A daunting assignment, absolutely. Especially when you consider the varying degrees of current-release-status at hand. While most of the movies are in theaters now, timed conveniently close to the February 22nd airing, many others are a bit tougher to conquer. First, you have the Best Foreign film entries, most of which are actually playing in limited release somewhere around Manhattan, but finding the time to see them all is intimidating as hell. Not to mention, hugely frustrating, since I had the free opportunity to see each at some point months back in early media screenings, courtesy of job-perkage, but unfortunately I opted not to for some now-regrettable reason.
Secondly, there are several flicks presently found in availability-limbo, meaning their current status is nestled between "no longer in theaters" and "not yet on DVD." For these such flicks, though, I've devised one brilliant scheme: track down the script somewhere online, read through it, and at least get familiar with the flick that way. Of course, sticking to the script (pun not intended, but fitting) means that, unless the film is only nominated in one of the two Best Screenplay categories, I won't be able to see a nominated performance, or cinematography, or whatever. But fuck it---me beg, me not allowed to choose. Besides, I'm able to breeze through good screenplays with time-saving ease, so I'll still have time to watch such mind-stimulating televisial feasts as For the Love of Ray J and I Love Money 2. Why pay for a lobotomy these days, anyway?
First up is first-time writer/director Courtney Hunt's script for Frozen River, a two-time nominee (Best Actress, Melissa Leo; Best Original Screenplay, Courtney Hunt). I first head about this one almost a year ago to the day, after it had wow-ed the heads at the Sundance Film Festival before going on to blow the pen-caps off critics in subsequent festivals, then receiving a miniscule release. It's the story of a struggling, financially-stricken, trailer-living, 38-year-old mother of two, Ray Eddy (played by nominee Leo). Unable to provide for her five and fifteen year old kids, she is at hope's end. But then she, by chance, meets a 20-year-old Mohawk Indian girl named Lila Little Littlewolf, with whom she begins smuggling illegal immigrants as a money-making means.
I expected this Academy-hailed script to be a winner, sure, but I never expected to finish it under an hour. At 107 pages long, Frozen River doesn't look like something I'd bang out in one simple sitting, but that's exactly what it turned out to be. Hunt sets up the Ray Eddy character so well that every moment after about page 10 hits hard, translating her anguish and desparation. The necessity of money and what one will do to acquire it is the name of the theme-game here, and, told through the points-of-view of two meager, unbecoming yet deeply-loving mothers, it registers like a charm. I really need to see how this plays out in film form, now; the tonal shifts from "bleak crime thriller" to "heartbreaking domestic drama" bob and weave together with real smoothness, and the Eddy children characters are given enough backbone and layering to become more than just "sympathetic child plot-movers."
Charging ahead with one powerful scene after another, Frozen River's script reaches an unstoppable-read pitch a little past midway, in a sequence that involves a cold-weather-suffering infant baby and a smuggling job gone wrong. The scene's oh-shit! revelation hit me with more force than some of the best horror-movie-jump-scares out there. I can only imagine what my response would have been had I seen it unfold on a big screen rather on a laptop screen in typed-out prose. Same goes for a later car chase involving two young Chinese prostitutes and a nearly-blown-off forehead.
It's the level of script that I'd imagine any screenwriter (whether professionally experienced or virginal aspiring types) could salute. Very little flash, scarce amounts of showboating. Just smalltime characters doing naturalistic things to overcome everyday turmoil. It should come as no shock that Frozen River was made independently, because, aside from the unknown cast (though, vet character actress Melissa Leo should see her stock rise now) and the un-proven filmmaker behind it, this doesn't strike me as a script that a major film studio would read and think, "We must make this! Toss this Courtney Hunt woman large sums of cash, pronto!" Instead, I'm pretty sure the post-reading reaction went something like this: "This sure is a great screenplay, but we'd never make a penny back if we funded this. Toss it back into the pile."
Courtney Hunt
Bless that old independent filmmaking spirit, then. Frozen River is strong stuff, and I'm anxiously awaiting the day when my Netflix Queue places it atop the crowd.
The next Academy-is-stroking-it-these-days screenplay I'm going to tackle is Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky. Hopefully tomorrow night. Supposed to be a crowd-pleasing feel-good-er. These days, I'll never say no to one of those.
