LUCA and the Narrative Value of Betrayal
We consider betrayal to be a unique kind of sin: treason demands a harsh punishment, and we colloquially abhor those who “stab us in the back”. How does Pixar use betrayal to deepen their protagonist’s emotional arc?
Does ELEMENTAL Have Pixar’s Classic Storytelling Elements?
Does ELEMENTAL have all of Pixar’s classic storytelling Elements?
SOUL - How Pixar Uses Damnation in Nearly All of Their Films
What is damnation, and why does Pixar include a unique version of it in nearly each of their films?
The Searchers - How to Write a Compelling Antihero (WGA's best screenplays #97)
What do The Searchers, Joker and Young Adult all have in common, and why are we even talking about The Searchers, when Shane is right there and so much better?
The Grapes of Wrath - Using Empathy and Structure to Narrativize a Tragedy (WGA's best screenplays #98)
The Grapes of Wrath tells the tragedy of a generation through one family. How does it achieve that? And what makes the character of Ma Joad so likeable and moving?
The Wild Bunch - How To Reinvent a Genre By Attacking its Values (WGA's best screenplays #99)
Some of the most memorable films are successful because they managed to flip their genre on its head. THE WILD BUNCH achieved this by attacking the assumed values of the western, creating a western unlike any one before.
Memento - How Christopher Nolan Leveraged Curiosity Over Suspense (WGA's best screenplays #100)
How do you create suspense in a film that moves backwards? Nolan’s ingenious solution to that is what makes Memento so fascinating and effective.
Notorious - How to Make A Nazi Likable (WGA's best screenplays #101)
The first film (technically last) on the WGA’s best screenplays list teaches us how to make even a Nazi into a sympathetic character, and why getting drunk can cause a lot of suspense.
Marriage Story - How Noah Baumbach Used Hitchcockian Suspense to Create Empathy
You might not expect it from a relationship drama, but Baumbach employs a mechanism of Hitchockian suspense at a crucial moment in the story, and it surprisingly, perfectly fits into the story’s overall design and theme.