Josh Olson on

Amateur

Released 1994
Distributor Sony Pictures Classics

What begins as a contemporary screwball comedy turns into a dark gangland saga. Isabelle Huppert plays the former convent girl who earns her living writing porn and Martin Donovan is Thomas, a hapless accountant with amnesia who harbors a secret he doesn’t remember till it’s too late. Hal Hartley directed from his own screenplay.

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About Josh Olson

Josh Olson was the only student in his second grade class to see The House That Dripped Blood. Many years later, he wrote and directed the no-budget horror film, Infested, a brutal assault on The Big Chill, with zombies. He went on to write the screenplay for A History Of Violence and was nominated for the WGA, BAFTA and Academy Awards for Best Screenplay. He kept losing to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, but that’s okay. He has written features and TV shows with Harlan Ellison, Walter Hill, Slash, Willie Nelson, and Mick Jagger. His Village Voice essay “I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script” became an internet phenomenon, getting upwards of five million hits. The ten-part audio drama Bronzeville which he wrote, starring Laurence Fishburne, Larenz Tate, Tracee Ellis Ross, Omari Harwicke and Tika Sumpter was a popular and critical hit, and is currently being developed for TV. He and John Brancato (The Game) recently wrote and sold the feature spec Trigger Warning, which is being produced by Thunder Road. Josh is the host of Trailers From Hell's official podcast, The Movies That Made Me, available everywhere podcasts are streamed and downloaded!

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Stephen McParland

Amateur (1994) not The Amateur (1981)

Patrick Bennat

Congrats to winning Rob Reiner as a TFH guru! Big fan of his early work (how about a commentary to “The Sure Thing”?), also seems to be a genuinely nice guy. And he loves my favorite Hal Hartley movie (“Surviving Desire”) – who knew!