I've worked with David a bunch of times and seen his work as an audience member even more frequently, so I was mostly there to support him. (Plus, he performed our wedding, so ...) His piece was very polished and high energy with a great flow to it. I've never really thought about writing a solo performance piece. I guess if something occurred in my life that I felt like I could only express through using my actual self as a character, I might try it. But it's a very daunting prospect to me, which just makes me respect David's work even more.
&TYD was about David's training to run and eventual completion of the NYC marathon. He intercuts scenes of the big race with scenes from his life (childhood-the present) that somehow illuminate why he runs or moments when running was important to him. To me, the challenge is in selecting only the "flashbacks" that matter and splicing them in with the "present" in a way that flows and makes sense. As a writer it strikes me as extremely challenging to map out a story line and then edit down your life in the same way you would a fictional piece. And I applaud David for really honing his down from earlier bits I heard and finding a good, brisk flow.
But just as my writer self was all happy about seeing good plays, the SAG Awards had to go and piss me off as much as the Globes and Oscar noms. I mean, I admit I'm a big geek (OP4P as a prime example, no pun intended), but I know what makes good cinema. The ongoing shaft of The Dark Knight is making me so mad. Especially because I loathed Benjamin Button with the kind of fiery vengeance only a writer can feel for a bad movie. And this pile of dog turd got nominated for best screenplay and best film, people. What am I not getting here?
Reasons I despise Ben Butt:
1. The aging backwards concept has almost no bearing on the story. No one is surprised, questioning or afraid of this phenomenon throughout the film. Butt never struggles with it internally.
2. Brad Pitt phones his performance in ... but he got nominated!
3. It's long and boring and not at all moving.
4. Butt meets several "colorful" minor supporting characters throughout his life a la Forrest Gump. But none of them change him or his life at all. He learns no lesson from any of them, and remains plain, dull and even-keeled no matter what happens to them or how they treat him.
5. The prologue has not one shred of connection to the core story. If Butt had been the blind clockmaker's son and the backwards clock had been the thing that created his aging issue, now that would have been a way to do it.
6. In the end, there was nothing heroic about Butt. He just floated blandly through life and ended up nothing more than a deadbeat dad who missed his mom's funeral. Who the hell cares!
Eric Roth, you should apologize to the people who actually did good work in the WGA this year for fooling critics and Academy voters so utterly with your crap.
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