Because these last few posts about loglines have been wildly popular, I’m coming back again with loglines and blurbs of the WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (*So Far).
Having scoured The Annual Black Lists, IMDB, and Amazon, I’m presenting the below loglines and blurbs, and I’m dividing the task up over four weeks.
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…
1. Get Out (2017)
- IMDB: A young African-American visits his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
- Amazon: A young African American man visits his Caucasian girlfriend’s cursed family estate.
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- IMDB: When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.
- Amazon: Relationship on the skids leads one partner, then the other, to a neurologist who specializes in removing all memories of a person from one’s brain.
3. The Social Network (2010)
- The Black List: The story of the founders of the social networking website Facebook and how overnight success and wealth changed their lives.
- IMDB: As Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
- Amazon: Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook but is later sued by two brothers who claim he stole their idea.
4. Parasite (2019)
You can read my analysis of it here.
- IMDB: Greed and class discrimination threaten the newly-formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan.
Amazon: Greed and class discrimination threaten the relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan in Bong Joon Ho’s darkly hilarious modern fairytale.
5. No Country for Old Men (2007)
- The Black List: This script was on The Annual Black List, but the logline is N/A.
- IMDB: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong and over two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
Amazon: A killer and a Texas lawman search for a hunter who stumbles upon $2 million in dirty money in this riveting Best Picture Oscar® winner.
6. Moonlight (2016)
- IMDB: A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Amazon: This Best Picture Oscar® winner traces the coming-of-age of Chiron, a Black man, through his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.
7. There Will Be Blood (2007)
- IMDB: A story of family, religion, hatred, oil, and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
Amazon: An obsessed oil faces off with a fundamentalist preacher whose family’s land is atop “an ocean of oil” in this instant-classic drama.
8. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
- The Black List: American soldiers, French peasants, French resistance, and Nazis collide in Hitler occupied France.
- IMDB: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
- Amazon: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theater owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
9. Almost Famous (2000)
- IMDB: A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
Amazon: Based on the life of director/writer Cameron Crowe, teenage prodigy William goes on tour with the rock band Stillwater on an assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, documenting the highs and lows of the music industry.
10. Memento (2000)
- IMDB: A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife’s murderer.
- Amazon: A man juggles searching for his wife’s murderer and keeping his short-term memory loss from being an obstacle.
11. Adaptation (2002)
- IMDB: A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt ‘The Orchid Thief’ by Susan Orlean for the screen.
Amazon: From the creator of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH comes a very original comedy about a screenwriter struggling to adapt a best-selling book about orchid thieves into a movie. Things get really crazy when he writes himself into the screenplay.
12. Bridesmaids (2011)
- IMDB: Competition between the maid of honor and a bridesmaid, over who is the bride’s best friend, threatens to upend the life of an out-of-work pastry chef.
Amazon: From the producer of Knocked Up, Bridesmaids Unrated takes Maid of Dishonor, Annie (Kristen Wiig), and four wild bridesmaids on an outrageous ride to their friend’s wedding.
13. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- IMDB: Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.
Amazon: The story of a forbidden and secret relationship between two cowboys and their challenging separate lives over the years. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Director.
14. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
- IMDB: The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons.
Amazon: A man and his wife had three children — Chas, Margot, and Richie — and then they separated. Chas started buying real estate, Margot was a playwright, and Richie was a junior champion tennis player.
15. Sideways (2004)
- IMDB: Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment embark on a week-long road trip through California’s wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the aisle.
Amazon: Two pals go on a wild tasting excursion in California’s wine country in this 2005 Oscar(R) winner.
16. Lady Bird (2017)
- IMDB: In 2002, an artistically inclined 17-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.
Amazon: Christine (Saoirse Ronan), a high school senior, navigates her loving but turbulent relationship with her strong-willed mother (Laurie Metcalf), a working nurse who endures long hours to keep her family going.
17. Her (2013)
- IMDB: In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Amazon: From the unique perspective of Oscar®-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze (Best Original Screenplay, 2013) comes an original love story that explores the evolving nature—and the risks—of intimacy in the modern world.
18. Children of Men (2006)
- IMDB: In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
- Amazon: The human race has become mysteriously sterile, and no babies have been born in 18 years. A dictatorship has arisen, but a group of revolutionaries discover they must protect the only pregnant woman in the world.
19. Lost in Translation (2002)
- IMDB: A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.
Amazon: Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in Tokyo. This chance meeting soon becomes a surprising friendship. They venture through Tokyo, having hilarious encounters with its citizens, and discover a new belief in life’s possibilities.
20. Michael Clayton (2007)
- IMDB: A law firm brings in its “fixer” to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
- Amazon: Michael Clayton, a former prosecutor, takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s “dirty work.” The firm’s top litigator sabotages a case and the firm sends Clayton to tackle this disaster.
21. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
- The Black List: This script was on The Annual Black List, but the logline is N/A.
- IMDB: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
- Amazon: A dysfunctional family undertakes a 700-mile journey–in a junky VW van–to realize a little girl’s dream of being in a beauty pageant.
22. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019)
- IMDB: A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
- Amazon: In 1969 Los Angeles, a former Western star and his longtime stunt double struggle to find success in a Hollywood that they don’t recognize anymore.
23. Promising Young Woman (2020)
You can read my analysis of the film here.
- The Black List: Still hurting years later from the suicide of her mistreated best friend, a woman is torn between seeking vengeance on the lost friend’s behalf and moving on with her life.
- IMDB: Nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be – she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs from the past.
Amazon: Traumatized by a tragic event in her past, Cassie (Carey Mulligan) seeks out vengeance in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story about a delicious new take on revenge.
24. Juno (2007)
- The Black List: Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.
- IMDB: Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes a selfless decision regarding the unborn child.
- Amazon: When Juno discovers that she’s pregnant, she’s forced to grow up fast as she tries to find adoptive parents for her quickly growing child.
25. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
- IMDB: A writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel’s glorious years under an exceptional concierge.
Amazon: Quirky chronicle of the misadventures of the concierge (Ralph Fiennes) at a famous European hotel between the first and second World Wars.