Enjoyed reading your analysis! Cool to bring some of your previous outside experience too.
What you wrote largely matches my reading and viewing. I would add too, that I think Kieran Culkin (and Eisenberg too) often soften some of their dialogue from what is on the page (I read the shooting script) and what ended up in the final cut. For example, for the first joint smoking scene on the roof. Benji gives David, at best, a backhanded compliment (“an awesome guy stuck inside the body of someone who’s always running late”). On the page, David says, “thanks, I guess” but onscreen this ends up being “thanks, I think” which lands best combative for me.
Another adlib not in the shooting script I loved, when Benji is in the fountain: “who are we waiting on?”
Thanks for reading and dropping a line. I appreciate your detailed reading of the screenplay. I found that most lines are altered. I think Eisenberg used them as a “guide.” I wonder how many takes and variations they did for the scenes.
Curious about how many takes they did too. Culkin has said in press it was right after finishing Succession and before another project of his was shooting, sounds like less than 2 months based on what I found online.
Enjoyed reading your analysis! Cool to bring some of your previous outside experience too.
What you wrote largely matches my reading and viewing. I would add too, that I think Kieran Culkin (and Eisenberg too) often soften some of their dialogue from what is on the page (I read the shooting script) and what ended up in the final cut. For example, for the first joint smoking scene on the roof. Benji gives David, at best, a backhanded compliment (“an awesome guy stuck inside the body of someone who’s always running late”). On the page, David says, “thanks, I guess” but onscreen this ends up being “thanks, I think” which lands best combative for me.
Another adlib not in the shooting script I loved, when Benji is in the fountain: “who are we waiting on?”
Thanks for reading and dropping a line. I appreciate your detailed reading of the screenplay. I found that most lines are altered. I think Eisenberg used them as a “guide.” I wonder how many takes and variations they did for the scenes.
Curious about how many takes they did too. Culkin has said in press it was right after finishing Succession and before another project of his was shooting, sounds like less than 2 months based on what I found online.
But Eisenberg also said in his NYer interview he was inspired by watching Woody Allen direct: “he really does try to keep the action in as much of a single take as possible for momentum, for the artistry of camera movement and choreography, and I try to do that when possible.” (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/jesse-eisenberg-has-a-few-questions)
Have a PDF of the NYer interview too.
Thanks for sharing.