What I Did Wednesday

Wednesday I saw two movies: Died Young, Stayed Pretty and Creative Nonfiction. Died Young is a fascinating, if a little overlong documentary about Punk/Indie Rock posters and their artists, and their attempt to subvert popular culture with their artwork.

In between movies, I ate dinner at Hut's on 6th near Lamar and packed up. I also stopped at Book People, a book store on North Lamar across the street from Whole Foods. I've been thinking about that book project again, except rather than critique screenwriting books specifically, maybe have a Gen DIY/Mumblecore bent to it instead. Anyway, I bought Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 Ways To Make It Great for the sake of reading it and picking it apart. As the day progressed, I realized that I deeply regretted my purchase, so after Hut's, I walked over to Book People and returned it. They asked no questions.

Creative Nonfiction actually began a little bit early because of some turnaround time (or so it was explained). The movie concerns Ella, a college student who is writing her first screenplay, and also trying to get laid. Creative Nonfiction starts out slow, but once it gets going, it gets going. The college scenes are very true to life, especially with the "behind-their-back" bitching of friends to other people in the dorms. Also, the screenplay reenactments are hilarious--Ella writes of a story where a teacher holds a student slave for three years, and the screenplay is about the girl's escape. Lena Dunham just graduated from Oberlin last year, and actually shot much of the movie while she was still a student. She shot the screenplay parts in Roscoe, New York, where according to her, her mother lived on a commune. Roscoe is important to me because when I was on my back from the Woodstock Film Festival, that's when I realized I was lost. I told her this story, and she thought it was hilarious...especially since there are no places to stay in Roscoe. Creative Nonfiction was the last movie I saw at SXSW.