2023 OSCARS: Triangle of Sadness (2022) - Empathy/Humor by Tripling Down on Vomit/Diahrrea

[Quick Summary: After a fashion couple join a cruise for the super-rich, it is shipwrecked and the hierarchy is turned upside down.]

This script is broken into 3 parts: life before the cruise; the cruise; and the island.*

My favorite scene was when Carl resents his girlfriend Yaya for not picking up the check.** I would've happily like to have explored more of this dynamic.

However, the writer wanted to talk about bigger issues like how we pretend how important rich "influencers" are, but dump us in nature, and we're all the same.

I don't know any more effective way to spread empathy than to demonstrate what affects us all: seasickness, illness and/or common bodily functions.

This scene below was extremely effective on me because:
- Paragraph 1 begins with sympathy ("I've cleaned up messes before").
- Paragraph 3 moves to empathy, i.e., vicarious experiences, of helplessness when ill and unable to control it. ("I feel woozy from the smell.")
- Paragraphs 7-9 move to pain/panic/humor when it devolves into retching in filth. ("There's a sense of...release(?) in letting it all go?")

INT. YACHT/ DINING ROOM - NIGHT

While the Captain is busy "preaching," a crew of six Filipino cleaning ladies, wearing lab masks, march into the dining room. They clean the mess methodically. One of them has headphones on. We move in on her ear and one of the earbuds. She's listening to Rage Against The Machine, "Killing In The Name." As she's wiping up vomit under a table the music becomes more and more distinct. 

"Now you do what they told ya...Now you do what they told ya...And now you do what they told ya"

Somewhere at this point the audience should - depending on their capacity for empathy - feel that the passengers have had enough. We don't want to see any more vomit. We want mercy for them. At that very moment, through Vera, we realize that they are not only seasick, they are suffering from food poisoning as well and now they desperately need to take a shit.

VERA: Mama! Uaaahhhhh...Help!

We see panic in their eyes as they dash back into the filthy toilets rights when "Killing In The Name" swells to its first climax.

The plumbing goes on the fritz and starts backing up into the hallway.

Shit and vomit start welling up from the toilets, drains, and sinks. Slime is oozing along the walls and out to the carpeted areas.

The passengers panic and try to get away from the stench and incredible filth.

They don't stand a chance against nature and their bodily impulses. They spew at both ends uncontrollably and everywhere.

Carl and Yaya hold hands in their life jackets.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: We find empathy and humor in the things we have in common, so triple down on bodily functions.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)(green revision)
Directed and written by Ruben Ostlund

*The script actually lists: "Part Two - The Cruise Ship" and "Part Three - The Island."

** This really happened to the hilarious writer, as he recounts here.

2023 OSCARS: Tar (2022) - Excellent Use of Stacking Subtext

[Quick Summary: This story is about the downfall of manipulative Lydia Tar, the greatest living female conductor-composer of a major European orchestra.]

Every year, I read Oscar nominated scripts and ask, "Why was this one nominated? What is NEW? What is so GOOD about it?"

In this script, the subject of unequal dynamics is not new, but adding a female conductor-composer is.  

However, I found I was even more impressed by writer-director Todd Field's excellent use of subtext.  

I particularly like the way it is told with an understanding of female dynamics, i.e., the conflict is not a quick "one and done," but it lingers, resentful, and entangled.

For example:
- Prior to the scene below, Tar flirted with a Young Matron (YM) with a red handbag, after a public performance.
- Later, Tar has the red handbag. Was it a "gift" from the YM? I say yes.
- Tar has also taken, and been abusing, her partner Sharon's Metroprolol.
- All this previous behavior sets up the payoff in the scene below.  Notice how many lies are stacked on each other.

TAR'S HOME

She arrives in the middle of night, and habitually begins turning off LIGHTS left on EVERYWHERE.

Stops when she sees the light on at the end of the far hallway where a woman paces back and forth

LIBRARY SITTING ROOM

She enters to find SHARON GOODNOW (40) pacing in her underwear.

SHARON: The flutter's back. It's racing. I can't find my Metroprolol anywhere. [We remember Tar had taken Metroprolol earlier.]

Tar immediately heads to 

THE BATHROOM

Takes the bottle from her bag, taps out a pill, and noisily closes the medicine cabinet before returning to [Now we realize:1) Tar took the pills w/o permission and 2) Sharon does not know.]

THE SITTING ROOM

TAR: This was lying loose on the counter. Is it the right one? [Tar took the pills + Sharon does not know + She is pretending now.]

Sharon looks at it, nods, and swallows it.

SHARON: Thank you... is that a new bag?

TAR: A gift from Eliot. Do you want it? [Tar took the pills + Sharon does not know it + Tar pretending to find a pill + Tar lying it was a gift from her mentor + Tar not telling Sharon about YM + Offering a tainted gift to her partner in life.]

SHARON (sits, catches breath): ... no, suits you.  [This line plays on 2 levels: 1) Sharon really means it, and 2) It visually represents many lies and an artificial life that Tar is leading.]

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I was particularly impressed (and galled) at Tar's offer of the red handbag.

Visually, it's just a bag.  But in the story, it has a deeper symbolic meaning that represents layers of subterfuge and stacked subtext.

Tar (2022)
Directed and written by Todd Field

2023 OSCARS: The Fablemans (2022) - Sequence of Visuals + Reaction Shots = Internal Emotions

[Quick Summary: In post-WWII, Sammy Fableman discovers filmmaking and a family secret.]

The screenplay form is a weird kind of writing,* which makes them hard to judge.

So when I read Oscar nominated scripts, I'm mostly looking for CRAFT.  What is cutting edge, unusual, daring?  Are the things I've never seen done before?

This brings me to today's script by Spielberg and Kushner.  It is very well written, deeply felt...but is also the most traditional in this category.**

However, I did like the very Spielberg-ian method of conveying internal emotions by the use of external visuals.  

In the scene below:
- This is Sammy's first movie, Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth.
- The sequence of visuals: train on screen --> Sammy's fright --> later in the car, Sammy still mute.
- Notice Sammy hasn't said a word...it is all in his reactions to what he's seen.
- Also note the economy of writing: Each sentence is a shot, and there is much more movement between Sammy and his environment than you think. 

ON SCREEN

...The Engineer in the second train tries to slow down.

ENGINEER (ON SCREEN)(to his BRAKEMAN): Hang on!

ROBBER 2 (ON SCREEN): Angel! ANGEL!!!

But it's too late. the train hits the car and flips it over!

IN THE THEATER

Sammy's whole body goes rigid, pushing back into his seat, staring in shock at the catastrophe on the screen.

Cut between the crash as the moving train ploughs into the stalled train and Sammy's reactions, frozen stills of his sheer, visceral terror (cf 2001's star gate sequence). For Sammy this is real, not a movie. His eyes are huge, taking in danger on the screen: lions and tigers are escaping from the demolished train!

Above and behind him, the projector's beam's colors cross, dance in the thick, cigarette-smoke-filled air. The beam's colors blend and merge into...

INT/EXT - THE FABLEMAN CAR DRIVING THROUGH HADDON HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY

...the colors of Christmas lights festooning every house on the street. Sammy's in the car's front seat between his parents, visibly stricken with fear.

MITZI: What was your favorite part?

Sammy's too scared to talk.

MITZI (CONT'D): Sammy! What do you want for Hanukkah?

Sammy doesn't answer. Mitzi looks at Burt.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:  On a second read, I am impressed how the writing is BOTH emotional and efficient.  

It sounds too simple, but I think one of the keys is the choice of what the visual is and what comes before and after it.  

That is your job as a writer: to find the RIGHT visual and sequence.

The Fablemans (2022)
by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner

* The purpose of a screenplay is to produce a film.  This is similar to the purpose of a roast turkey recipe, which is to produce a roasted turkey.  We judge by how the turkey tastes, not by how well the recipe is written. 

**Perhaps the reason is, as a film critic that I admire said, this was a more factual story (vs. E.T., which was more allegorical), thus is essentially a home movie.

2023 OSCARS: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) - Grounding a Surreal Story in Reality

[Quick Summary: A Chinese laundromat owner, who could be the hero to save the universe, is thrust into an adventure to explore all the lives she could have lived.]

I'm not surprised that people have exited this film saying, "What was that?"

A few things have helped me understand what they were trying to do:

- Writers/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert ("The Daniels") wrote this script after seeing a double feature of The Matrix and Fight Club. 

- Their frequent collaborator, cinematographer Larkin Seiple, described their scripts as so surreal that he felt it was his job to ground the story in the ordinary [to make it seem familiar.] 

- Kwan said in an interview that he was scrolling through his cell phone, and it reminded him of different universes...

...which is what the main character Evelyn is experiencing in the scene below. 

NOTE:
- This scene is particularly good at conveying the surreal feeling physically of being in an elevator (but one's mind elsewhere).
- I really like how Waymond flows from surreal to ordinary in a few sentences.

INT. IRS ELEVATOR - THAT MOMENT

....DING! Evelyn is now standing outside of her laundromat with a few suitcases and Gong Gong sitting in a wheelchair, looking clearly disappointed.

DING! Evelyn sorts tax receipts earlier today! DING! Joy shut the car door on Evelyn. DING! Waymond sighs as they enter the elevator DING! The elevator door closes -

Evelyn blinks. She is back. She exhales, shell shocked.

Waymond shoves the papers he was writing on into her hands.

ALPHA WAYMOND: The moment you are situated in your meeting, follow these instructions, but remember: no one can know. Don't even talk to me about this because I won't remember.

EVELYN: But I-

He shushes her and places a hand gently on her cheek. Evelyn shrivels under the intimacy.

His phone BEEPS.  He closes the umbrella, shoves everything into his bag, and strikes a natural pose.

ALPHA WAYMOND (side of mouth): Talk to you soon.

His head goes limp.

DING. The elevator opens. Waymond's head lifts up and he looks around disoriented.

WAYMOND: Wow...what a fast elevator...

He walks out pushing a snoring Gong Gong, leaving Evelyn grasping for understanding. 

As she exits, her gaze lingers on the janitor closet to her right.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I really liked that the story relied on people, not machines and gadgets, for the a-ha! moments.  It felt more real.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert