The problem with most screenplays, line-to-line and character-to-character, is a problem of differentiation. As in, everybody sounds like the same type of person. Human or human-adjacent qualities,…
The problem with most screenplays, line-to-line and character-to-character, is a problem of differentiation. As in, everybody sounds like the same type of person. Human or human-adjacent qualities, optional. Separate from this problem is the rarified, repeat-Oscar winner realm of screenwriting, where Quentin Tarantino holds court and the writing becomes so self-consciously embroidered that scenes have a way of slowing to a crawl while the writer dog-paddles around for a while.
Take Annie Baker, a terrific playwright whose Pulitzer Prize-winner, “The Flick” , served up a luxuriantly naturalistic slice of life, set in a struggling art-house movie theater. Baker has now made her feature film debut as writer-director with “Janet Planet,” and there’s so much right with it, beginning and ending with how Baker listens to, and frames, what her characters say, and how. And what they don’t.
At the start, Lacy, 11 years old, sneaks a late-night call home from summer camp. She wants out. Her acupuncturist mother, Janet, retrieves her from camp and gets a partial refund.
“Tell me what to do,” Janet says to her, after broaching the subject of problematic boyfriend Wayne. Pause. “I think you should break up with him,” Lacy says. Clearly it’s the right call. It is also the latest of many exchanges between them that underlines a codependency Lacy appreciates, and that Janet knows isn’t necessarily for the best.
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