My sleep schedule has been
screwed up for awhile now. I'm not really sure why and part of me
doesn't care. I currently have no responsibilities except to myself
and as long as I'm meeting those them in a timely manner it shouldn't
matter if I wake up at 3:37am or 2:13pm...should it?
I hope not.
But, it is stressful.
When I can't sleep and my
eyeballs feel like they're going to explode from too much reading, or
writing, or facebooking, I turn to Netflix or Hulu for some
entertainment.
Recently I watched Enter
The Void because of one such
night.
If
you want a classically weird IFC drama, watch Enter The
Void. If you want a beautiful,
trippy, psychedelic mind-fuck, watch Enter The Void.
If you want something totally different from anything you've ever
experienced in a film, watch Enter The Void.
If you want a film about drugs, watch Enter The Void.
If you want a film set in Tokyo, watch Enter The Void.
If you want a film that has a truly unusual and unique plot, watch
Enter The Void. If you
want a film with a touch of strange, spiritual elements, watch Enter
The Void. If you want a film
that's like a car wreck in slow motion that you simply can't look
away from, watch Enter The Void.
If
you want a film with all of these elements, with characters that
you'll love, relate to and sympathize with, don't watch Enter
The Void.
Everything
about this movie was amazing, if not painful to watch. But the fact
that I didn't give a rats ass about any of the characters really cost
it major points. Why? Because there was no character development. Not
really. Not even in the flashbacks. This made it excruciating to
watch. The slight character development that was there was...well,
let's just say creepy, which made it hard to care about the
characters even more and made you question their motives. Not in a
good way, I assure you. Sometimes it also made me question my own
sanity over watching it.
I
thought character development was something that every writer learned
in whatever “Writing 101” class they took? Well, I guess not.
Maybe it's different for screenwriters, I'm not sure. Perhaps because
they have the chance to show, and don't have to describe everything
like we do, they get a pass on that shit? Well, they shouldn't. This
movie could have been amazing if only the writer would have taken a
little more time to show us about Oscar, his friends and his sister
before
things got crazy.
Flashbacks
are all well and good, they help us to understand vital information
related to the story, but I don't feel that this was done well at
all.
Everything
I've ever read on the craft of writing tells you to “start the
story as close to the ending as possible.” This is exactly what the
movie did. So, freaking kudos for that! But, I'm not sure that
applies when you've pretty much gotta tell 75% of the story in
flashbacks.
Then
again, I'm a fiction writer, not a screenwriter, so what the hell do
I know?
As
far as I'm concerned, despite feeling like I wasted two and half
hours of my life on this film, I've used it as a learning tool for my
writing. Stick to developing characters that draw in the reader. Do
start the story as close to the ending as possible, but not when you
have to tell most of it in flashbacks that are, confusing, repetitive
and shady at best.
The
goal of character development is to make people feel something for
these people that you're reading about, or watching on screen. Enter
The Void didn't do that at all.
It left me feeling like I was in a void.
So
writer's, once again take the time to flesh out your characters and
to make sure that someone other than you gives a shit about them.
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