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Flow and the Art of Visual Storytelling

Imagine a screenplay without a single word of dialogue. Imagine further that screenplay telling a story so complete and compelling that it conjured up feelings of empathy and pathos that were so emotional as to keep the audience glued to the edge of their collective seats. Take it one more step and imagine that screenplay producing a film that beat films from powerhouse animation studios like PIXAR and DreamWorks to become the winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. If you imagined all that, you would come up with Flow.

Flow might be one of the most impressive cinematic accomplishments I’ve ever seen. This animated team made a film with hardly any money at a studio with hardly any people and produced a film that took the world by storm and awards season by the balls. This plucky studio and its pluckier film about a cat leading a band of misfit animals roared onto the scene like a lion and brought a tiger-like ferocity to the world of animation in a film that has all the emotion of the birth of a newborn baby. It might seem like I’m getting a tad hyperbolic, but it’s hard to overstate how impressive a work of art Flow is.

An underdog story about a cat

Why was Flow such a success? How did this simple film from a small studio in Latvia become such a worldwide sensation? The easy answer is that it had a great story. But what does that even mean? A great story is more than a compelling plot. As I tell screenwriting clients all the time, the plot is what happens, but the story is why we care. What can screenwriters do to get the audience to care? There are so many tools in the screenwriter’s toolbox that it’s impossible to name all of them. However, it’s easy to pick out what the filmmakers of Flow did. They included strong thematic components of coming together as a community to accomplish more than we could accomplish on our own and the idea of overcoming phobias and fears to make your life more complete and happier.

They also effectively utilized The Hero’s Journey to tell a riveting, dramatic story.

Warning! Spoilers!

Ordinary World

  • The cat lives alone in a house surrounded by statues of cats.
  • Humans used to live here, but for reasons we don’t know, they’re gone.
  • A pack of dogs runs by. The cat steals a fish they caught before being chased away.
  • We also see a flock of large secretary birds that will play a key role later in the story.

Call to Adventure

  • The dogs run by the cat without giving it a second look, followed by a herd of deer.
  • Flood waters carry the cat away.
  • The cat gets to land with a friendly dog (a Labrador) from the pac,k and the Labrador follows the cat back to his house.

Meeting the Mentor

  • The cat wants nothing to do with the Labrador until one of the secretary birds confronts him, and the Labrador barks it away.

Refusal of the Call

  • They get back to the house, and the cat leaves the Labrador outside.
  • The floodwater continues to rise. A boat flows by, and the Labrador encourages the cat to get in. The cat refuses after seeing the rest of the dogs on it, so the Labrador hops in, and they float away.
  • The water continues to rise, and the cat gets as high as it can and sees a giant sea monster swim by, terrifying him.

Crossing the First Threshold

  • Finally, a boat with a capybara flows by, and the cat hops on it.

Tests, Allis, and Enemies

  • The cat is initially frightened of the capybara but quickly realizes he has nothing to fear.
  • Rain comes in, and the cat must share a sheltered space with the capybara.
  • The next morning, a flock of secretary birds flies by. One of them startles him off the boat, but the bird seems more curious than hostile.
  • The cat tries to catch a fish but can’t and struggles to catch up with the boat.
  • The sea monster swims by him, saving him from drowning, but he’s picked up and carried away by a secretary bird.
  • The bird drops the cat and lands on the boat, where the other secretary bird stares him down before flying off.
  • The cat takes control of the rudder from the capybara.
  • They come aground at the home of a lemur, who has scavenged all kinds of shiny objects,
  • They put them in a basket and the capybara drags the basket on the boat.
  • The flood continues to rise, and the lemur jumps on the boat with them before looking longingly back at his flooded home.
  • The capybara shows the lemur a mirror that was lying on the deck and the lemur loves it.
  • The Capybara grabs a bushel of bananas and offers one to the cat, but he doesn’t eat them.

Approach

  • The cat dreams about being surrounded by marching deer before a giant wave sweeps him away. He wakes up and steers the boat to shore.
  • The lemur discovers a glass ball, like one that was in the cat’s house.
  • The Labrador shows up and wants to play.
  • The cat tries to catch fish but can’t.
  • The secretary bird leaves him one until two more birds arrive and eat it themselves.

Supreme Ordeal

  • The cat climbs a hill and sees a flock of secretary birds.
  • The other animals rush up and knock him down the hill. and
  • The birds get aggressive.
  • The cat runs away, and the birds give chase.
  • The one friendly secretary bird holds the others off, and the leader challenges him.
  • The leader wins the fight and breaks the nice bird’s wing.
  • The birds fly away. The nice secretary bird tries to keep up but can’t fly due to its injury.
  • The cat befriends the secretary bird, and the bird joins the crew on the boat.
  • They continue to flow down the river.

Reward

  • The animals’ different personalities come out.
  • They come across another boat, also with lemurs scavenging.
  • The lemurs hop on board and want the mirror, but the cat chases them off.
  • The cat shows trust in his crew for the first time.
  • They come to some old ruins that appear to be a place they could stay.
  • The dog is excited, wanting to play fetch with the bird, but the bird kicks the glass ball into the water, causing the lemur to attack it.
  • The fight knocks the cat and the capybara overboard.
  • They’re surrounded by fish. The cat marvels at them. The capybara tries to retrieve the ball, but the sea monster swims by, leaping into the air and almost capsizing them.
  • The cat finally starts catching fish. He is out of his shell.

The Road Back

  • They come across the pack of dogs stranded on ruins.
  • The Labrador and capybara try to get the bird to sail to them.
  • Finally, the cat agrees, and the bird relinquishes the rudder.
  • They let the dogs on, and chaos ensues.
  • One of the dogs breaks the mirror.
  • The sea turns stormy, and the cat is knocked unconscious.
  • He wakes up as the storm subsides, and the bird gets off the boat at the bottom of a cliff.
  • The cat gets knocked off and chases the bird even as the boat sails away.
  • The cat finds the bird as bubbles float in the air.
  • The cat and bird are lifted off the ground as the bubbles turn into lights, and the heavens shine.
  • The bird goes to the bright light in the sky as the cat falls back to earth.

Resurrection

  • Left alone, the cat is on the same ground as his dream.
  • He races back and swims to the boat.
  • He latches on to the glass globe floating in the water and kicks towards the boat.
  • The flood waters recede, and the cat is on solid ground.
  • After searching, the cat finds the lemur’s basket and then finds a colony of lemurs.
  • He’s not afraid of them. Then he finds his lemur, who initially stays but then follows the cat.
  • They find the boat caught in a tree. They help the dogs out, and the cat leads them to hold the rope so the capybara can get out before the tree collapses into a ravine.
  • The cat has gained real courage.
  • The other dogs take off, and the Labrador wants to follow them but stays loyal to his real friends.

Return With the Elixir

  • The new family celebrates as a herd of deer gallops by them.
  • The cat follows them and finds the sea monster grounded and dying.
  • The other animals catch up, and the cat looks at his reflection in a pool of water.
  • The others join him, looking at their new family.

There it is—a complete Hero’s Journey and a complete 90-minute film without a single word of dialogue. This story has everything a story needs: emotion, suspense, humor, pathos, and hope. The protagonist experiences a complete character arc matching the story’s strong thematic components. And the story is told 100% visually.

This is a film that any screenwriter or filmmaker should study when they want to learn the art of visual storytelling.

Captain America: Brave New World – It’s Time for Marvel to Move On

I saw Captain America: Brave New World a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t feel all that compelled to write about it until now. I won’t waste a lot of time lamenting the lack of story. Especially lately, anyone who goes into a Marvel movie expecting an award-winning-level screenplay gets what they deserve. With respect to Martin Scorsese, people do go to Marvel movies for the same reasons they go to amusement parks. Where Mr. Scorsese and I part ways is that I don’t consider that to be a bad thing.

Marvel Long Ago Staked its Claim on Entertainment Value.

We go to Marvel movies to be entertained, plain and simple. Any thematic value, story depth, or character depth we get out of them, and we have gotten each of those components a few times, is purely gravy. However, even the most basic story must have a little dramatic arc and a little character arc. That is where Captain America: Brave New World began to lose its way and caused it to be one of the least entertaining Marvel movies of all time.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was a terrific character in a supporting role. While I applaud and appreciate what Marvel is doing by making him, as a person of color, the new Captain America, it isn’t enough. Mackie is also an executive producer on the film, so he almost certainly had approval of the script. The problem with that is that he made his character flawless. Flawless characters are flat characters, flat characters are uninteresting characters, and Sam Wilson is an uninteresting character. In fact, at the end of the film, there is even a moment when a character asks him why he’s perfect, and he says that he has to be. His lack of need for growth removes any possibility for drama in the story. Without drama, the story falls flat, and this story is as flat as a smooth road.

Harrison Ford is my favorite actor of all time, and his character, President Thaddeus Ross, was much more interesting than Sam Wilson was. He was the villain of the film, and he had depth. They added components to his character, like having an estranged daughter that he wanted to reconnect with, which humanized him and allowed the audience to relate to him. Ford is obviously no stranger to blockbusters, and he did what he could, but it wasn’t enough to save this movie from itself.

It Felt Like the Effort Wasn’t There.

I would never accuse filmmakers of giving anything less than one hundred percent when working on a film. But like any endeavor, sometimes your heart isn’t in it. It’s difficult to watch Captain America: Brave New World and believe that everyone was totally into making this movie. There were times when it seemed like they just weren’t into it. I noticed this in some of the Marvel and Star Wars TV shows. When characters run, they’re not going all out. They’re giving it about a 75% effort. That is what the storytelling and direction felt like. It was almost like they didn’t want to make this film but were contractually obliged to, so they gave it the 75% effort that it needed to get done. That is ultimately why this film is disappointing.

It’s Time for Marvel to Move On.

Ultimately, it’s time for Marvel to move on from Captain America and the Avengers. We got an awesome arc from the original Avengers, and it’s hard to imagine a reboot could do any better. What will a new team of Avengers bring us that’s different or more exciting than what the original Avengers brought us? There isn’t anything. It can’t be done, and it shouldn’t be done. Marvel should focus on other properties like the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the forthcoming Thunderbolts. This iteration of Marvel hasn’t tackled those ideas, and they could provide fresh ideas that people will be excited about, not only to see but also to work on. Instead of retreading the same tired, worn-out properties, take a chance on fresh ideas that can give us new stories and characters to fall in love with.

Give us something new, Marvel!

Mickey 17 – No Wonder It’s a March Release

Release dates might not mean what they used to. For the last several years, March has had its share of surprise hits at the box office. The Batman had an impressive run at the box office that was kicked off on a March 1, 2022, release date, and as recently as last year, Dune Part 2 kicked off a successful theater run that also began on March 1. Other relatively recent March release success stories include Captain Marvel (2019), Zootopia (2016), Logan (2017), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). March is not the box office black hole that it once was. That being said, it’s also not Memorial Day weekend, mid-June, or Thanksgiving. March seems to be a time when studios release movies that they’re not sure will be hits, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

This brings us to Mickey 17.

Directed by Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho and starring Robert Pattinson, this science fiction adventure had all the makings of a summer blockbuster. My personal expectation was for this to be a fun and entertaining film reminiscent of Edge of Tomorrow. That isn’t what we got. Instead, we were exposed to a meandering, clownish film that attempted to portray itself as a morality play for our times but ended up being a circus. While it was almost saved by a strong ending, it still painted itself into a corner that Joon Ho had to contrive himself out of.

Mickey 17 was a massive disappointment.

Another thing I was expecting was a thematically strong film about life and death from a more existential point of view. While many people ask Mickey what it’s like to die, and there is a strong story point about him being erased once he’s duplicated while still being alive, Joon Ho, who also wrote the screenplay, never gave those ideas anything more than surface-level treatment. Mickey 17 had a chance to be a deep science fiction/action film that made you think and feel just as much as it excited. What we got was a shallow, boring film that I couldn’t wait to end.

To say that Mickey 17 was boring would be an understatement. The premise of the film has Mickey signing up to be an Expendable on a space mission in order to escape Earth and his debt to a deadly loan shark. The purpose of an Expendable is to experience deadly situations that usually cause death so that the crew can learn how to survive them. After being killed, another body is created, complete with the memories and personality of the original, so it’s like he’s just waking up for the next day’s work. The problem occurs when everyone thinks that Mickey 17 has been killed by an indigenous species on the planet they arrive at, so they create Mickey 18. Since it’s against the law to have duplicates, both must be killed, and Mickey’s information permanently deleted.

That’s a very cool premise that should be ripe for conflict and the aforementioned existential questions about life and death and what happens to us when we die. Is death permanent? Do we have a soul that lives on? Or is it simply the end? These questions have bothered humankind for as long as we’ve walked the earth, and Joon Ho had an opportunity to explore those ideas in a meaningful way but came up way short.

A frame of mind film.

It’s also entirely possible that I was not in the right frame of mind when I saw this film. It’s not the movie’s fault that I was expecting something other than what it delivered. However, the meandering pace of the storytelling, the flat nature of the storyline, and the clownish nature of the humor did little to make this film appealing. The first act dragged on forever. There was entirely too little action for a science fiction film, and the conflict in the movie never reached the point where I felt like the stakes were adequately raised.

There should have been a lot more conflict between Mickey 17 and Mickey 18. There was at the beginning, as the two of them tried to kill each other to save themselves. This is also where the thematic idea of the fear of death could have been explored. Instead, it was given a cursory look with a couple of throw-away lines before the two of them allied with each other to defeat Marshall.

It was almost like they were making it up as they went along.

It felt like there was no plan with Mickey 17. There was clearly a script of sorts, but it felt like Joon Ho didn’t know where he wanted the film to go or even what kind of film he wanted to make or what kind of story he wanted to tell. I’ve used the word “meandering” a couple of times, and that’s how the story felt. It felt like the story was lost in itself, and it was never able to get on track. Even at the end, this felt like a story that still hadn’t found its way. It looked like Joon Ho was going to give us a suspenseful twist that would have turned the story on its ear, but he bailed himself out with the mother of all contrivances. I honestly don’t think Joon Ho’s heart was in this, and that comes out in the filmmaking and storytelling.

Too on the nose

Finally, the film was too on the nose. Kenneth Marshall, the film’s antagonist played with over-the-top bravado by Mark Ruffalo, was such an on-the-nose caricature of Donald Trump that it wasn’t even funny. Daniel Henshall, who played Preston, Marshall’s spiritual leader and propaganda minister, was a clear representation of the religious right and the rightwing media who unapologetically spread Trump’s ideology to the masses. The indigenous lifeforms inhabiting the planet represent the people who just want to live and be left alone but are persecuted under the chaotic reign of terror that Trump and his minions have unleashed. A little subtlety would have gone a long way in making this a smarter film that would have been emotionally more satisfying.

Overall, Mickey 17 was a dud of a film that didn’t deliver what it promised. It gave us unlikeable characters trudging their way through a flat story that we don’t care about. It feels like a lot of lazy filmmaking was happening by a guy who really didn’t want to be making it. Pattinson and Ruffalo give excellent performances, as do Toni Collette, Steven Yuen, Naomi Ackie, and really all of the actors in it. The visual effects are terrific, and the visual effects involving the creatures are terrific. Unfortunately, the storytelling is so subpar that this isn’t a film anyone should rush to see.

It’s no wonder that this movie was a March release.

2024 Winner for Best Picture: Anora

History was made at the Oscars on March 2, 2025, when Sean Baker became the first person to win four Oscars for the same film in the same year. Baker took home personal Oscars for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Editing. He also took home the big prize, and the one that will immortalize him with Best Picture. Even though it wasn’t my favorite Best Picture nominee, Anora was still an outstanding film, and I believe it’s a worthy addition to the pantheon of Best Picture winners. It has everything that you would want in a Best Picture winner. It’s entertaining, emotionally moving, beautiful to look at, and has a compelling story with outstanding acting performances.

That might be a simple formula, but not all the nominees had all of those qualities.

I have already given Anora an in-depth review here and I broke down Sean Baker’s Oscar-winning screenplay here, so there won’t be a ton of analysis in this post. What I will say is that Anora was the most emotional film of the year, and it ran the gamut from feel-good romp to cathartic crisis. The film’s final scene is one of the most emotionally intense scenes I’ve ever seen, and it left a theater full of moviegoers in stunned silence. Baker did a fantastic job directing a film that told a compelling story and had a tight story structure that built drama from almost nothing in the beginning to the unbearable weight of massive disappointment and lost happiness by the end. Anora took us down a road that at first appeared to be filled with fun and frivolity but ended with pain and despair.

A Beautiful Film with an Excellent Story

Not only was this an excellent film, but it was an important win for other reasons as well. Anora was an independent film. There’s no way a major studio would have backed a film like this that focuses on sex workers and Russian oligarchs. However, there is always hope that studios will see the critical success of a film like Anora and perhaps give themselves permission to take more risks with the types of stories they tell in the future. There were several risky films up for awards this year, and the Academy is certainly telling the industry that the time for making safe choices is in the past and the time to take risks is now.

Wins down the line

Not only did Baker become a 4-time winner, but Anora’s fifth win was perhaps its most surprising and satisfying. Twenty-five-year-old actress, Mikey Madison, also took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and it was well-deserved. Madison gave a performance that belied her age. This was a performance filled with passion and gravitas that brought dignity and emotion to a character whose likability should have been ambiguous at best. Madison brought roaring confidence to the role that was backed up by sensitive vulnerability as the story progressed, and it became clear that she wasn’t going to get a happy ending. What started out as a fairy tale quickly turned into a tragedy, and Madison’s brilliant performance brought the character to life.

There is a shot in the last scene of her looking into the camera with the car window behind her. Her face is devoid of hope. She looks lost in a way that would make it unimaginable for her to find her way back even to the meager place she was. In the span of 24 hours, she went from the top of the hill to the bottom of the pit, and we’re left wondering what’s next for her. And her facial expression in that shot tells us she’s wondering the same thing. Madison’s stellar performance played no small part in this film achieving the success it achieved.

Did the Academy Get it Right?

Even with all that said, I’m inclined to say no. I don’t necessarily think they got it wrong, and I’m not mad that Anora won like I would have been if the award had gone to Emilia Pérez or The Brutalist, the former of which was unworthy of its nomination in the first place and the latter of which was more of a moving painting and a piece of art than a traditional cinematic experience. Of the ten nominated films, Anora was my third favorite. I liked it better than the two already mentioned, and it did more for me than I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, A Complete Unknown, Dune Part Two, or The Substance.

All of those films were fantastic in their own right, but all were just flawed enough to keep me from believing any of them could be the best film of the year. I liked Wicked better than Anora. I believe Wicked was the most entertaining film of the year, but it also had deep thematic components of prejudice, racism, and hunger for power that give the film more depth than it appears to have on the surface.

My favorite film of the year was Conclave, and it wasn’t particularly close. Not only was Conclave my favorite film of the year, but it may have cracked my top 15 favorite films of all time. Everything about Conclave was perfect, from the storytelling to the acting, to the drama in the screenwriting and the directing, and the beautiful production design and cinematography. It was perhaps more formulaic than Anora, and while it did take one big risk, it was not as risky a project overall as Anora was. Also, when taking into account the overall pessimistic view of this year’s nominees and the state of the world, Anora was probably the right choice for the times in which we are living.

Ranking the 2025 Best Picture Nominees from Worst to Best

OK, the Oscars are a day away. I spent the last couple of weeks breaking down all the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay. Now it’s time to rank the nominees for Best Picture.

Before I start, I want to say one thing about this year’s nominees. The thematic throughline for almost all of them was pessimism. We are living in dark, pessimistic times right now. Our population is divided along ideological lines with no clear path forward, and this year’s nominees reflect that. These are movies that point out our most profound weaknesses and make us confront them in ways that range from constructive to destructive. Some films offered a glimmer of hope, while others painted bleak pictures of not only our present but also our future.

So, on that happy note, here are my thoughts on this year’s Best Picture Nominees.

10. Emilia Pérez: This should come as no surprise. Anyone who reads this blog or listens to my podcast should be well aware of my disdain for this film and the rarified air it now undeservedly occupies as the second most Academy Award nominated film of all time. My only hope is that with the controversy now surrounding it, it may end up having the dubious record of being shut out.

9. The Brutalist: This one gets my award for the most overrated film of the year. Coming in at over three and a half hours, this slog of a film is a beautiful work of art but is not great cinema. The story lacks drama, and very little actually happens, which is a monumental achievement considering how long it is. Ultimately, this film gave me nothing from an emotional standpoint. I didn’t care about the characters. I didn’t care about what happened. The ending was also an unsatisfying way to conclude an unsatisfying film.

8. A Complete Unknown: This was an entertaining film, but I can’t help but wonder of the entertainment value came primarily from the music and not from the movie. There were a lot of plays left on the field in this film, which ended up being a surface-level account of one of he most important careers in the history of rock/folk/pop music. There were opportunities to explore Dylan’s relationships with Joan Baez and Sylvie Russo that would have added depth and drama to the story, but those opportunities weren’t taken advantage of.

7. Nickel Boys: This powerful screenplay reminded me of a latter-day Cool Hand Luke. Set primarily in the 1960s, this film forces us to examine our lack of progress in race relations. Yes, progress has been made, but Nickel Boys shows us we have a long way to go but are probably turning in the wrong direction.

6. I’m Still Here: This movie hits where it hurts. It’s about the kidnapping of a former politician in Brazil by the dictatorial government in the 80s, and his family’s attempt to find him or his body. This chilling accounting of how powerless people can feel when their own government turns against them is only tempered by the family’s resilience to finally get answers. This is one of this year’s films that offers that glimmer of hope.

5. Dune: Part Two: This film was one of the rare instances when the sequel is better than the original. Actually, it’s not so much a sequel as it is a continuation of the same story. However, whereas the first Dune movie was mostly about politics and exposition to help us understand the story, Dune: Part Two was all about the action. The scene when Paul rides the sandworm could easily win an Oscar if there was ever a category for Best Scene. This is one of the most entertaining movies of the year, but it is not likely to take home the Academy’s top prize.

4. The Substance: This film paid serious homage to my favorite filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick. Director/screenwriter Coralie Fargeat channeled her inner fan of The Shining, 2001, and A Clockwork Orange to give us a chilling look at the price people pay to hold on to the fleeting qualities of youth and beauty. Labeled as “body horror,” there are definitely scenes that will make you squeamish, but the tone and the message of the story create equal discomfort. Don’t count this one out for Best Original Screenplay.

3. Anora: Oh, man, this movie is like getting taken to the best party of the year only to watch it devolve into a drunken mess of fighting and crying and ending with a punch in the face. I loved it.  This is another one that could be a solid contender for Best Original Screenplay, and it has a good chance to win Best Picture. For me, this is the most emotionally engaging, and it made me feel the most.  It might have the single most powerful ending shot of any film I’ve seen.

2. Wicked: This was the most entertaining movie of the year. If the award was still called Best Production, like it was in the 30s and 40s, Wicked would absolutely be the front-runner because there wasn’t a better production than this film. It immerses us in the world of Oz like no other film before it, but there is a lot of substance to go along with its style. This is a deep film about prejudice, racism, and how easy it can be to fall into the trap of a dictatorial leader. There is a lot more to Wicked than meets the eye.

  1. Conclave: This is my favorite movie of the year, and it isn’t really that close. Conclave has a profoundly moving story that is paced in a way that makes it riveting and thoughtful. It has stellar acting performances from some of the great actors of our time. It has a timely thematic message about choosing the right leaders to take us to the better part of ourselves rather than the easy notion of coronating those who appeal to our basest desires that only serve to divide us. From the cinematography to the score, Conclave is a film that was crafted to stand alongside some of the greatest films that have ever been made.

That’s my list. I’d like to hear how you feel about this year’s Oscar race, so feel free to leave a comment.

Best Original Screenplay: Anora

Anora is one of my favorite movies of the year. You can find my full review here. Aside from having a fantastic screenplay, screenwriter and director Sean Baker crafted a film that is beautifully heartbreaking on many levels. It’s funny when it needs to be. It’s tense and dramatic at the appropriate times. But it ultimately breaks your heart. Anora runs the gamut of emotions more effectively than any film this year, to the point where the ending feels like a gut punch.

The first time I saw it was in a crowded theater and the ending sucked the air out of that theater. The other members of the audience and I sat in stunned silence as the credits silently began to roll. It was one of those communal moments you can only experience in a movie theater and even more rarely when the movie elicits that kind of emotional response.

The foundation of any great film is a great screenplay, and Anora has a great screenplay. It reminds me a little bit of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights. It doesn’t go quite as dark, but the overall structure is the same. The first half of the movie is a giant party with lots of sex, drugs, and loud music. Everyone is having a great time until about halfway through the movie when there is a whiplash-inducing turn that takes the movie in a darker direction with a much more pessimistic tone. What makes it work is that Baker’s screenplay makes the transition feel natural. It isn’t as sudden or as jarring as the transition in Boogie Nights, but it changes the direction of the story and its emotional tone just as effectively.

Something that should also be pointed out is the effectiveness with which Baker developed his main character. Ani (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer and part-time call girl. She knows how to play her clients (men) so that she can get as much money out of them as possible. On the surface, she’s not a very sympathetic character. But great character development never happens on the surface. Underneath that hard exterior, Baker gave us a tough but fragile girl with no prospects for a good future who has suddenly been handed a winning lottery ticket, and she won’t let it go until it’s pried from her cold, dead fingers. That is something that many people can relate to and root for.

Once again, we have a story with a top-notch Hero’s Journey and a tight story structure. As you can see, the story changes direction and tone with each changing act.

Act I

Ordinary World: Ani works at the strip club. Her boss asks her to meet Ivan, a high-rolling son of a Russian oligarch (but we don’t know that about him yet). She lives with her sister in Brooklyn in a modest house near the train tracks. Things go well with Ivan, and they continue to see each other, but on a purely “professional” level.

Call to Adventure: Ivan asks her to be exclusive for a week, and she negotiates a deal for $15K for the week, which he agrees to. She tells him she would have done it for as little as 10, and he says he would have paid her 30.

Meeting the Mentor: She meets Ivan’s friends and joins his world.

Crossing the First Threshold: Ivan decides they should all go to Vegas. Partying hard there, Ivan laments that he has to go back to Russia soon. But he could stay if he gets married, so he asks Ani to marry him. This is where the Refusal comes in. Ani says no, thinking it’s a ridiculous idea. But he talks her into it, and she demands a 3-karat ring. They officially cross the first threshold when they get married in Vegas.

Act II

Tests, Allies, and Enemies: Back in New York, Ani quits her job. Her coworker and nemesis, Diamond, predicts it will be over in two weeks. Ani and Ivan find a ring, clothes, and food. She lives the high life, and they seem genuinely happy. Ani wants to know what his parents think, but he’s evasive. The Toros, his godfather and mentor, gets a call from Ivan’s mother, Galina Stepanova, saying she read in a tabloid that Ivan married a prostitute.

Toros sends his brother Garnick and the Russian muscle Igor (Yura Borisov) to Ivan’s house to find out if the marriage is real. Ivan shows him the marriage license, and Igor tries to be nice to Ani, but she isn’t having it. Garnick takes a picture and sends it to the Toros, who’s in the middle of a baptism. He sees the pick on his phone and awkwardly and hilariously leaves. Toros comes over after getting yelled at by Ivan’s mother and he promises to fix everything.

Approach: Toros arrives and demands they go to City Hall to annul the marriage. Ani tells him to go fuck himself. Ivan runs away as Igor tries to control Ani, who smacks him around. A fight ensues, and she smashes the place up and breaks Garnick’s nose. Igor ties her up. They take the ring off her finger and she screams rape so the gag her

Supreme Ordeal: Toros offers her $10k to annul the marriage. She won’t agree to anything without talking to Ivan, so they agree to find him.

Reward: They hunt for Ivan at his usual hangouts. It’s cold, and Igor offers her the scarf he gagged her with earlier. She refuses it at first but then takes it. They get back to the car they parked illegally, and it’s on a tow truck. They pull it off and take it off to keep looking. Garnick throws up from his concussion.

Act III

The Road Back – They find him in Ani’s club, having a private dance with Diamond. Ivan is drunk and ignoring Ani. Ani fights Diamond before they get Ivan in the car. They go to the courthouse in the morning, but it can’t get annulled in New York since the marriage was in Vegas.

Resurrection: They get to the airport and meet Ivan’s parents. Galina Stepanova is awful to Ani and threatens to ruin her life if she doesn’t agree to the annulment. They fly to Vegas, and the marriage gets annulled. On the plane, Anora stands up to Ivan and calls him pathetic before Igor gives her a drink.

Return with the Elixir: The wedding is annulled. Ani looks at Ivan before signing it, but he can’t look at her and puts on his sunglasses. Igor wants Ivan to apologize to her. Galina Stepanova says no apology is needed. Ani tells her that her son is a pussy, and he hates her so much he married a whore, causing even Ivan’s father, Nijkolai Zakharov to break into laughter. Igor takes her back to America, and they spend he night in Ivan’s house watching TV and smoking weed. He says his birthday was yesterday. He says he likes Anora more than Ani. And it’s good she’s not part of that family. They have a moment. The next day, Toros gives her the $10k. Igor takes her home and gives her the ring. They have sex before she slaps him and starts crying in his arms.

She’s lost and broken and has pushed away the one person in this whole adventure who was kind to her.

Anora is a grim journey brimming with emotion. It starts out wildly entertaining before turning on its heartbreaking destiny, but you will feel something watching this film. I don’t think it’s the best picture of the year, but it is the most emotional.

Best Original Screenplay – The Substance

The Substance might very well be the best original screenplay of the year. I love A Real Pain, and I will discuss tomorrow how much I love Anora, but there is something about what Director and Screenwriter Coralie Fargeat crafted with this script that sings with a voice the other screenplays this year don’t quite match. There is a rule in screenwriting: show, don’t tell. Every screenwriter, screenwriting instructor, executive producer, reader, or anyone else who evaluates screenplays will tell you that the Cardinal rule of screenwriting is to show more and tell less. Filmmaking is a visual medium, and stories are always more effective when we are shown what happens through action rather than being told what happens through dialogue.

The Substance shows way more than it tells.

Unofficially, I can reasonably guess that The Substance has the least amount of dialogue than any nominee this year, but tells a story that is at least as compelling as any of them. The Substance is a master class in visual storytelling. Almost all the main points are shown to us. Naturally, there is information given to us in dialogue, and much of that comes from the over-the-top performance delivered by Dennis Quaid as Harvey, the sexist television producer who forces Elizabeth (Demi Moore) into retirement in favor of searching for a younger model.

The Substance is also incredibly strong thematically. I wrote an overall review here that you can check out, but you can’t focus on the screenplay without acknowledging how strong this script is thematically and the difficult message it faces head-on. We all know that women are objectified in all walks of life. Nowhere is that more prevalent than in the entertainment industry where, with a few exceptions, middle-aged and older women are cast aside for younger versions at a much more accelerated rate than men are. Physical beauty and objectification ultimately lead to a loss of humanity, and that is exactly what happens to Elizabeth in this film. Speaking directly to women (and men) who mutilate their bodies through plastic surgery and other means to extend the illusion of youth, this film lays bare the consequences of worshipping at beauty’s altar.

Aside from that, The Substance is a remarkably well-structured screenplay with a tight Hero’s Journey.

Ordinary World – Elisabeth Sparkle is a former big star who is past her prime. Her line to herself, “You want to look like a big jellyfish on the beach?” is foreshadowing. Her life, as she knows it is over.

Call to Adventure – She hears network exec on the phone demanding her replacement because she’s too old. After a car accident, a hospital resident tells her about The Substance.

Refusal – She meets an old high school friend, Fred, who wants to reconnect, but he’s ugly, and she’s hesitant. She receives a data stick with an overview of The Subsance. After watching it, she throws it in the trash. The risks don’t seem worth it.

Meeting the Mentor – She calls the number on the stick and talks to a voice on the phone about ordering The Substance. He gives her an address.

Crossing the First Threshold – Elisabeth finds the address and gets the package. She takes The Substance, which, after a violent reaction that literally tears her back open, produces her other self, Sue (Margaret Qualley).

Tests, Allies and Enemies – Sue auditions to be the next Elisabeth Sparkle. She meets Harvey, who hires her, and she comes up with the lie that she needs to be off every other week to go out of town and take care of her mother. She becomes a sensation. Her billboard is on Sunset Boulevard. Everyone loves her. She switches back in time, and Elisabeth wakes up and goes to see Harvey, who gives her a parting gift that she doesn’t open. She gets a note to pick up her refill kit.

Approach – Sue loves the fame. She builds a hidden closet in the bathroom to hide Elisabeth’s body. We see Sue’s billboard outside the apartment in a staring contest with Elisabeth’s broken portrait. Sue takes over Elisabeth’s apartment, along with her life and her show.

Supreme Ordeal – Sue goes out with friends as Elisabeth’s food supply gets dangerously low. She brings a guy home, and Elisabeth runs out of food while they’re making out, causing Sue to start bleeding and breaking down. She gets more fluid from Elisabeth so she can last another day, but it gives Elisabeth a deformity.

Reward – Elisabeth notices her deformed finger and notices Sue took an extra day. She tries to cancel the subscription. She gives them her name, and they don’t recognize her, so she gives them her number, 503 (dehumanization), and they respond. The voice tells her to respect the balance to avoid any more inconvenience. She gets the next refill and hears strange noises. She ducks into a coffee shop. She sees the other self of the man who recruited her. He warns her about loneliness. And tells her it gets harder each time, knowing you still deserve to exist and that the old one still matters. He asks if she’s started eating away at her. Elisabeth calls Fred to get together for a drink. They make a date.

The Road Back – Elisabeth gets ready for the date with a classy red dress. She applies her makeup and realizes she’s not fooling anyone. She looks at Sue, who is still beautiful as she’s passed out, trying to touch herself, but she only makes herself look more disheveled. She sees Sue’s billboard and tries to make herself up even more, but she only looks worse. Feeling too insecure about herself, she tries more makeup and messes with her hair. She can’t escape the image of Sue looking at her, judging her. She looks so old to herself. She angrily wipes the makeup off her face. She never meets up with George. (All of this is shown visually with absolutely no dialogue).

Back to Sue, her body starts to break down. She finds a growth that she pulls out through her belly button and wakes with a start. It was a dream. She gets to the studio, and Harvey tells her ratings are through the roof and tells her that she will host the New Year’s Eve show, but it will require intense training. She will make it happen. Sue steals days.=

Elisabeth is old and deformed. The voice offers to stop, but she won’t get back what she lost. She refuses that idea. She wants the balance to be respected. The voice tells her to respect it. She opens the gift Harvey gave her, and it’s a cookbook. She cooks disgusting looking food. Everything in her world is turning ugly.,

Resurrection – Sue wakes up with a mess and decides she can’t go back. She sucks as much essence out of Elizabeth as she can and lasts for months. The New Year’s Eve show is going to be put on the following day, but there is no stabilizer left. The voice tells her she’s reached the end. The only way to get more is to let the fluid regenerate, so she has to switch. “There is no other option.” She switches, and Elisabeth wakes up and is now a hideous monster. She calls and tells them she wants to stop. They deliver the final kit. She picks it up, and it’s a termination stick. She’s just about to inject it, and here’s the voice asking if she’s sure. She can’t go back. She’ll be on her own. She injects Sue but stops before all the fluid is in her. After seeing the flowers and the note saying they’re going to love her. Sue wakes up and sees the termination kit and freaks out, beating Elizabeth to death. Then her body breaks down leading up to the special.

Return with the Elixir: Sue races home and injects the starter, turning her into a deformed monster. Monsro Elisasue gets dressed, puts an Elisabeth mask on, and goes to the lot for the New Year’s Eve Show. Everyone thinks she’s beautiful when she gets there and sings her praises. But on stage, her mask falls off, and everyone sees how she really is, and they’re repulsed. They scream and call her a monster. She calls out, “It’s still me!” and “I’m still here!” until her head is bashed in by a crowbar. Her head regenerates; she sprays blood all over the audience. She escapes the studio and disintegrates on the sidewalk. Elisabeth’s face breaks off and stops on her star on the Walk of Fame. She’s back in the spotlight before melting completely away.

It’s a long and intense story. It’s a screenplay that makes us confront what we value in our lives and in ourselves. It challenges us to move past the superficial surface level of life and appreciate what’s deep inside of everyone. Outer beauty is fleeting. Inner beauty is forever, but only if you had it to begin with.