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#PZPTH#Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero#Principal Larry#Larry#PZPTH Larry#Poll#FvF P2#It's a Colorful Life#Rip-Penn#Drab Citizen Larry#London Citizen Larry
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Beirut
Perhaps no modern filmmakers output is as inspired by Alfred Hitchcock as Brad Anderson. Yet, as opposed to other Hitchcock impressionists such as Brian De Palma, Anderson’s films are significantly less assured and typically blend those Hitchcockian influences with other styles. Beirut is another example of this, but also of Anderson’s tendency to take those Hitchcockian ideals and blend them with the ideals of another subsection of films, such as gothic/psychological horror of the 1950s/1960s for Stonehearst Asylum. Here, Anderson sets up a situation that feels a bit like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) in that it depicts a man in a third-world country stumbling upon a major espionage effort with competing interests from every direction and the paranoia thrillers of the 1960s-1970s, especially when it comes to the main character of Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm). Men from these paranoia thrillers were often greatly flawed, over-the-hill, out of the trade, possibly cuckolds (or, in some other way, emasculated), and always stumbling upon some complex web fraught with political intrigue. Here, Mason Skiles is a widower, a drunk, and a negotiator now working in Boston labor negotiations, only to be personally requested by a terrorist to handle a negotiation in Beirut. Previously a rising star in American foreign politics in the Middle East, the death of his wife sent Mason into a downward spiral that saw him leave Beirut a decade earlier, only to have to return to negotiate with this Lebanese terrorist in order to get the release of a man who was once his closest friend in Beirut. A hard-boiled, thrilling, and often quite predictable and conventional film, Brad Anderson does not find his masterpiece in Beirut, but continues to put out solid, if unextraordinary, films that feel wholly indebted to the films of the past.
Upon the release of the trailer for Beirut, it was immediately criticized for being xenophobic and being yet another Middle East-set thriller that delivers a one-dimensional and often racist portrayal of “barbaric” Arabs in a city that is crumbling. Though the city is crumbling, Beirut is actually nowhere near being xenophobic, in what is yet another win for those who believe judging a film by its trailer is akin to judging a book by its cover. In portraying the city of Beirut, Lebanon, the film pulls very few punches and shows it as a city with great violence, but one that suffers this violence from significant foreign influence and religious strife. The Americans have a large contingent in the country, the Israelis want to control the area, the Palestinians want a piece, and the Lebanese are seeking to either encourage foreign intervention (in order to take control themselves by turning factions against themselves) or seeking to keep Lebanon separate. Unfortunately for the innocent Lebanese people, there is only one option undertaken by all: violence. With terrorist attacks, bombing, and espionage work tearing the city apart at the seams, a civil war and religious segregation of the city into East and West Beirut soon follow. The turbulent world of Beirut introduced in the film’s onset, it quickly falls even further into chaos due to the factions warring for control over the region. In capturing these varying pursuits, the film is particularly damning to the Americans who pretend to play peacemaker, all while stocking the Israelis with weapons and half-heartedly playing both sides, as well as the Israelis who are often portrayed as being quite the war-mongerers in the region. Of course, the Lebanese terrorist groups are, naturally, portrayed as being the terrorist groups they are/were. The end result is a city that has been destroyed and is wracked.
Yet, the fault is not on the Lebanese people themselves, as Anderson’s film often falls on images of children playing with tanks, little girls sitting behind a checkpoint between the two halves of the country, and the suffering of the impoverished in the city. Locals even warn Miles and others of areas they know to be quite dangerous for anybody to go through who is unaffiliated with the controlling group. The end result of all of this is a film that uses Lebanon as a microcosm for the rest of the Middle East. The region is undeniably violent, wracked with religious conflicts, competing political issues, and negative influencers who want to see the region stay at war so they stoke the conflict in any way possible. Unfortunately, whether it is Lebanon or any other country, the losers of these competing interests are always the citizens of the country. As such, Beirut criticizes everyone. No one comes out looking great here, instead we are made to see a city that could be quite beautiful and once had beautiful parts, but was destroyed by a variety of actors who sought to either control it or leave it in rubble. In portraying all of this, Beirut becomes one of the more nuanced and understanding films about the conflicts in the Middle East. It is one of the rare films that understands that there can be no one in the right as long as every side willfully kills civilians and leaves a city in ruins just to further their political agenda.
Beirut further succeeds in creating an “antagonist” character who is more nuanced beyond being a typical antagonist. Working as a terrorist prone to outbursts of violence, Karim (Idir Chender) is the one who requests Miles to work as a negotiator after Karim’s group of terrorists kidnapped a key American embassy employee. In return for the safe return of the man, Karim wants his brother back from whomever is holding him captive. Of course, his brother is a man who is responsible for the deaths of Israelis across Europe and the Middle East, as well as the tragedy at the Munich Olympics. Yet, at the core of this is just a young man who has become lost and disconnected from his past self. Once the adopted son of Miles when he and his wife were living in Beirut, Karim was set to be questioned about his association to his brother at the age of 13 in the aftermath of Munich, only for his brother to come in and whisk away before the Americans could question him. By his own admission, he was a normal young Palestinian refugee on the day that he was taken. However, when he woke up the next day, he was a terrorist. The difference is the hatred that was able to fester within him, as contributed to and built into him by his brother, who is a man guided by nothing but hate. The only personality trait carried between the two eras of his life are his undying love for his brother, one that is deeply felt especially at the end even though he knows what his brother has done. This is his brother and, out of love for him, he has chosen to follow in his path and accept his actions as the correct decision for Beirut and for Palestine. It is a tragic character arc undoubtedly, but also one that shows what the violence in the region has created: generational hatred. It is a tragic situation, but one that Beirut shows great sympathy to throughout. Though he is violent, Karim is not a bad man on the inside. Instead, he is a once good young man swallowed by the hatred put into him by his brother. This same path is taken by many other young people in the region and, alongside the suffering of the people in the region as a result of being caught in the middle of such conflict, is one of the more tragic by-products of the prolonged issues in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, the same care to creating a nuanced portrayal of the conflict in the Middle East is not also paid to either the rest of the characters. Though Jon Hamm is good in the lead role of Mason Skiles, the character is rather drab. An alcoholic widower who continues to mourn his wife while throwing away his career, Skiles is simply not that interesting of a character to follow. Even worse, he is incredibly one-note. He is a negotiator who is a drunk. Thus, he either negotiates or he drinks until he decides to finally buckle down and pour all of his liquor down the drain. Hamm may be good, but he is not good enough to breathe life into this rather stiff and generic central figure. Alongside him, Rosamund Pike plays the smart woman who is jokingly referred to as a “skirt” by her misogynist male colleagues but constantly demonstrates herself to be more than a “skirt”, especially when she gets to stand by the car as Mason Skiles does all of the dirty work. Truly riveting role. This is akin to the character in Top Gun, which Honest Trailers once brilliantly described as being more than your “typical blonde broad as this blonde broad knows stuff...about planes”. Unfortunately, Pike suffers with yet another dry female character who may be smart, but is really just there to help Mason get his ass in gear, while also being dragged back down into the gutter of female roles once she is revealed to only want to save Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) from his kidnappers because she is in love with him as a result of an affair. Right when it seemed her character could not get worse, writer Tony Gilroy found a way. One has to imagine that Laura Mulvey would not appreciate this role and it is also one that is well beneath the talent level of Pike, with her clearly just mailing in her performance by delivering a variety of shocked faces every time she is on-screen. Beyond them, the brother of Karim is just a generic terrorist character, Dean Norris and Shea Whigham play generic American antagonists who are out for themselves and war instead of the common good, and Larry Pine plays an ambassador who seems to like Mason while just being there to help ensure Mason can take control of the mission only for his entire subplot to disappear (alongside Norris and Whigham’s). If only Gilroy had paid as much attention to actually developing interesting characters beyond Karim and had paid more attention to nuance beyond the political conflicts in the region, Beirut could have been a truly excellent thriller. Instead, it is one overflowing with underwritten, poorly developed, and wholly one-dimensional figures who are varying levels of derivative.
Plot-wise, Beirut is fine if unextraordinary. If anyone has seen one thriller set in the Middle East, they have seen them all with Beirut hardly re-inventing the wheel beyond providing a more nuanced and understanding portrayal of the conflict in the region. As a result, Beirut never really shocks in its plot developments. The relation of Karim to Mason is never a surprise, how the hostage situation turns out is not a shock, and none of the characters and their motivations prove to be really surprising. Fortunately, where the plot lacks, Anderson is able to make up for it with solid direction that gives Beirut a good pace and consistent thrills. This is a film that never slips into becoming dull, instead operating as a rather workmanlike and strong thriller. For those looking for middling and rather entertaining thrills, Beirut will more than satisfy as this is a tightly wound film that plays off of the paranoia surrounding the world of 1982, just as a thriller from that era would. As the Americans try to negotiate with the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Lebanese, and fear the Soviets in the distance, Beirut is at its best when filled with this political intrigue that brings in that constant fear of the world/country descending into chaos. As with every political crisis during the Cold War, one false move could see the world turned into a crater. Beirut definitely captures this feeling as with many of the better paranoia thrillers it is so clearly inspired by, delivering a film that may be trite but is undeniably thrilling.
Though thinly written with rather one-dimensional characters and a trite plot, Brad Anderson’s Beirut does accomplish two major goals: to portray the Middle East honestly and to entertain. This is one of the more nuanced portrayals of the former, while being a rather tight and thrilling work that, even if undermined by constant cliches and predictability, delivers the goods. For genre fans, Beirut will be incredibly satisfying. For those more unimpressed by conventional thrillers, it is likely best to skip Beirut.
#2018 movies#2010s movies#beirut#brad anderson#film reviews#film analysis#movie reviews#jon hamm#rosamund pike#dean norris#shea whigham#larry pine#mark pellegrino#idir chender
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Music Video/Storyboard Script: A Gorey Demise
This isn’t even the final draft and, like In the Backseat, you’ll see a much cleaner version down the road. For now bare witness to the bones of what became the highlight of my mini drama portfolio, ft. characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a song by Creature Feature.
Read Below
“A Gorey Demise” Music Video Screenplay
Song by Creature Feature. Characters owned by Touchstone and Walt Disney Entertainment. Creation credited to Tim Burton and Deane Taylor.
---
-CUT TO: Title on a black background (echoing the opening credits of “The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari”). The title fades-
(INT.) HALLOWEEN TOWN HALL
There is a feast going on and many of the Halloween Town citizens are there in attendance.
The exact citizens include: Two Witch Sisters, one tall and grey and the other small with green skin; A Wolfman in a flannel shirt; A unicycling Clown with sharp teeth and pink polka dots; A skinny Cyclops cat-creature with an overbite; four Vampire Brothers; a Demon with fury arms, scaly skin, detachable jaw and tentacles on it’s head; a Melting Man; a red Devil; and an Undersea woman -
MISC. VOICES
“Aha! Hello Everyone. I thought this was a party! Who made the Jellybean spiders?” CONT~
-CUT TO: They are eating a collection of grotesque things such as dead animals, garbage, candy, and what looks like slime, and they are drinking red wine (or possibly blood). The Chandelier on the ceiling matches the same motif as the candles on the table: that of spiders whose legs are the candleholders. The hall the dinner party is being held in is decorated with portraits on one side while the other shows a view to a stormy night outside. The wall behind the foot of the table has a long portrait of a skeleton man in the drabs of a plague doctor (it’s Jack Skellington) with a ghost dog at his feet.
The citizens of Halloween Town continue their ramble with each other before the Mayor of Halloween town, a man shaped like a spinning top with a long hat and two-toned eyes, walks into center frame and sits at the empty seat at the end of the table (a seat made to perfectly encompass his huge hat) -
MAYOR
All right, everybody sit down, quiet down, and listen up. I brought you all here to recite the annual obituaries.
-
CUT TO: Right side of the table, where Clown, the Witches, Wolfman, Cyclops, and the Melting Man are sitting
CUT TO: The Left side of the table where sits the Vampire Brothers, the Undersea Gal, the Devil, and the Demon. Like every year we'll start with A and end with Z.
CUT BACK TO FOOT OF TABLE: The Mayor pulls out a large book and opens it up. He looks to the side-
MAYOR
Alright, is the band ready?
(pan out) - A band of monsters holding up their instruments. There is a Sax Player with a shrunken head, a Cello player with bulging eyes and a Human Head inside his cello, and a tall Accordion Player with broad shoulders and tiny eyes-
ACCORDIAN PLAYER
Ready!
MAYOR
Alright, hit it Boyles! (cut)
HEAD INSIDE THE CELLO (Boyles)
One, and a two-
-The band begins to play-
-The monster guests move too and throw with the music. (Overhead cut) The Mayor opens a scroll where the obituaries are illustrated-
(The pictures are in a different, less detailed, “sweeter” style than the rest of the film, akin to Edward Gorey or The Peanuts. For Verses 1 and 2, each character singing holds up the animated illustration in their hands for the other guests to see, though in Verse 2 the other citizens the pictures are not animated, rather the monsters hold them up and mimic the child’s death)
Verse 1-
MAYOR
A is for Amber who drowned in a pool.
Pic: A smiling girl jumps in a pool, but doesn’t resurface.
CLOWN
B is for Billy who was eaten by ghouls.
Pic: A boy is chased offscreen by a hoard of zombies.
TALL WITCH
C is for Curt with disease in the brain.
Pic: A smiling boy’s head starts to swell and then blows up.
SHORT WITCH
D is for Daniel derailed on a train.
Pic: A smiling child walks across some train tracks and is flattened by a cute little engine with a face.
WOLFMAN
E is for Eric who's buried alive.
Pic: A gravestone with ‘Eric’ sticks out of the ground. The pic turns into a wide shot where we see Eric is screaming underground.
CYCLOPS
F is for Frank who was stabbed through the eye.
Pic: A boy runs with scissors before tripping and impaling himself in the eye.
MELTING MAN
G is for Greg who’s sealed in a tomb.
Pic: A mummy chases a boy into a tomb.
MAYOR
H is for Heather whose face was exhumed.
Pic: A little girl looks into a bottle of embalming fluid. It desintegrates her face.
(cut) The monsters are banging their folks and spoons on the table and swishing back cups of whine as they sing.
ALL
One by one we bite the dust, Kick the bucket and begin to rust, Give up the ghost when your number's up, We all fall down! ALL
(cut) Right side
Ashes to ashes, bones to paste, You whither away in your resting place.
(cut) Left side
Eternity in a wooden case We all fall down!
The Accordion Player swings to the Cello player and they play in unison, before the Accordion player swings the other way to the Sax Player and does the same as before for the small musical interlude.
Verse 2-
TALL VAMP
I is for Isaac who lost his front brakes.
Pic: A little boy’s bike swerves out of control and throws him offscreen.
SMALL VAMP
J is for John who was bitten by snakes.
Pic: A boy is handling a snake, which jumps up and bites his head.
LARGE VAMP
K is for Kimmy was shot in the head.
Pic: A little girl and her brother are playing with a rifle. The brother accidently fires and shoots the girls head off.
SHORT VAMP
L is for Larry who bled and bled.
Pic: A boy cries with all his limbs torn off and bleeding, ala Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
SHORT VAMP
M's for Marie who was burned to a crisp.
Pic: A little girl starts a match before catching ablaze.
LARGE BRO
N is for Nick who was pummeled by fists.
Pic: A little boy in boxing clothes gear up to fight before being crushed underneath a giant hand.
SMALL BRO
O is for Olive who lived life too fast.
Pic: A little girl holds onto a rocket, which goes so fast that her skin, hair, and eyes fall out.
TALL BRO
P is for Pat who swallowed some glass!
Pic: A boy eats a glass swan and swallows, before making a disgruntled face.
-CUT TO: A rat crawls from the portrait behind the Mayor and leaps onto the chandelier over the table- ALL (SIDE ONE)
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
The citizens bang their drinks on the table. The chandelier shakes and the rat falls from the chandelier and into the soup dish of the Cyclops.
ALL (SIDE TWO)
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
The laughing continues and the Cyclops takes a sip of his soup (with the rat inside his spoon). A moment after putting the rat in his mouth, the Cyclops realizes that he has eaten something and spits out the rat, which scrambles for breath on the floor.
MAYOR
Alrighty lads, altogether now! ALL
One by one we bite the dust, Kick the bucket and begin to rust, Give up the ghost when your number's up, We all fall down! ALL
Ashes to ashes, bones to paste, You whither away in your resting place, Eternity in a wooden case, We all fall down!
Verse 3-
DEMON Q is for Quentin who took the wrong trail
Pic: A boy goes down a pathway in the woods. His bones come spitting out the other trail.
TALL WITCH R is for Riana who rotted in jail
Pic: A little girl looks frightened as the bars close before her.
DEVIL S is for Steve who was shot by a bow
Pic: A boy is eating an apple when he is suddenly shot through the head by an arrow.
UNDERSEA GAL T is for Tory who froze in the snow
Pic: A little girl shivering in a barren, snowy landscape
CLOWN U is for Uric who was trampled by hooves
Pic: A boy dressed as a jockey lets open a stable and is crushed by enormous horses.
WOLFMAN V is for Vanessa who fell off a roof
Pic: A girl with a cape on jumps off a roof as if she was Superman only to realize her mistake as she’s falling.
CYCLOPS W is for Will who was hit by a car
Pic: A boy doesn’t look both ways before crossing the street and is flattened.
VAMPIRES X is for Xavier who sunk in the tar
Pic: A little boy screams for help as he sinks amongst a bunch of dinosaur bones.
SHORT WITCH Y is Yessy who fell from a plane.
Pic: A little girl screams as she falls hundreds of feet through the air.
MAYOR
And Z is for Zack who simply went…
The Mayor points to the accordion player, who finishes the final two notes.
ALL
Insane!
(they all cackle uncontrollably)
- CUT TO BLACK
#script#screenplay#writing#the nightmare before christmas#nightmare before christmas#music video script#storyboard script#fanvideo#assignment
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