For the third week in a row, I’ve collated loglines and blurbs of the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (*So Far).
Why on Earth am I doing this? Well, I’m curious about how people (either writers or the marketing/advertising people) describe these stories succinctly. What do they leave in? What do they leave out? How are they compelling us (the reader or the viewer) to either read the script or choose the movie to watch? How are they following logline formulae (or not)?
Super important note: In most cases, we don’t know for sure if what’s below are the actual loglines submitted by the writers or if they are blurbs generated by the films’ marketing and advertising teams. However, I’ll venture to say that it’s more likely that a Black List logline was written by the writer and an Amazon one was written by someone else; if you’re looking for logline inspiration, the Amazon ones probably should be avoided (it’s so obvious that I even crossed them out – you’ll see why).
Still, the below descriptions are great to study and learn from.
Here they are…
51. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
- IMDB: A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.
Amazon: Michael Keaton heads an all-star cast in this riveting story of a former superhero film star grappling with dwindling fame, an estranged daughter, theatre critics and inner demons.
52. The Lives of Others (2007)
- IMDB: In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.
Amazon: This Oscar(r)-winning thriller (Best Foreign Language Film, 2006) tells the erotic story of an East German couple whose every intimate moment is being monitored by the Secret Police hoping to learn information that could destroy their lives.
53. Nightcrawler (2014)
- IMDB: When Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
- Amazon: A freelance cameraman
(Jake Gyllenhaal)goes to increasingly greater lengths to get shots of the most-lurid and disturbing crimes on the dark streets of Los Angeles.
54. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
- IMDB: In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
- Amazon: A free black man is abducted and sold into slavery.
55. The Big Short (2015)
- IMDB: In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the United States mortgage market. In their research, they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
- Amazon: The 2008 financial crisis is seen through the eyes of four opportunistic moneymen who foresaw the consequences of the fraudulent mortgage-lending practices of large banks on Wall Street.
56. Moneyball (2011)
- IMDB: Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane’s successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
- Amazon: When the general manager of the Oakland A’s is forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, he teams up with an Ivy grad to recruit bargain players that scouts call flawed, but who are ultimately able to win games with their unconventional play.
57. Black Panther (2018)
- IMDB: T’Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country’s past.
- Amazon: When young King T’Challa is drawn into conflict with an old foe that puts his homeland Wakanda and the entire world at risk, he must release Black Panther’s full power to save them.
58. You Can Count on Me (2000)
- IMDB: A single mother’s life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely seen younger brother returns to town.
Amazon: HD. Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo star in a story about a single mother whose life takes a turn with the return of her troubled brother.
59. Boyhood (2014)
- IMDB: The life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.
Amazon: This groundbreaking coming-of-age story, shot over 12 years with the same cast, follows the life of a ‘normal’ boy as he grows into a man before our eyes.
60. Finding Nemo (2003)
- IMDB: After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.
- Amazon: Nemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist’s office aquarium. It’s up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly, forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home.
61. The Hurt Locker (2008)
- IMDB: During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
- Amazon: Three members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad battle insurgents and each other as they search for and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad-in order to try and make the city a safer place.
62. Roma (2018)
- IMDB: A year in the life of a middle-class family’s maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.
- Amazon: N/A
63. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
- The Black List: The story of Jordan Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a massive 1990s securities fraud case that involved widespread corruption on Wall Street and in the corporate banking world.
- IMDB: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stock-broker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government.
Amazon: Sex. Money. Power. Drugs. Brace yourself for a true story from legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a young stockbroker hungry for a life of non-stop thrills, where corruption was king and more was never enough.
64. Hell or High Water (2016)
- The Black List: N/A
- IMDB: Toby is a divorced father who’s trying to make a better life. His brother is an ex-con with a short temper and a loose trigger finger. Together, they plan a series of heists against the bank that’s about to foreclose on their family ranch.
- Amazon: Brothers resort to a scheme to save their family’s ranch.
65. Manchester by the Sea (2016)
- The Black List: An uncle is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies.
- IMDB: A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies.
Amazon: Casey Affleck leads an all-star cast in this acclaimed and poignant film about a solitary janitor whose life is transformed after he becomes the guardian of his 16-year-old nephew.
66. A Separation (2011)
- IMDB: A married couple are faced with a difficult decision – to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer’s disease.
- Amazon: A married couple faces the difficult decision of whether to seek a better life in another country or to remain in Iran caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s disease.
67. Spirited Away (2001)
- IMDB: A married couple are faced with a difficult decision – to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer’s disease.
Amazon: When Chihiro is whisked away into a breathtaking world full of spirits and demons, she must use all her wits in order to free herself and her parents from the sorceress Yubaba, in Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning masterpiece.
68. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- IMDB: In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.
Amazon: George Miller returns to the post-apocalyptic world of the Road Warrior – a world of fire and blood, without law, without mercy and without hope. Haunted by his past, Mad Max (Tom Hardy) wanders alone, until he’s swept up with a band of survivors fleeing a warlord across the Wasteland.
69. Booksmart (2019)
- The Black List: Two overachieving high school seniors realize the only thing they haven’t accomplished is having boyfriends, and each resolves to find one by prom.
- IMDB: On the eve of their high-school graduation, two academic superstars and best friends realize they should have worked less and played more. Determined not to fall short of their peers, the girls try to cram four years of fun into one night.
- Amazon: BOOKSMART is a comedy about two academic superstars and best friends on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
70. City of God (2002)
- IMDB: In the slums of Rio, two kids’ paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
- Amazon: In this electriyfying film set among Rio de Janeiro’s notorious slums, where oppressive crime and violence are rife, a frail young boy faces impossible odds as he pursues his ambition of becoming a professional photographer.
71. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
- IMDB: Miles Morales catapults across the multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.
- Amazon: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” introduces Brooklyn teen Miles Morales, and the limitless possibilities of the Spider-Verse, where more than one can wear the mask.
72. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
- IMDB: A week in the life of a young singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961.
Amazon: Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a young folk singer as he navigates the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is struggling to make it as a musician against seeming insurmountable obstacles – some of them of his own making.
73. The King’s Speech (2010)
- The Black List: George VI, also known as Bertie, reluctantly takes the throne of England when his brother, Edward, abdicates in 1936. The unprepared king turns to a radical speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help overcome his nervous stutter and the two forge a friendship.
- IMDB: The story of King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne of the British Empire in 1936, and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch overcome his stammer.
- Amazon: A speech therapist helps King George VI overcome his stammer.
74. Django Unchained (2012)
- The Black List: A freed slave named Django is trained as a bounty hunter by a German dentist named Schultz, and the two men set out to find Django’s enslaved wife.
- IMDB: With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
- Amazon: A former slave joins forces with the German bounty hunter who freed him and helps hunt down the South’s most-wanted criminals, all in the hope of finding his long-lost wife.
75. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
- IMDB: Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices plan to rob three Las Vegas casinos simultaneously.
Amazon: AMC Presents: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle go for broke to pull off the most sophisticated and daring Las Vegas casino heist ever.