Rating of
2.5/4
Best Script Goes to a Documentary (what?)
Allison - wrote on 08/04/09
Why this is capturing audiences? I don't know. It won the Sundance award for the best script. Come to find out that when they started shooting the documentary, nothing was scripted. They did, however, have a 5 page outline/treatment. Oh, if only all scripts could be shot by having nothing but a treatment.
I'm not trying to diss the film. Charlyne Yi is charming and funny, but sometimes she laughs too much (was she thinking "laugh and the whole world laughs with you"?). It did seem the audience was laughing way more than me. What was I missing?
So there is the documentary format for half of the film (the fact that a documentary gets an award for best script is disturbing!). And then there is the Michael Cera narrative that is script, or obviously would have been before there was a script. It seems the beats were mapped out. Also, Michael Cera couldn't be there for part of the shoot (in Toronto) so they improvised that whole situation well.
Basically, both writers: Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi were connected to Judd Apatow and easily-but-not-so-easily received funding for their film (albeit not from Apatow). Overall, it was a huge letdown. I was expecting more of a story, and not so much a documentary. However, it did have its moments and made me recall my own love stories. Yikes.
