#curran walters | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

glitter-stained · 1 month ago

Text

So @malfiora asked for a movie starring Curran Walters, Zendaya, Jay Lycurgo and Zendaya so there it is!

Starring:

Cara Delevingne as Trix (Beatrix)

Zendaya as Sasha

Curran Walters as Ethan

Jay Lycurgo as Leo

Michelle Yeoh as Helena

Chella Man as Luke

Sergio Castellito as Sasha's boss

The Testimony

Sasha and her fiancee Trix are investigation journalists, but while Sasha is well-regarded at the New York Times where she works, Trix recently got fired from the New Yorker and blacklisted after attempting to investigate a powerful billionaire, after which she developed an alcohol addiction. In an attempt to help Trix handle unemployment and save their couple, Sasha asks Trix to help her unofficially in her current investigation. They investigate whispers about Matthew Ludens, a pastor famous for raising charity money and building homeless shelters and relief all over the country. Sasha meets with Helena, a woman who is visibly closed off and afraid but starkly refuses to hear anything about Ludens. She refuses to talk with Sasha, but Sasha gives her her phone number in case she changes her mind.

Meanwhile, Leo is waiting for the midnight train in an empty station when he notices a young man standing on the ledge. He runs and plaques him to the ground as the train passes. The man, named Ethan, thanks him and insists that he was just deep in thought and didn't notice how close he was standing to the edge, and that he was not actually planning to kill himself. Leo doesn't believe him and wants to take him to the hospital, but Ethan explains that he has no money and is on the run. Ethan's explanation is vague, but Leo assumes that Ethan is on the run from an abusive family, and Ethan doesn't correct him. Leo isn't comfortable leaving Ethan alone after this, so he offers for Ethan to come with him as he is visiting his parents' home on a break from college.

Meanwhile, Trix is gathering information from forums and rumours about Ludens, and hears rumours of a boy who would have witnessed the rape of a little girl called Nadja four years ago, who later disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Sasha's boss tells her that he supports her investigation, but to be careful because Ludens has a lot of friends and word is starting to catch of her investigation.

Trix and Sasha investigate Nadja's death and follow the trail of this mysterious witness, who told his friend Luke (Chella Man) as he was leaving the shelter a couple of days ago that was afraid Ludens knew he had seen something and he was going to "disappear" somewhere Ludens couldn't find him. Sasha begins investigating train and bus rides around the area with a picture of the boy, but Trix, convinced the witness has already killed himself, goes home and gets black out drunk. Sasha comes home from a fruitless search to find Trix asleep and reeking of alcohol, and she helps her throw up and bathes her with her eyes bright with tears and hands shaking with restrained anger.

Meanwhile, Leo introduces Ethan to his parents as his friends from college who needs a place to stay for break, which his parents accept kindly. Later, Leo digs through the bathroom to find medicine, razor blades or anything one could use to harm themselves. In the bedroom, Ethan looks at the window, clearly distraught and lost in thought but perfectly quiet. Leo goes downstairs to hide the stash of dangerous items and has a conversation with his parents, explaining that he is sorry he didn't warn them earlier but he is worried his friend might hurt himself if left alone; his parents hug him and are supportive. In the bathroom, Ethan takes a shower. His hands shake as he washes his hair and he keeps looking at the door. After stepping out of the shower, the bathroom mirror is covered in steam; he wipes away the area of his reflection's eyes with his hand. The scene ends with the focus on his red-rimmed gaze in the mirror.

The next morning, Trix wakes up. Sasha is angry at her for getting drunk again and they get into an intense fight where Trix accuses Sasha of trying to "save" her because she couldn't save her mother. Trix then realises she has gone too far and tries to apologise but Sasha storms out. Trix looks heartbroken, then gets a notification on her phone and smiles.

At work, Sasha's boss informs her that people have started to call and they have had three anonymous testimonies already, as people begin putting together more and more data for the article. Her boss informs her that they are taking a big risk, because if they pull this off this is Pulitzer material on her name, but if it fails it's gonna be her head that falls, because they can't afford to be seen as the assholes who tried to ruin America's new Mother Theresa. Sasha replies that Mother Theresa wasn't a good person, and her boss replies that she's still the one people remember as a saviour and a saint.

Trix shows up at Leo's parents' house and introduces herself as Ethan's sister, who has been looking for him after he ran away from home and is worried he might hurt himself. Leo's parents let her in, and lead her to the backyard where Ethan is sitting by the little fish pond, lost in thought. Trix sits slowly and introduces herself gently. Ethan is curled up on himself and tells her he doesn't want to talk, but he doesn't try to run or fight, just clenches his fists and replies tersely, which rapidly evolves into twisting Trix' words with provocative retorts, insults and sexual jokes. Trix asks him about Nadja and he asks her what the point is of trying to save someone who is already dead, accidentally revealing that Nadja died. Trix asks him what happened and he confesses that she killed herself four years ago and that he helped her do so, but refuses to explain why. Ethan asks if Trix is going to call the police and she says no. Trix then tells him that she's not trying to save anyone, but that she can help him, and that he isn't dead yet. She leaves him her phone number and tells him to call her if he ever wants to talk, even off the record, and she'll listen.

Sasha gets a call from Helena who heard of the progress of the investigation and all the other victims and isn't yet sure whether she wants to do this but wants to tell her story anyway. We see Helena and Sasha talk to eachother but don't hear what they say. Then Sasha walks home and finds in her mailbox a dead bird and letters telling her to kill herself.

Trix comes home to Sasha sitting by the fire burning the letters one by one. Trix apologizes and says she will go to rehab once the investigation is over. Sasha agrees tiredly, but Trix explains that she didn't want to believe the witness was alive because ever since her investigation failed and she got fired she finds hope dangerous, but she looked for him anyway by asking a network and sharing the witness' picture as a missing person on the internet because she doesn't believe in hope but she believes in Sasha and that's all she can give her right now. Sasha says that after losing her mother (who we learn hanged herself when Sasha was a little girl), she needs hope she needs the unshakeable conviction that she can do something for the world, that she is not helpless. Trix tells her that she doesn't want to be saved, and Sasha says that it isn't about saving, but if Trix can't have hope anymore she lets Sasha hope for the both of them. Trix tells her that the witness is alive but didn't want to talk to her and that she gave her her number. They kiss passionately.

Leo finds Ethan reading in the garden and asks him what he's thinking. Ethan confesses that he was trying to kill himself when he threw himself off the tracks and tells him that he did something terrible and that he is tainted and dirty. Leo gives him a hug and Ethan cries and says he's aware he is a burden and he's bad news and it's not fair that he was never allowed, never given the opportunity, to be anything but bad. Leo tells him he's safe now and he can be anything he wants. Ethan tells him nothing can undo the stain. Leo suggests telling someone who isn't going to judge him or look at him differently what happened might help him live with this burden. Ethan laughs off the idea of seeing a therapist but thanks him. They get into the house and play videogames.

Sasha and Trix are in bed when a phone rings and Trix picks it up. Later, Sasha, Trix and Ethan are sitting at an empty diner. Ethan tells his story as the scene alternates between the diner and flashbacks of younger Ethan and Nadja at a homeless shelter. Ethan was in and out of foster homes and ran away a lot as a kid and found himself repeatedly in one of Ludens' homeless shelters for teenagers up until 21 years old, the only kind of shelters that didn't report runaway teens. Four years ago, a 15 years old Ethan and 12 years old Nadja were staying at the shelter (there was also 17 years old Luke). Ludens would sometimes visit the shelter and molest/rape some of the teens at the shelter, including Ethan, so he tried his best to avoid him and not let the younger kids go into Ludens' room alone; however, after Ludens' last visit, Nadja went to Ethan's room in tears because she was pregnant and she suspected Ludens knew about it. Ethan agreed to try and help her get an abortion, but it was a back-alley medical abortion due to abortion being illegal in that state, and it went wrong and Nadja started suffering from excruciating pain, through which she bled and begged Ethan to make it stop, until he gave in and smothered her with a pillow until she stopped breathing. He then hid her body, came home, took a shower and told everyone Nadja had run away. However, Ethan was convinced Ludens knew Ethan knew something about Nadja's pregnancy, and the last time Ludens visited the shelter he had an inappropriate gesture towards Ethan and Ethan panicked and pushed him away, causing the old man to hurt himself on furniture; Ethan got scared of the look in Ludens' eyes and thought he would try and shut him up, so he ran away and hoped Ludens wouldn't find him ever again. They talk, and Ethan accepts to add his story of what Ludens did to him to the anonymous testimonies as they agree to not say anything about Nadja's story.

At work, Sasha gets a phonecall from Helena, who agrees to testify. Everyone at work is very happy and relieved. We then see a montage of Sasha Trix and everyone working very hard, new non anonymous testimonies coming in, a lot of grunt work and gathering info. Ludens' lawyer comes to convince them to drop it because it will ruin their image if they go after a mother teresa figure and Sasha's boss stands up to the lawyer, telling her that mother teresa was an asshole and in this newspaper they don't serve saints but the truth, thank you very much, which Sasha watches with amusement. We also see Sasha accompanying Trix to rehab and kissing her before leaving.

The final scene is Helena looking in front of a camera and telling the story of what Ludens did to her decades ago when she was a little girl. Compared to Ethan's stories, which was a struggle to come out and included many shadows, cut-off sentences and implications, Helena's testimony is clear, very detailed and descriptive, and though Helena is angry and dignified, sometimes her voice breaks over the atrocities she describes, painfully but refusing to look away from the truth. There are no images or flashbacks recreating what happened to her, but as she speaks, the scene intermittently shows her as she relates this story and a silent scene of Ethan and Leo playing table tennis in Leo's parents' backyard, looking happy, with a beautiful sunset shining behind them.

#curran walters #cara delevingne #zendaya #jay lycurgo #plot on the spot #not dc #what genre would that be?#tw sui ideation #tw csa mention

6 notes · View notes