sadly missing last year. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a very high 89%, with my rating 95% and a strong recommendation for this outstanding film.