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Often when we see a movie, we talk about whether the ending worked or didn't work. For this week's movie segment, my colleague Andrew Limbong spoke with two NPR producers about how important the setup is of a movie storyline.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Every story has a premise, an idea that sets it into motion. Some narratives, particularly films, have premises that stick with us more than others. For whatever reason, they grab us in a way that we can't forget or shake. There are those that envision new realities...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MATRIX")
LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As Morpheus) The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us.
LIMBONG: ...That hurl their characters in motion, or stories that throw a sci-fi twist into the mix of an otherwise recognizable breakup story...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND")
JIM CARREY: (As Joel Barish) Please let me keep this memory. Just this one.
LIMBONG: ...Like "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind," or a new take on classics that turn old premises on their heads, like Wicked.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WICKED")
JEFF GOLDBLUM: (As The Wizard of Oz) The best way to bring folks together is to give them a real good enemy.
LIMBONG: So today, we want to talk about films that get off to the right start better than others, even when they don't always stick the landing. I'm joined by two NPR producers, Weekend Edition's Ryan Benk and ALL THINGS CONSIDERED's Manuela Lopez Restrepo. Thanks for being here, guys.
RYAN BENK, BYLINE: Yeah, thanks for having us.
MANUELA LOPEZ RESTREPO, BYLINE: Thanks for having us.
LIMBONG: All right, Ryan, I want to start with you. When you're looking for a premise - right? - and when you're looking for one that breaks the mold, what are you looking for?
BENK: All right, so, like, I mean, it's a really basic thing, but it has to be interesting.
LIMBONG: Sure.
BENK: And, you know, like - but that doesn't mean that it always has to be something completely new. Like, I mean, you know, depending on who you talk to, there might be as few as, like, eight really novel stories out there. But it doesn't matter about the general story beats. If you're talking premise, it's about how they're presented. So, for example, there's this little sci-fi indie from 2009 called "Pandorum."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PANDORUM")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Where's the rest of the crew?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I don't really know, sir.
DENNIS QUAID: (As Lieutenant Payton) It's Lieutenant Payton. Anyone respond?
BENK: The plot - total rip-off. I mean, people in space trying to find a new home after killing Earth - they wake up in a spaceship to find, oh, they're not alone. I mean, but if you look at that premise, which is like an "Alien" clone, they also added this dash of "Memento," which is that these characters have lost their memory. They've been in cryo sleep for so long. They have no idea what their mission is. They barely know who they are or where they're supposed to be going. So as they're being hunted by these aliens, they're also having to relearn who they are and why the heck they're in this situation in the first place. So it's not exactly an Oscar-worthy film.
LIMBONG: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BENK: But a premise I haven't forgotten since I watched the movie in college.
LIMBONG: Yeah. So what you're saying is that if you ascribe to that William Faulkner idea that there are only, like, a handful of stories - right? - for you, it's all about how they're like, mixed and matched together and, like, stacked on top of each other like Jenga blocks.
BENK: Right, exactly. The idea is that you just have to make it interesting. You have to make it seem new, even if it isn't.
LIMBONG: Yeah. Manuela, what about you? What are you looking for in a good premise?
RESTREPO: I think something that I just generally expect with all art is just a feeling of effortlessness with the worldbuilding. How are we being immersed in the story? How are we being presented with the logic of this world? And how willing are we to suspend our judgment when we're allowing ourselves to kind of get taken away by it? So I know you mentioned "Eternal Sunshine" in the intro.
LIMBONG: For people who haven't seen it, what is the premise of this movie?
RESTREPO: So it's basically this romantic drama that plays around with the concept of a world where you have the option to erase the memory of your ex, and it follows this couple that is sort of presented with this opportunity.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) By the time you wake up in the morning, all the memories that were targeted will have withered and disappeared as in a dream upon waking.
CARREY: (As Joel Barish) Is there any risk of brain damage?
RESTREPO: I feel like I have to reference it as one of the most solid examples of this that I can think of. And it's not just because I rewatch it every time I get dumped by somebody, but...
LIMBONG: Brutal.
(LAUGHTER)
LIMBONG: Why would you? That's a horrible thing. That's a horrible decision.
(LAUGHTER)
RESTREPO: I love pain. But...
(LAUGHTER)
RESTREPO: ...I also just think it's because, like, you're not given that much time to sort of catch up with what's happening, and I think we're just sort of dropped into Joel's bleak world. And you might not agree with the way he's making decisions, but I think it becomes really easy to get kind of wrapped up into why he's making his choices. But I think that movies that suck me in the quickest are the ones that are just making these choices that are really bold and they're not really apologetic about it at all.
LIMBONG: Ryan, are there any movies whose premise - where it's like, you hear it, and you're like, well, don't even tell me more, ticket sold, I'm in.
BENK: Oh, God, "The Lobster." It's this Yorgos Lanthimos movie from 2016. Basically, the premise is, if you don't find a romantic partner fast enough, you get sent to this unsettling but posh retreat where you have a certain amount of time to find one before you're turned into an animal.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LOBSTER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Now, the fact that you'll turn into an animal if you fail to fall in love with someone during your stay here is not something that should upset you or get you down. Just think, as an animal, you'll have a second chance to find a companion.
BENK: Now, I was happily partnered at the time...
(LAUGHTER)
BENK: ...And I am still happily partnered.
LIMBONG: Sure, yeah.
BENK: But watching it and thinking about it now, I can't help but imagine a world where if I wasn't, you know, I'd really, really get that feeling that I was running out of time. So that's...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
BENK: ...That's something that's always stuck with me.
LIMBONG: Yeah, Manuela, is there one for you that's like, I'm seated, I've heard enough, I've heard the two sentence logline, ticket purchased?
RESTREPO: Yeah, I mean, I think this was one that, like, didn't quite hit for me until I saw it, but a couple of months ago, I watched Jonathan Glazer's 2004 psych thriller "Birth." It's both simple and not simple, but this woman, Anna, lives in New York City. It's been 10 years since her beloved Sean has died, and she's finally moving on with her life. And she has an engagement party with her new beau, and a little boy named Sean shows up and claims that he is her deceased husband.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BIRTH")
NICOLE KIDMAN: (As Anna) I understand that this is going to sound crazy. I've met somebody who seems to be Sean.
RESTREPO: You know, at first, everybody thinks it's kind of this, like, charming, funny, strange prank that this kid is trying to pull. But as the plot sort of reveals itself and as we get to know little Sean better, he begins to reveal information that really only her dead husband could have known.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BIRTH")
CAMERON BRIGHT: (As Sean) What if Bob comes to my house and tests me?
KIDMAN: (As Anna) How do you know Bob?
CAMERON: (As Sean) He was my brother-in-law.
RESTREPO: And so you watch Anna begin to question herself and her sanity. And I feel like it's set up so powerfully, and it's kind of one of those movies where you begin to question yourself alongside Anna. And ultimately, it's just, like, a super poignant meditation on how transformative grief can be, for better or, in this case, for worse.
LIMBONG: Now, let's talk about some movies that peter out. Ryan, anything that you're like, oh, I was hyped for it, and then you got to the end, it was like, oof, whiffed it.
BENK: Yeah, I mean, so I wouldn't call this a whiff, but it doesn't really stick the landing. But David Cronenberg's most recent film, "The Shrouds" - we interviewed him on Weekend Edition about it. It's so deeply personal, and it's about his own grief. It starts with this premise that just is so dark but so interesting to me. It's this grieving man who looks suspiciously like David Cronenberg who creates this technology that allows people to watch their loved ones as they decompose in their grave.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SHROUDS")
VINCENT CASSEL: (As Karsh) When they lowered my wife into the coffin, I had an intense urge to get into the box with her.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) You never considered cremation?
CASSEL: (As Karsh) How dark are you willing to go?
BENK: Like I said, it's dark. It's lonely. It's brooding. And there's this mystery that just tugs on the story and moves much of the film forward. But the reveal at the end - I wouldn't call it a letdown, per se, but it's just kind of confusing. Still, with the premise and this solid performance by Vincent Cassel, I would say it's so good that I would urge anyone to give it a try.
LIMBONG: Manuela, anything didn't work for you?
RESTREPO: So I'm not original in saying this, but I usually go into just about any biopic with the expectation that I'm going to be disappointed. And...
LIMBONG: OK.
RESTREPO: ...Love Timmy Chalamet...
LIMBONG: That's a good attitude to enter a movie with.
(LAUGHTER)
RESTREPO: It's called being realistic.
LIMBONG: Yeah.
RESTREPO: And, like, love Timmy C. as I might, last year's "A Complete Unknown" still managed to shock me with how off I felt just about every aspect of the execution was.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A COMPLETE UNKNOWN")
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Bob Dylan) Two hundred people in that room, and each one wants me to be somebody else. And they should just let me be.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character) Let you be what?
CHALAMET: (As Bob Dylan) Whatever it is they don't want me to be.
RESTREPO: I just feel like a life as large as Bob Dylan's sounds so exciting. There's so much there, story wise. And I think reality is ultimately one of the most difficult premises to pull off when you're sort of recreating it because we all have pretty abundant material to compare and contrast with. So I was bored with the tale of the bard, which I think is crazy. And in this case, like almost every other case with a biopic, you're probably better off watching "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
LIMBONG: (Laughter) That is the - that is your North Star for biopics, yeah.
RESTREPO: Absolutely. Every biopic thus far has been felled by...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
RESTREPO: ...The sword...
LIMBONG: Yeah.
RESTREPO: ...Of "Walk Hard."
LIMBONG: Nice. That was NPR's Ryan Benk and Manuela Lopez Restrepo. Thanks a lot, guys.
BENK: Thank you.
RESTREPO: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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