INT. SPUTNIK BAR - NIGHT
Antonio and Lawrence sit at the bar. They each sip a Red
Stripe.
TITLE: BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 2004.
ANTONIO
That message you left me was really
inspiring man. It's been a while dude.
How ya been?
LAWRENCE
Good man... I've been. I've been in a
tunnel of shit for a long fucking time.
And I just pulled my way through it.
ANTONIO
Dude, I'm still in it.
LAWRENCE
You really thought I was inspiring.
Shit, I thought I sounded fucking.
ANTONIO
Don't matter man, you inspired me. I was
waiting for something.
LAWRENCE
I woke up. I'd been sleeping so hard for
so many years. I've been working my ass
off for three years now man. I don't
know how the hell I did it.
ANTONIO
You not working right now?
LAWRENCE
Nah, the Dol. Taking six months to sort
my shit out. See if I can't writie
something that may need to be written.
See if I can't, I donno, start this life
up.
ANTONIO
I remember I was. Fuck, I don't even
remember how my own story starts. Okay,
the moment I knew. This is a fact! I
was sitting eatting a muffin and I
decided above all other things that I was
going to be a filmmaker. And it was a
banana-nut muffin. Right there. I said,
yes!
LAWRENCE
Film.
ANTONIO
Film. I've always wanted to start a
company and name it, banana-nut
productions or banana nut muffin
productions. Something.
LAWRENCE
Dude that's a quality idea. Company.
See but I'm a man of particular ideals.
And to me, we are a company. To keep
someone such is not to say they are
incorporated into one another's lives.
ANTONIO
To incorporate two into one would be
backwards math. But everyone needs a
little company.
LAWRENCE
Agreed. We will produce and organize.
But I've got the perfect name for such an
artifice.
ANTONIO
What's that?
LAWRENCE
Cinema.
Set.
Free.
ANTONIO
Cinema.
Set.
Free.
LAWRENCE
Can we?
ANTONIO
I hope so.
The sit quietly and drink their beers. Thinking of such
an idea.
LAWRENCE
Dude, I gotta tell you this ridiculous
shit that happened to me last year. So
there was this blonde girl.
ANTONIO
No shit...
INT. BEDROOM, HARLEM - NIGHT
Bath wakes up. He walks to his giant computer and sits.
His face inches from bright greasy screen.
It blinks to life. Some typing. Bath walks out the
door, scratching his ass under his boxers.
The computer logs by itself. Familiar hissing and
pinging of the modem connection.
After a few moments. BLING! An instant message pops up.
ROBIN (V.O.)
It's gotta be late there.
Bath returns to his chair, with a giant bowl of Capt'n
Crunch.
Types with one hand.
BATH (V.O.)
I just woke up.
DAWN (V.O.)
Christ. Really? Does that mean things
aren't going so well?
BATH (V.O.)
It means I'm really tired. I can't
really tell night from day in this
apartment anyway.
EXT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT
Cross walks up to Robin, hands in his pockets. They
couldn't be more than 15.
ROBIN
The craziest shit is on the internet.
CROSS
What's the internet?
ROBIN
I don't know. But there's really scary
sex on there, between like black dudes
and white chicks.
CROSS
Shhh. It's supposed to be when we were
younger. The net was just a couple of
bulletin boards and some D and D fan
fiction.
ROBIN
They've always had interracial porn man.
CROSS
Fine. So which do you want to see?
ROBIN
Can we see any of them?
CROSS
I don't even know which would be up here.
It's like ninty-five now so, I guess,
ooooo! Seven came out in nintey-five.
ROBIN
I don't want to see a movie about serial
killers, Cross!
CROSS
Well fuck, help me think.
ROBIN
No, I bet there's something you've always
wanted to see and wished you could.
CROSS
Yeah, Jacque Tati's Playtime. It's
french.
ROBIN
I've heard of him. I saw Mon Uncle. He
was alright.
CROSS
Yeah but you haven't seen Playtime. When
you visited Sean in San Francisco it was
playing at the theatre in the Castro.
Whatever the name. They got a seventy
two millimeter print. Must've been a
fucking beautiful thing.
ROBIN
It was.
CROSS
Well, I want to see that. Just like how
I missed it.
ROBIN
Eh, nah. I've already seen that.
INT. LOBBY - NIGHT
Cross hands the tickets to the THEATRE EMPLOYEE (15). He
checks Robin out.
ROBIN
I remember being this age. I was
awkward, God I was awkward. Seventeen
was a better year. That was my more
attractive year.
They stand in line at the concessions.
CROSS
I want to explain to you, what I do for a
living, because it's important and you
really don't have a concept.
ROBIN
Okay Duder, fill me in.
CROSS
See that popcorn over there. My job is
to essentially tell an employee to pop
and serve that popcorn. But there's one
caveat. That employee will do only
exactly what I tell him to do. And often
times he doesn't have any idea how to do
anything, including life his arm, open a
bag, ring up an order.
ROBIN
This is so boring already.
CROSS
Wait, I'm almost done. This would be
kinda hard, if the employee say, spoke
english, but he doesn't. He speaks a new
language that I have to learn and I can
only communicate with him by writing it
down and having him read it. Reading his
own language is the one thing he can do
well. But he's a grammar freak and he
hates it when I don't use the right
punctuation. So I tell him, here's how
you pop popcorn.
First you open your hand, then you extend
your arm, then you close your hand over
the bag, then you rotate your body
towards the popper, then you extend your
other arm towards the door. Get me?
ROBIN
Yes fine, your job is hard. You
translate to an 8 month old with
incredible OCD al lday long. What's your
point?
CROSS
I just wanted to share. You know...
ROBIN
No you didn't. You were just happy to
find a clever new analogy. But the thing
about analogy is...
A whistle from the kid behind the counter.
ROBIN (CONT'D)
Hold on. Is...it's gotta be more
interesting that the subject it's
analogizing.
INT. MOVIE THEATRE - NIGHT
Cross and Robin sit together, eating Mike and Ikes.
CROSS
What are we seeing. Any movie in the
whole world, you said, which would you
choose to see on the big screen.
ROBIN
Gone with the fucking Wind.
FADE TO BLACK:
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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