quick swallow
Hello everyone, thank you for joining us! This group is for reading the 2024 Black List Scripts.
For this episode, we are going to be reading LOVE OF YOUR LIFE by Julia Cox!
We will read this until June 23rd and discuss until June 30th! Then we will decide on another 2024 Black List Script!
Sign in blood to commit to the read!
quick swallow
To add a little spice to this conversation, I am going to ask a few extra questions!
eternal brook
I’ll start by answering the three questions.
First director I think of for this is Sofia Coppola but I could also see this being directed by Luca Guadagnino, mostly because the European landscapes and melancholic love vibe reminds me a lot of Call Me By Your Name.
I’d cast Carey Mulligan for Maya, Paul Dano for Charlie, Tom Hardy for Jason, Jamie Lee Curtis for Ruth, and maybe Henry Cavill for Felix.
||I think I would have tried to make the happy ending with Jason feel a bit more earned. It was too fairy-tale ending for me, without Maya really showing any proof that she is healthy enough to be in this new relationship. ||
|| I kind of wish they touched more on the guilt Maya may have felt from bringing covid home with her (even though it is absolutely not her fault). I thought the first part with Charlie was the strongest section of the script. ||
|| The build up of this relationship only for it to fall apart brutally was fantastic. Unfortunately I don’t think it keeps its momentum. Not a lot of conflict between the pivotal moments. I was bored when Maya was wandering through Europe, which was a LOT of the script. It could also just be that this isn't my kind of story. ||
Overall, great first act, meh second and third act.
quick swallow
Wondering if this was just me but did anyone find the first page way too descriptive?
fluid oriole
I’m on page 33 with the || Covid || reveal and wow… that just took the wind right out of my sails.
Beautifully written so far, but || I’m just not keen to relive the pandemic 😭||
eternal brook
Wondering if this was just me but did anyone find the first page way too descrip...
yeah the solid blocks of three-line text were not exactly an exciting way to start off
ashen walrus
As someone who just got separated maybe we could skip how to save a marriage next and do don’t borrow trouble instead? Unless you really want to do how to save a marriage
quick swallow
We have already read How to Save a Marriage so we can do Don't Borrow Trouble next!
fluid oriole
OK, finally finished Love of Your Life!
Wow. I mean, on the one hand I'm pleasantly surprised a script like this got so many votes AND has already been purchased. On the other hand... a bit slow.
(I didn't see Nyad - I'm def curious to check it out now!)
I was blown away by the writing. I see some folks found it too descriptive but I found it immersive and beautiful. I never got bored by the prose but I did find Maya very passive. To me, this speaks to how hard it is to write a goal that is a negative. I didn't think Maya wanted to find love, to me her goal felt more like she wanted to NOT feel broken. Which... what else can you do as an active hero except run away?
As I said, Julia Cox is clearly an excellent screenwriter. I loved the tape metaphor, and the details throughout. Every place Maya traveled I really felt like we, even as readers, saw it, knew it, tasted it. On the other hand, is it enough to have a meandering story about loss and survival? What new thing was this script saying? I dunno. My ending takeaway was "Yeah, that's life."
Maybe you can tell, I'm hesitant to say anything bad about such a well-crafted script. Don't we need more mid-budget, thoughtful, meditative films? (YES is the rhetorical answer.) But do they have to be this dull?! LOL
Then again, how much of this is could be made up for on the screen? A lot, maybe. Beautiful weighted visuals. Makes me wonder what Past Lives reads like (...I should read it!)
And as I mentioned earlier, it gets big minus points for me ||for dropping a PANDEMIC bomb right in the middle. That's a highly subjective take, but I just didn't feel like it earned that gut punch. I felt like my (our) PTSD was being mined for easy sympathy points. ||
|| And I didn't quite buy her running out on Felix. ||
fluid oriole
I’ll start by answering the three questions.
First director I think of for this...
100% agree! I wanted her to reckon more with her feelings of guilt esp. since Ruth was so eager to cast blame.
