The Office; 2.11 ‘Booze Cruise’

Pam: It’s getting kind of rowdy down there.
Jim: Yeah. Darryl! Darryl! Darryl!
Pam: Sometimes I just don’t get Roy.
Jim: Well… 
Pam: I mean, I don’t know. So… what’s it like dating a cheerleader?
Jim: Oh, um… [silence]
Pam: I’m cold.

I wrote the paragraph below years ago, and this scene haunts me as if this exact moment has happened to me, and in small ways it has. It was not the perfect show, but neither was every workplace I’ve ever had. Yet I remember how good and kind my co-workers were, how inspiring my bosses could be, and how working with others was more satisfying than working alone.

Have I ever written about one of my favorite tv moments ever? And it’s not because of this dialogue, it’s because of the 20 freaking seconds of silence (I counted it!) and looks shared between these two. Ten seconds of awkward silence in real world time is long enough, but 20 seconds?! You’re using up primetime air right here, especially for a 21 minute show…You know how human and real this moment is, how we’ve all experienced it, trying to find the words to say to someone and not quite getting there. More moments like this, TV, more moments like this. 

17272dorsetave:

Indiewire: Your work has always managed to showcase these characters with amazing eccentricities — like, in the case of Nina Conti’s character, speaking your mind uncontrollably by way of a monkey puppet — but the humor never seems to come at the expense of these characters, it’s not cruel. How do you find the comedy without hanging them out to dry?

Christopher Guest: I think it’s important for what I do — I can’t speak to other people — to have as much weight on the emotional investment the people will have in the characters. Even though there’s this woman with this puppet who’s had this traumatic experience, it should be that you care about her even though it’s kind of bizarre.

When I did “Best in Show,” Eugene Levy had two left feet, and you think, wow, that’s kind of… But I think people really related to him — he was this poor guy, this guy who was really having some problems. It’s very easy to dump on characters, to make people look stupid. That’s a very short-lived thing, it’s a sketch, then it’s over and who cares.

For me, having the investment of two years of working on a film, it’s important that there’s another dimension and it’s usually about feeling something for those people even if they’re deluded. You have to feel something for them, it makes it more interesting and maybe it makes it funnier.

Read The Full Interview

Howl’s Moving Castle Fancast | Harry Lloyd (Howl), Sophie Turner (Young Sophie), and Vanessa Redgrave (Old Sophie)

[inspired by emedeme]

Modern Screen  |  April 1950

Wow, David Slade is pretty cool about answering camera questions on Twitter.

Favorite Film Moms: Ellen Ripley in Aliens