The Screenplay: Destroyer / BlackKklansman / Mary Poppins Returns

Happy New Year, and happy Award Season!

We're kicking off the 6th of Jan with the Golden Globe Awards, the biggest precursor to the Oscars for reasons unknown.

And instead of waiting for screeners, I'm just going to read the screenplays instead. Of course, these are not full fledged reviews as we're not seeing performances, camera work, or settings. Just how the story plays out.

And my god, do we have some doozies. Three, in fact, from here.

Annapurna's Destroyer, Focus Features BlackKklansman, and Disney's Mary Poppins Returns.




If you know me, you know I was hyped for Destroyer, but the distributor's mismanagement, it just not leaking, my fave being in this for 15 minutes at most, and lukewarm to okay-ish reviews made me pick up the screenplay, read it, and call it a day.

And what a day. I've never seen a Karyn Kusama film, though I always meant to with Jennifer's Body. This year, I will.

HOW IT MIGHT LOOK: Truth be told, all the flashbacks would probably annoy the piss out of me visually, and it might not, as two pages in a screenplay is far different than three minutes on a screen. But the music would be cool, and while you can imagine Nicole Kidman beating the shit out of people on page, it's going to be so much cooler on the screen.

I'm also trying to remember the last downright crime movie I watched and...maybe Atomic Blonde? It was like this but definitely different, a lot less simple, more stylized. I called this a "Lifetime movie" just from reading the script, but what would I have called it if man had directed it instead?

Probably needlessly gratuitous as there would probably be a nudity scene or two.

This made me realize that straightforward cop-crime movies are just not my genre. It happens.

WOULD I WATCH IT?: If it was gaining more award traction.

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Onto a cop-crime-klan movie drama that reads fabulously in BlackKklansman.

The last Spike Lee movie I saw was Do The Right Thing, so I'm not familiar with his style of visuals or directing for the modern day.

I'm surprised it didn't end with Ron abandoning the police force to truly help black people. As you can tell by 2018, very little has changed, except now black cops are helping to uphold white supremacy.

HOW IT MIGHT LOOK: Hard. Even the descriptions of lynchings in the script was hard to read, and the fact that the actual images are shown? Oh, man.

WOULD I WATCH IT?: Through my fingers in discomfort.

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Ah, here was the movie I had a slight interest in.

Not slight enough to see it, but it's the thought that counts.

HOW IT MIGHT LOOK: Beautiful, with hand drawn animation cast against the same rather gray pallor that most Disney live action movies have these days, including Rob Marshall's very own Into the Woods from 2014 (Which I loved).

This one would benefit the most from the visuals, as there are multiple songs accompanied with spectacular visuals.

WOULD I WATCH IT?: At home.