I have had the worst bout of writer's block the last few weeks. I've been rolling around in bed dreaming about where I want to throw characters that they haven't been before just to break out of this rut...and nothing's happened. Enter, Very Good Girls. I watched this movie yesterday evening on a whim, and was disappointed. It had My Summer of Love potential (for a quiet summer drama about two girls' sex lives) but fell really flat for me. After it was over, I started examining why I didn't like it. The short answer is that it felt slightly contrived, and I'm not a huge fan of Dakota Fanning.

The more I thought about it, the more I was mad that I'd bothered to watch it in the first place. Maybe not that exactly, just that it had all the elements of a movie I would be really interested in, and I just...couldn't be interested in this movie. I wasn't really rooting for these characters in any way, I couldn't see why the two of them would go after this jaded doofus who lived in a DOPE photographer's loft. ANYWAY.

I started thinking about something I learned from Steal Like an Artist. (Which I'm sure was better stated by Toni Morrison, who no doubt restated someone else.):

How would I change up Very Good Girls into a movie I'd be satisfied after watching?

The first thing that occurred to me was to make a movie about young(er) girls that didn't have anything to do with their blossoming turbulent romantic entanglements. It's been said before in much more eloquent ways than I could say it, and frankly, I'm tired of movies that make girls seem like the only thing their good for is their sexuality.

Also, maybe they would have more than friend. I hate that.

Anyway, this started as a snowflake and shortly turned into an avalanche. My Gemini self is happy to have another project to start and not finish!

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised that my dissatisfaction with VGG turned into desire to do some work.

Have you ever had a similar experience? Experienced something that was close to being awesome, but fell a little short? Did it motivate you to be productive?

Happy creating~!

-Mac

One thing I did learn from this movie is that Elizabeth Olson is gorgeous. Oh my goodness!