A chat with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, co-director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE - Part 1

 About three years ago, I ran an interview with some good friends of mine who had made a name for themselves with web short released as the comedy troupe Chad, Matt and Rob.  You can find all three part of that interview here, here and here.

Since then the team has reorganized as the film-making collective Radio Silence, with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Chad Villella, and Justin Martinez.  Two years ago, they were among several filmmakers involved with the original V/H/S.  Many reviewers pointed to their segment, 10/31/98, as being the strongest of the bunch and most deserving of its placement as the film's closing segment.

Their first feature, DEVIL'S DUE, comes out this Friday.  It's already found a big fan in Eli Roth, who moderated a media event last month promoting the film.  The guys had some interesting things to say about the film and found footage in general, so if you're at all interested, you should check out the links below.

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/73151/devils-due-preview-radio-silence-speaks-new-images#axzz2pvbOlv8o
http://collider.com/radio-silence-devils-due-interview/
http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/344067-devils-due-what-you-need-to-know/#/slide/1

 In advance of the film's release, I arranged a two part interview with Bettinelli-Olpin, who along with Gillett, is credited as co-director. (Villella and Martinez are credited as executive producers, while Martinez is also credited as cinematographer and visual effects supervisor.)  In it we talk about found-footage in general, creative freedom and how one of the influences on the film was... The Notebook?

It's interesting that while you guys have done a fair number of "typical" narrative shorts for the web, the work that's made the most impact among a wider audience is all found footage. CHAD HATES ALIENS was your first viral short. MOUNTAIN DEVIL PRANK FAILS HORRIBLY was what got you V/H/S and your first foray into VFX, and then of course there's 10/31/98 from V/H/S. 

What are your thoughts on found footage in general and do you have any theories on why your work in it is so well-received? Is there something you're bringing to it that few others are? 

 There are obviously huge disadvantages when talking about FF, the most common ones are always "why are you filming" and too much "shaky cam." but there are also some advantages that we love -- mainly the intimacy you can create which in turn can heighten the humor and the horror. We love how intimate it can be, it's a real unique chance to bring the audience into the scene with the characters.

Since way back with CHAD HATES ALIENS, we've always focused on justifying the camera and making sure that it serves as an extension of the character and authentically have a place in the world of the story. But where the online pranks and V/H/S could literally be considered "found" footage, DEVIL'S DUE doesn't pretend to be footage that anyone has found or compiled, it's simply a story told through cameras that exists in that world. In that sense, it's a bit of an experiment that we were able to have fun with and as the character's lives spiral out of control we were able to mirror that journey visually by shifting to different (and hopefully creepier) POVs.

But all that said, our number on FF rule is always to be sure that the cameras in our story always function as an extension of character.

You guys have mentioned that Fox gave you guys a lot of creative freedom. Given that it's pretty normal for first-time feature directors to feel like their work is compromised, was that a surprise? Can you point to an instance where might not have expected the studio to go with an idea and they were won over? 

We wanted to create a sense of realism throughout so to allow for lots of improv within our scenes we had to meticulously structure the rest of the movie. And then try to hide that structure as much as possible. We're hoping to create an intentional feeling of free-flowing authenticity so from day one Fox agreed to let us go off the script a lot, as long as we got the scripted version first. But from there they were more of a creative partner than anything. We were given great and helpful ideas but never told "do this" or "do that" -- it was almost always left up to us to decide what should make the cut.

We found that a good conversation can go a long way, just talking through ideas as fully as possible whenever possible. And the people at Fox, Emma Watts and Steve Asbell especially, felt like true partners, not our bosses (even though they were, of course). At the end of the day, whatever felt like the best idea to serve the story would win out. And of course a few times that just meant trying all the different versions to see what truly fit the movie.

What do you think found footage skeptics will be most surprised by in this film? 

I wish I had a better answer but I feel like skeptics are always going to be skeptics and that's fine. We're not making a movie to change hearts and minds, we're just hoping to entertain people who want to be entertained and hopefully a little moved by Sam and Zach's plight.

We focused on their love story from day one. The first thing we said when we read the script was "let's hone in on their love story and then watch what happens when you throw a huge obstacle between them..." Not joking at all, we talked about THE NOTEBOOK quite a bit in terms of the horror of watching the person you love degenerate and being left helpless beyond continuing to love them unconditionally.

Read on in Part II!

The results from my Black List logline competition

Last week I pledged to read at least the first fifteen pages of four scripts, selected from several dozen submissions.  This was the latest run at an offer I've made twice before.  Last time, I read scripts and ended up praising three of them.  Though two of those three turned out to be from writers with representation, a third, CHAMBERS, attracted the attention of screenwriter F. Scott Frazier and manager Brian McCurley of DMG Entertainment, who have been representing the script since soon after I posted my review.

The writer, Stan Himes, wrote me to say, "I want to note that I didn't sign any official representation contract. They're simply representing the script and trying to make a sale. And as a guy in snowy Iowa, it's great to have someone in LA championing my work, so I appreciate their efforts, your kind review and the mere existence of the Black List site."

So did any of the four selections this time make the grade?

The promise was to read at least fifteen pages.  Two of the scripts got me just about to the halfway mark.  The other two got me the distance.  In fact, I ended up reading one of them twice.  After the first read, I liked it, but I wasn't quite feeling the passion for it I was hoping to find.  I liked the premise and a lot of the early stuff, but this read was also coming near the end of a long day, so I allowed for the possibility that something was affecting the read.  The only fair thing to do was give it a fresh read under better circumstances.

But while I felt it was good, I couldn't shake the feeling that it could be better.  I ended up contacting the writer and explaining this all to him and in the course of our email conversation, he mentioned a couple ideas for a subsequent draft that immediately clicked for me. "Go write THAT!" I wanted to tell him.  By the end of our discussion, I definitely felt it would be better for the script if it didn't get a big push until it was in a stronger state.  And I have such faith in the writer that I've invited him to send me a subsequent draft when he feels it's ready.

I think you only get one chance to make a big impression with your script.  That's especially true when you're pushing it out via the internet, where that paper trail lives forever.  I don't want to write a review that makes you think the script is pretty good. I want a review that convinces you the script will be great.

None of the scripts were quite there - some might have been close, about at the level of "Consider With Reservations."  In fact, in general the scripts were pretty good.  None of them had any of the really common amateur errors.  True, I bailed on two of the scripts halfway through, but that had more to do with me knowing they weren't likely to end up as strong as I needed them to be for a full-throated endorsement.  I could have bailed after 15 pages, but I saw enough initial promise that I figured it would be worth it to see things through.

I absolutely feel that all of these writers whose work I read this past week could be really great if they keep at it.  I recognized one writing team - Jeffrey and Susan Bridges - as a team who submitted to my first open offer just over a year ago. I saw a lot of improvement in their work just in that time. The writing flowed better, everything about it seemed more natural, and I daresay there was a confidence that wasn't there before.

To all of you - not just the writers of the four scripts, but everyone who submitted to my offer - keep writing.  Keep improving.  One bad reaction will never be the end of the world.  In fact, it could even motivate you to push yourself further.

Inevitably, I know some of you are going to ask if I plan on reading any of the runner-up scripts. I make no promises, but there are a couple loglines I'm curious about.  If time permits, I might look over a couple in the next few weeks.  I wouldn't suggest keeping your script uploaded only on the off-chance I read it, though.  If some of you were planning on terminating your hosting, don't renew just on my account.

So this didn't end quite the way I hoped, but I don't regret any of my selections.  Good luck to all of you.

Webshow: "Lies about guru beat sheets"

There's a frequent perception that script readers base all their evaluations on the tenets discussed in Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat."  So is there any truth to this?  Hear what the Bitter puppet has to say.

TOBY IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU is one of The Black List's Top 50 Most Downloaded for 2013! Also, a look at the site's data.

I got some very exciting news this weekend.  Despite behind hosted on the Black List site for a mere three weeks of last year, my script TOBY IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU was one of the site's Top 50 Most Downloaded Scripts for 2013!

As I did not purchase a review from the Black List, none of the traffic to my script came from official Black List emails.  This accomplishment is entirely due to my publicizing the script here and on social media, as well as the many strong rankings from Black List members.

Because of several high ratings of 8s and 9s, the script is currently in the 1 or 2 positions on several of the site's feature lists, including Top Unrepresented, Top Uploaded, Top Horror, Top Mystery & Suspense.

If you're new here and need to know more about TOBY IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU, check out this post.

Or you can watch this short video pitch.



For Black List industry members, the script is available here.

I'm already taking meetings about TOBY and as this week is really the first week back from vacation, I'm optimistic that I will be hearing from more people this week.  My assumption is that a number of people downloaded it to enjoy over their holiday breaks and that the coming weeks will see them reaching out if they liked it.

As some people have asked, I intend on doing a more complete data dump about my Black List experience as I approach the end of my time hosting the script there. 

The complete Top 50 Downloaded List is available here.

There are a couple of interesting finds here. Five writers each have two scripts on the Top 50 Downloaded List:

Christopher D. Bacon - THE RENEGADE MESMERIST and YOUR NUMBER'S UP
Tasha Huo - BLACK BELLE (FKA THE DARKNESS) and WARD 8
Dennis Luu - ON THE RUN and MOTHER
Jason Mosberg - THE SIMPLE ART OF VENGEANCE and JAILBIRDS
Anna Weinstein - FUCKING BRAD PITT and DAY TRADER

Conor Healy has three scripts on the list - CLEAN, BLACK AJAX and EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.

As I'm a Black List member I went through and looked up each one of these scripts and gathered some data with regard to their ratings and paid reviews.  In cases like this, it's Black List policy to not share private data on individual scripts, but I am allowed to share non-identifying data.

I also want to caution that the data here only measures the Top 50 scripts against each other.  I don't have the information to stack these findings against the rest of the site as whole.  So what we're dealing with here may be a lot of correlation of data among the scripts in the Top 50 rather than determining the causation of how they ended up in the Top 50.

Having said that, these people succeeded in at least drawing traffic to their script so that at least suggests they figured out the salesmanship aspect of the goal.

40 of the Top 50 Scripts had a paid review of 8 or higher.  Some individuals had hidden their paid reviews, but by going by through my Black List emails featuring all scripts rated 8 or higher, I was able to at least identify scripts that met that threshold.  This means that only 10 scripts, or 20% of the list were able to draw traffic to their page by other means.  So it's not necessary to pay for a review on the site in order to get downloads, but it certainly improves your odds.

20 of the scripts (40%) had only a single paid review visible.
14 of the scripts (28%) had only two visible reviews.
3 scripts had three visible reviews
1 script each had four and five visible reviews, respectively.
1 script had seven paid reviews visible.

Does the number of paid reviews peak at 1 because 1 review is effective? Or is it because most people don't want to pay an additional $50 for a second review?  Or could those writers have paid for two reviews and only gotten one review to their liking?  There's no way to know for certain.  But you can say that 60% of the top downloaded scripts may have spent only $50 or less on reviews in order to attract their audience.  Pay to host it for two months and get one review and you've only spent $100, which is only slightly more than your typical contest entry fee.

What this also suggests is that a few writers employed the strategy of paying for reviews as a way of ensuring multiple appearances in the weekly emails.  Each paid review of 8 or above merits a mention in the weekly releases.  So if you purchase a review every other week and all of those reviews come back 8 or above, for the price of four reviews, the script will be pushed out to the membership every other week for two months.  Note that this strategy only really works if your script is good enough to get strong reviews.

16 scripts (32%) had fewer than 10 total ratings. (This includes both ratings from paid reviews and ratings from Black List members.)  One script had 2 ratings, one script had 3 ratings, three scripts had 4 ratings, one script had 5 ratings, three had 6, four had 7, two had 8 and one had 9 ratings.

Only ten scripts (20%) had 20 or more ratings.  Six scripts did not make this information available.

The other thing I wanted to take a look at is to see what percentage of the Black List member ratings were 8 or higher.  This is where it gets tricky because writers have the option to hide this information.  In fact 29 of the 50 scripts chose that option.  Of the remaining 21 scripts, only 11 had more than 50% of their ratings come in 8 or above.

I know, the numbers in that last paragraph can make your head swim.  What I want to get at is this.  Though you have to understand we are dealing with a VERY small sample size, it's not necessarily the end of the world if half of your ratings are below 8.  It's still possible to attract attention even with lower scores.  10 out of 21 scripts still got downloaded frequently even though more than half of the scores were less than 8.

Two things can probably make the difference here - having an irresistible logline, and having a strong review from the Black List reviewers.

I had also pulled the data with regard to how many of these writers were represented.  Here's where it gets tricky.  Since all of this information is self-reported and not mandatory, a writer doesn't have to identify themselves as repped.  Indeed, there were a couple writers who didn't have rep info listed even though I knew they had an agent or manager.

Additionally, I recognized a number of the repped writers as people who found representation only after uploading their work to the site.  But there's no way to know for certain who among these writers might have had an agent or manager before coming here.  So if I were to conclude "X number of writers on the Top 50 found their rep through the Black List," that would be impossible to confirm.

However, I suspect someone will go hunting for that data and might not put it in the same context that I am.  Between the information on the Black List site as well as public announcements about representation, I can state that 19 of 50 scripts had a rep attached.  Thus, (and I'm stating this again just so there's it's clear) going by the information available on the site and what has been publicly announced, we might conclude that 38% of the Top 50 have representation, but I urge against taking that as hard data. The actual number could be even higher, and we should not assume that 38% only encompasses writers who found their reps through the site.

And to think I swore off math once I got to college...

My Top Ten Films of 2013

Like just about every blogger out there, I felt the need to write up a Top Ten List of last year's films.  I haven't seen all of the major Oscar contenders, but as of now I feel like I've seen enough of them that my Top 10 is pretty stable.  Among those I haven't seen yet: Mud, Frozen, Nebraska, All is Lost and, most regrettably, Short Term 12.

The links will take you to my original reviews of each film.

1. 12 Years a Slave - Honestly, my top three films are pretty much a dead heat, but I feel inclined to give 12 Years a Slave the edge because it takes subject matter that could have felt like pandering Oscar bait and finds a way to make it a horrific personal film about one man trapped in a living nightmare.  It knows when to be subtle and when to beat us over the head with the brutality of slavery.  Of all the films I saw this year, this might have been the one that left me with the most to think about afterwards.  There's little doubt in my mind that Chiwetel Ejiofor deserves the Oscar for his performance here and Steve McQueen is equally deserving of a Best Director nomination.

2. Gravity - I don't know how you begin to write a film like Gravity, much less direct it.  Alfonso Cuaron's film is a marvel of directing, visual effects and acting.  Some say there's no character arc in this, which to me is just indicative that they're not looking closely enough.  Many films this year offered spectacle, but for my money, no film delivered on that promise better than Gravity.

3. Her - Her could flippantly be described as a story about man who falls in love with his Siri.  That's not totally accurate.  The computer "operating system" Samantha is a few evolutionary steps above Siri, but not to a ridiculous degree.  Our lead character, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), is a lonely introvert who's still not made piece with his separation and impending divorce from his wife. Every part of Theodore's world has a veneer of phoniness to it, so it's not terribly surprising that he'd bond with his newly purchased O.S. "Samantha." In exploring the relationship, the film first seems to deconstruct the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope and in going beyond that, writer/director Spike Jonze begins to explore more universal truths about relationships.

4. The Wolf of Wall Street - A portrait of excess that's unfortunately been misunderstood by many. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese do some of their best work ever in this three-hour film about one of the greediest, slimiest stockbrokers to ever make a penny off his clients' greed and have them come back begging for more.  In its own way, it forces us to confront that part of ourselves that wants the life Jordan Belfort represents.

5. Captain Phillips - aka "the film that reminds us why Tom Hanks is so revered." The final scene of the film is incredible, as Hanks vividly shows us that the trauma of the hostage situation didn't end immediately with Phillips's liberation.  Equally impressive is how Barkhad Abdi holds his own with Hanks every moment they are on screen together - a feat that's even more remarkable once you realize this is Abdi's first feature film.

6. The Spectacular Now - There are a lot of virtues to be found in The Spectacular Now, but perhaps one of the most satisfying elements is the honest writing of the characters.  This is one of those movies where the viewer can't help but marvel at how authentic everything feels, even when it would be so easy for the script to veer into more common explorations of first love and high school cliques.  Director James Ponsoldt does a wonderful job of conveying the subtlety and nuance in Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber's script. This is the sort of film that is so natural that the writing appears deceptively easy, even though the truth is precisely the opposite. If you overlooked this one last summer, check it out on DVD when it's released later this month.

7. American Hustle - I didn't get to do a full review of this one back when I first saw it and now I wish I had because the capsule review here won't do justice to all my thoughts on it.  My big takeaway from this film was how rich and fleshed-out the characters were.  You want to know how to get a movie made? Get strong talent attached. And how do you do that? Write characters with as much range and complexity as the principle cast here.  Everyone scores here.  I've seen complaints that the structure was too loose, that the plot was too slight.  I don't agree with that and even if I did, guys like Christian Bale's Irving and Bradley Cooper's Richie were so fascinating, I'd have watched a whole movie of those guys just interacting.

8. Man of Steel - I rewatched this one a second time just a few weeks ago and found that my strong first impressions of the film weren't just "midnight screening" excitement. If anything, I enjoyed the film even more a second time.  David Goyer's script isn't quite as strong as some of his Dark Knight entries, but he still does a teriffic job of making an old story feel new. Some condemned this because this didn't feel like the Superman they knew.

As someone who's lived with multiple interpretations of the mythos including two or three comic book reboots, the Donner films, Lois & Clark, Smallville and more, I've gotten used to accepting sometimes wildly distinct takes on the continuity.  Judging this film on its own terms rather than what came before is not only fairer to the film, but a better way to enjoy it.  Henry Cavill is perfect casting as Superman and for my money one of the most exhilarating visual sequences of the year is Clark exiting the spaceship in full costume and gradually learning to take flight.  If the joy on Superman's face when he finally soars doesn't make you smile, you probably have no soul.


9. The Conjuring - The was the one unqualified success in horror this year.  Several reviewers have focused on the "clapping game" scare, but for my money the opening sequence was one of the first genuinely unsettling things I've seen in a horror film in a while.  More amazingly, it involves zero violence.  There's an amazing sense of dread achieved just with a dark hallway, a shaft of light bisecting the darkness, a prone doll and creepy writing on the wall.  As the director of Saw, James Wan bears some responsibility for the decade of torture porn scripts that I suffered through in its wake. Thus, I feel his role in reviving a more restrained approach to horror might be the biggest redemption story of the year.

10. Dallas Buyers Club - I've never really understood the hate for Matthew McConaughey. Like Ben Affleck, the guy's gotten a lot of hate and derision that seems undeserved.  There might have been a period where he was trapped in rom-com hell, but I've always liked the guy, maybe just out of affection for his work in A Time to Kill.  That's why it's so great to see him remind everyone just how good he can be in this 1980s-set story about a man with HIV who's given 30 days to live and prolongs his life through illegal medications which he also provides to other patients in his situation.  This is one I definitely feel I'll need to revisit outside of the awards glut, just to fully absorb it.  Jared Leto does great work as a transgender HIV-positive patient.  It's not really a feel-good movie and is probably my most-debated entry here, but man, is this a great second act for McConaughey.

Overall, 2013 was a great year for film.  This was the first year in a long time where I was often seeing more than one movie a week and still felt like I was falling behind in the awards season crush.  I could probably craft a full top ten list out of my runner-ups and still be leaving some great movies off.  Among the other films I really enjoyed that almost made the cut were Saving Mr. Banks, Don Jon, Rush, Side Effects, Lone Survivor and This is the End.  Also, V/H/S 2 was about 75% awesome, particularly the cult segment "Safe Haven" written and directed by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans.

Even the summer tentpoles were generally pretty good, with Iron Man 3 being the best movie of the trilogy (though nothing beats the first hour of the original film), Star Trek Into Darkness managing some great work with Kirk's character, even if the film wasn't quite as good as Abrams's previous effort, and World War Z proving that you CAN save a film late in production and that Damon Lindelof is capable of being your script's trauma surgeon.  There might have been some duds this year, but it definitely felt like the quantity of good material was a lot higher than in recent years.

No matter what your tastes were, there should have been something that came out this year that restored your faith in the movies.  If you came out of 2013 cynical about the state of film, I'm quite confidant in saying that nothing would satisfy you.

My review of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

"The villain is the hero of his own story," is a fairly common adage that writers and critics toss around when it discussing the creation of three-dimensional villains.  The worst sort of villains are the randomly-evil, blatantly psychopathic characters with no redeeming qualities.  These kinds of black-hat-wearing antagonists often struggle to be interesting because there's no complexity to their personality.  As much as they may populate the movies, they're far less common in real life.

In real life, there are plenty of people who commit outrageously illegal and even evil acts for what they believe are good reasons.  More often than not, those reasons derive largely from self-interest.  "The bad guy never thinks he's the bad guy" is another cliche that underlines this.

Jordan Belfort, the protagonist of The Wolf of Wall Street, is such a bad guy.

Owing to the fact that the film is derived from Belfort's memoir of the same name, the movie is told from his point of view.  We follow his ascent as a New York stockbroker, right there with him as he nets millions of dollars in deals that are designed to take advantage of investors who are both too ignorant and too greedy to use common sense to see through the snake oil deals Belfort and his sales team trick them into taking.

It's made abundantly clear to us early on that most of Belfort's early marks are working class people for whom this investment money may be a significant part of their savings.  In one early scene, we watch mesmerized as Belfort cold-calls a gentleman and through a combination of silver-tongued salesmanship mixed with misrepresentation, goads him into buying penny stocks in a mostly-worthless start-up for which Belfort will pocket half the money thanks to the markup on the deal.

On one hand, it's kind of thrilling to see Belfort in his element, knowing just how to play his mark.  On the other hand, it's pretty much the epitome of everything people despise about Wall Street scumbags.  The film revels in that dicotomy, making sure we have ample opportunity to immerse ourselves in the debauchery in which Belfort and his cohorts partake.  It's like an ongoing frat party for these guys - drugs, hookers, yachts, wild parties, dehumanizing stunts like paying a secretary $10,000 to shave her head, or a wild office party that includes dwarf-tossing.

It's a perfect portrait of greed and indulgence.  And I don't question the appeal of that lifestyle.  Who wouldn't like to have more money than sense?  We all dream of not being able to worry about money - and Belfort's only money problem seems to be that he can't spend it fast enough.  Guys like Belfort thrive because that lifestyle is so seductive.  His victims were so eager to give him their money because he represented the dream that they were buying into - the chance to be as rich as he was.

And yet, so much of what Belfort does in this film is so lacking in any moral compass that eventually his indulgences should repulse us.  Belfort is so over-the-top that I'm mystified that any viewer could reach the end of the film thinking that director Martin Scorsese and writer Terence Winter were condoning the excess depicted in the story.  This open letter printed in LA Weekly is representative of some of the misunderstandings I've seen about this film.

"You people are dangerous. Your film is a reckless attempt at continuing to pretend that these sorts of schemes are entertaining, even as the country is reeling from yet another round of Wall Street scandals. We want to get lost in what? These phony financiers' fun sexcapades and coke binges? Come on, we know the truth. This kind of behavior brought America to its knees.

"And yet you're glorifying it -- you who call yourselves liberals. You were honored for career excellence and for your cultural influence by the Kennedy Center, Marty. You drive a Honda hybrid, Leo. Did you think about the cultural message you'd be sending when you decided to make this film? You have successfully aligned yourself with an accomplished criminal, a guy who still hasn't made full restitution to his victims, exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior. And don't even get me started on the incomprehensible way in which your film degrades women, the misogynistic, ass-backwards message you endorse to younger generations of men."

I like to think the filmmakers respected the intelligence of their audience, that they trusted the viewers would "get" that Belfort's horrible actions were, well, horrible without having some overt moralizing to the audience.  It's a poor film that has to tell an audience how to feel.  And it's a poor viewer who needs the film to directly state its moral message to the audience.

Despite the film lasting three hours, Scorsese keeps things moving so fast that you barely notice.  Some of the best scenes are ones where Belfort is left to preach before his broker disciples like he's leading a revival meeting.  One such scene is built around him getting them fired up to sell stock in Steve Madden's company as it goes public.  It's both glorious and revolting to watch him lap up the adoration as he plays his audience like a fiddle.

(It reminded me of an utterly embarrassing display I witnessed at a recent Comic-Con as one personality pumped up the crowd to support his new venture and the mindless sycophants were heard to yell "Preach!" during the speech and then came up to the speaker afterwards to say, "You touched me, man. Kick some ass!" It was pandering of the worst kind.)

Watching DiCaprio "hold court" in those scenes is a fantastic thing to behold.  Belfort has to be charming - how else could he so easily part the fools with their money?  Evil rich guys aren't all like Ebenezer Scrooge and Mr. Burns and DiCaprio is very effective at drawing the audience into his web.  And this isn't even getting into the physicality of the quaalude sequence, or a great encounter with two FBI agents where he turns up the charm all while trying to hit their egos with his wealth.

I left the film utterly puzzled that anyone could sit through the film and think it lionizes its subject. Upon reflection I realized there was one subset of viewers who could possibly see the film as an endorsement of Belfort - people who want to BE Belfort.  Every now and then you'll run across these guys in Hollywood and they're among some of the worst people you'll have to deal with in the industry.  But still, people likely to take that message are already pro-Belfort.  I can't imagine someone with a negative view of the guy watching the film and feeling it glorifies him.

This is a guy who basically forces himself on his wife, hits her mid-argument, then attempts to steal off into the night with their daughter only to be stopped when he rams his car in an accident. If this was some kind of white-washing of the man, I don't think we'd have seen those scenes in the final cut.

Audiences leave the film pissed off that Belfort got off with a lot less punishment than he deserved and that he still thrives today.  I suspect part of the point is that we should be angry about this.  In general, white collar criminals suffer a lot less for their atrocities than they probably should.  The film reflects that and if anything, it's less an endorsement of Belfort and more an indictment of our justice system.

Like American Hustle, Wolf  has a pretty deep bench of well-drawn characters, though this is less of an ensemble piece than the former film.  I rather enjoyed both films, but admired Wolf a little more for its willingness to make Belfort such a scumbag without even a glimmer of redemption.  The final scene of the film really underlines this, reinforcing that the man hasn't changed a whit for everything he's been through - and that there'll always be an audience ready to buy the magic beans he peddles.

My Top 4 Selections from the Submitted Black List loglines

I dug through each and every logline that was submitted on Tuesday (and left comments on each one, so be sure to check those out) and ended up with 12 loglines on my short list.  After careful consideration, I made my Top 4 selections.  I will read the first 15 pages of each of those scripts, in the hopes that at least a few of them will compel me to read the entire submission.

Any scripts I complete that I feel deserve a ranking of 8 or above will be reviewed on the blog in the hopes of drawing more attention to them.

Last time I ended up reading four full scripts of the eight I initially selected, so I didn't have any need to reach beyond the original eight selections.  However, in the event that none of the four scripts really keeps me going beyond the first fifteen pages, I may delve into some of the runner-ups, time permitting.

And of course, I encourage anyone with Black List access to check out these scripts and see if there's anything here that you like.

The Top 4 Selections:

Title: NARCOSIS
Writer: Chris Drzewiecki
Genre: Contained thriller chock full of ghosts, sharks, treasure. All killer, no filler
After their boat is pulled to the bottom of the ocean by a vengeful entity, a Father, his terminal son and a deranged dive captain must find their way back to the surface while suffering from nitrogen narcosis and a boat that is steadily filling with water. “The Descent” meets “Jacob’s Ladder” on the ocean floor.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/10945


Title: SKYJACKERS
Writers: Jeffrey and Susan Bridges
Genre: Action
Logline: A disgraced Air Force pilot is given the opportunity to join a group of sky pirates, who use jet packs to steal millions from planes in flight. But she discovers the head of the organization has a far darker goal, and she must choose between the family she never had or a global nuclear war.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13077

Title: Home
Writers: Sarah Carman, James Roland, David Veloz
Genre: Suspense/Horror
Logline: When a young couple moves into a new house they find out it is haunted not from the past, but from their own future.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13838


Title: AMERICAN ANTICHRIST
Writer: Maxwell Heesch
Genre: Supernatural Comedy
Logline: It's 'The Omen' by way of John Hughes when a mild-mannered kid inadvertently sets in motion the End of Days at his high school after discovering that he is the Antichrist. 
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/7478 


The Runners-Up -


Title: THE HOTLINE
Writer: Greg Brainos, Joseph Stanton
Genre: Comedy, Dark Comedy
Logline: A young humanitarian bent on saving the world loses sight of his goal when he gets caught up in the big business of a for-profit suicide hotline.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/7925

Title: THREE PERCENT OF NOTHING
Writer: Andrew Friedhof
Genre: Drama / Crime Thriller
Logline: A sports agent fears his protégé turned nemesis could ruin him by stealing his last few clients, so when the biggest name he reps – a Lakers superstar – asks for his help in getting rid of a young woman’s corpse, he reluctantly gets his hands dirty only to later watch his entire life unravel.
Link: https://blcklst.com//members/scripts/view/13761

Title: THE EUNUCH OF NOTTINGHAM
Writer: Thomas Serio
Genre: Comedy
Logline: The Sheriff of Nottingham uses a potion to change his timid, nice-guy image in order to land his dream girl, Maid Marion, who'd rather be with the town bandit Robin Hood.
Link: https://blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/7279 


Title: The Squire
Writer: Rod Thompson
Genre: Family Drama, Coming of Age, Man-Cry
Logline: An imaginative young boy enlists the help of a reclusive Iraq War veteran to accomplish four 'feats of bravery' that he believes will save his dying mother.
Link: https://blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13067 

TITLE: Pop Hit
Writer: Jeffrey R. Field
Genre: Dark Comedy
Logline: When a one-hit wonder singer-songwriter is hired to mentor the world's biggest teenage pop sensation, he uses the opportunity to secretly sabotage the bratty young singer's career. Think a contemporary AMADEUS with Justin Bieber.
Nicholl Semifinalist Script 
Link: https://blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13867


Title: INFIDELITY
Writers: Akil Goin and Kareem Richardson
Genre: Courtroom / Crime / Drama
Logline: An ambitious lawyer's heart, morals, career and relationship is tested when she's seduced and blackmailed into defending an old flame for her best friend's murder.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13846


Title: Mom's Weekend
Writer: Tomasz Walkosz
Genre: Comedy
Logline: With aspirations of proving to the world they aren't some boring soccer moms, three mundane women travel to their kids university with the single goal of reclaiming their youth.
Link: https://www.blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13085  
 

Title: CRITICAL INCIDENT, KENTUCKY
Writer: Chinaza Onuzo
Genre: Action Thriller
Logline: When a Mad Bomber takes a hospital in rural Kentucky hostage, Amos, an FBI Agent and a recovering sex addict is pulled back into the high stakes world of hostage negotiation and rescue.
Link: https://blcklst.com/members/scripts/view/13222