Sunshine or Shadows?

What's up blog. As my group and I settled in on our new idea, we began discussing the genre of the film. Our basic plot idea was a romance between two girls as they communicate through anonymous writing on the walls of the bathroom. I had imagined perhaps a light upbeat romcom, playing into the idea that the main setting is at the toilet and there's inherent comedy that goes with that. However, part of what makes the idea special to us is the representation that comes with two queer female leads, so my groupmate J suggested taking a more dramatic approach to the romance, something that connects deeper that will leave a viewer impacted after watching and prompt them with reflection and introspection. 

J suggested watching films such as 500 Days of Summer, Past Lives, Moonlight or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as inspiration as each one discusses love through an emotionally complex lens, and since I had been meaning to watch the Jim Carey led movie for a while, I decided to sit down and finally watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover the cast had even more stars such as Kate Winslet in the role of Clementine, Kirsten Dunst in the role of Mary, and Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood as the memory wipers. I was not pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Clementine was actually a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

My violent reactions at actions and lines written for Clementine that portray her as a one-dimensional character that acts erratically and whimsical to contrast with the male protagonist's (Joel's) sad and boring life. 

However, by the end of the film I do believe they were able to break out of the stereotype, unveiling complexities and flaws within Clementine's character. My issue is that because the movie is told through the perspective from Joel's memory, this development isn't really of the character but more so Joel's memory of Clem as the complex woman she was to him rather than the MPDG she initially served him as. And since the film was majority inside of Joel's head, while the conflict sometime seemed character vs character or character vs environment, the main conflict was really character vs self as Joel realizes he did not want to erase Clementine from his memory, because even though their relationship ended poorly, he still grew, learned, and loved during his time with her. 

After the film, I sat with the message and thought of how I could incorporate themes into my own film. The great part about Eternal Sunshine is it's not really about the romance but about how each character deals with loss and learning. 

Keeping this in mind, we want to incorporate themes such as:

• The cognitive dissonance that comes with Internalized homophobia. 
• How people act outside of the prying eyes of social standards.
• The comfort of anonymity. 

I think we have a good story on our hands... we just have to actually begin writing it... I'll update more soon.