Richard John Miller

Richard Miller is also the Screen Writer of SEASIDE HEIGHTS This is a compelling and engaging script. Which sustains long scenes well, with parts feeling like it could even be a stage-play rather than a film. Similarly, it creates a clear idea of the setting and ambience of the New Jersey coast at Christmas. A sort of Graham Greene's Brighton on the East Coast of America (is this perhaps where the name 'Blackie' came from, a variation on Pinky?). The characters who fill the empty bars and deserted seafronts fit seamlessly into this world. Miller has a great knack for pithy one-liners. Like many of American film Noirs from the 40s and 50s this script feels indebted to, it is littered with witty comebacks and observations. While the humor is strong in parts, so too are the lost drunken hours in Blackie's bar. Lines like "I'm looking to not be where I was" helped achieve this. The use of cultural references and soundtrack worked well. Interweaving Frank 'Sinister', Ava Gardner, and Nancy Sinatra help the characterization and setting. The recurring use of the Jukebox also provides a useful visual motif in the film. Miller creates a wonderful world of alcoholic writers, blind tie salesmen and femme fatales.