Great combination post by you two--was that just a coincidence?

Also, for those interested, here's the revised draft of Easy A around half a year after it sold. Dated 3-16-2009.

http://www.mediafire.com/?cltw1g0t3wck821

Interesting that this version is 119 pages, even longer than the 2008 version, yet the final movie is 90 minutes. I wonder how much cutting they did before shooting began and how much was taken out in post? I haven't read this version, but I did skim it and notice the "f" word was still present so there's definitely an even later draft.

Nate - it was a TOTAL coincidence, but I think we had a great Siskel & Ebert thing going on today, even if by accident.

@Nate: Yeah, weird coincidence that TBSR and I both analyzed the same movie on the same day. File it under Great Minds Think Alike?

As a heads-up, I'm working on something re The Town, hopefully up later today. Let's see if TBSR does something on that, too!

Structure wise, this movie is a mess and a half. I suspect critics were too dazzled by Emma Stone's performance to notice it.

Scott, I might have something on The Town up for tomorrow, but it won't be NEARLY as in-depth as the one on Easy-A. It depends on how much time I have later today to write it.

@Bitter: Wow. You certainly did. I'm voting for more total coincidences happening then. Keep passing them off as coincidence, though, but I'm voting for some tandem blog discussion posts. You can even get Carson in on it and have him do a script review. Turn this into some sort of organized screenwriting blog cabal (I just used the word "cabal" in a sentence).

RE: The Town, looking forward to it! As you've discovered, I have far too much to say about that one. Love to hear your thoughts on that one too, TBSR.

On an unrelated note, both Bitter and Scott, I'm halfway to banging out a series of super-short-short films revolving around the "bad loglines" thing that Scott ran awhile back. If they're funny, I'll pass them along :).

aaaannnnd it seems Roger Ebert's review of THE TOWN opens with several paragraphs on a particular scene, pretty much saying exactly what I'd planned on making a core point of my post. Back to the drawing board. If Scott's review goes up first it might give me something to react to.

Nate, I'd love to see anything you come up with based on those bad loglines.

As far as future tandem discussions, I'm sure it'll happen again either by accident or design. We're all playing in the same sandbox more or less, so I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Cruel and unusual. That bit about the tattoo-covering moment with Doug/Claire/Jem? That's a popular moment, apparently: I was planning on using that as an example for MY write-up on the movie haha. In my studying of the various versions of that script that I found, that bit wasn't in any of them. Neither is the moment of seeing Jem's tattoo during the robbery itself. So, whoever stuck that in there on a last minute revision is a genius.

Awesome! I will definitely keep you posted about those.

And yeah, good point. Well, here's to a few more of them, coincidentally or not.

Great post. Two things that stand out:
1. The major characters are VERY active. Olive(ugly name, used for effect presumably, like in Little Miss Sunshine), Rhi, Brandon, etc. all have strong passions and go after them.
2. I friggin' love the story-telling device used late in the script where Olive confuses us with the complication, "I gave her boyfriend a venereal disease." That statement/device benevolently confuses the audience and hence achieves the elusive "audience involvement," then uses elongation to prolong the involvement, then cleanly resolves the confusion. Confusion as a narrative device is often used in the beginning of scripts, e.g., Slumdog Millionaire, and it works because audiences expect to be confused in the early part of a story. BUT, it's rare to see the same device used LATE in the script. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another major film that uses it, although I'm sure there are some. Can this be a contradiction of [Robert] Towne's First Law: "The audience will forgive you for anything in the beginning of the story but nothing in the end"?

@77kart: Good points. Re confusion toward the end of a story: I think it's an example of the "if it works, it works, even if it's not supposed to work" things.