An excerpt from my script review for Anora which will be available 03/03/25:
4.) Dialogue and Description
The annoying versus the absurd.
The youngest watched Jojo Rabbit yesterday.
It was appropriate since that was another project I didn’t get when I read the script, but loved after I watched the film.
Arguably my favorite role for Scarlett Johansson. Sam Rockwell as Captain K is fantastic. Don’t even get me started on Yorki, because I’ll probably go to YouTube to watch a montage of his scenes…
Alright I’m back…
My point bringing this up is that as absurd as reading that script was, my only question was, “Is it too soon to be making these Nazi jokes?”
Just look at the “Heil Hitler” scene, where everyone keeps heiling each other individually…it’s absolutely ridiculous!
But I knew it was a comedy.
If someone wouldn’t have told me, there were few indicators in this script.
This brings me to the annoying bit…
So Ivan and Ani’s marital bliss is cut short when Garnik, Igor, and Toros all show up.
Ivan gets pissed and leaves, abandoning Ani.
Then we get this wrestling scene where she’s more than Igor is used to handling.
It leads to her being tied up with a phone cord and a power cord.
Again, if this wasn’t a comedy, you’d think this was a scene from The Equalizer 4, not a “dramedy”.
But then it devolves into this back and forth banter that becomes so repetitive of Toros asking what’s happening, Garnik telling us the exact same line twice in two different points of the scene he broke his nose, and Igor refusing to untie her because she’s “wild”.
(This is all around page 61.)
It wasn’t amusing to me. It was kind of bland and ran on too long.
Maybe it’s in the delivery, but again, and it’s a constant issue with this script, you need to spell out that this is a comedy.
Similar to the Cap’n when he pitched a gruesome horror/slasher, and one producer read it as a Hallmark Movie of the Week…there’s a disconnect somewhere.
The other thing that got me with the dialogue was Ani’s ignorance to just who Ivan was, the spoiled son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, and her constant pleading with him that it’s true love.
I touched on the “true love” bit in the previous section, and why it was unbelievable, but she says, in multiple spots, “I’m Ivan’s wife,” like it’s a get out jail free card.
Clearly, based on what Toros, Garnik, and Igor and saying/doing, Ivan’s not exactly the “top dog” and an experienced girl like Ani would have known that without being told.
Lastly on the description.
There were far too many instances where “setting the scene” ran long.
I wouldn’t call them “overwhelming walls of text” but multiple places certainly could have had the fat trimmed.
It started right at page 2…we’re being led around the club with lengthy descriptions of what the customers are paying and what the girls are doing based on that.
These images could have been shortened and presented in a more creative fashion allowing our minds to fill in the blanks.
Remember, your first script page (after the title page) is the “first impression” you’re giving to the reader.
You don’t want to have anything that could be misconstrued as “overwhelming” because the reader will assume this goes on for the remainder of the script, and that brings us to…
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