Last night I watched a light-hearted movie
from Israel called Cupcakes. Since it
was mostly in Hebrew I’m sure I missed some parts of the movie that didn’t make
it into the subtitles but overall I thought it was a good model for
storytelling.
The main plot is about six friends who live
in the same apartment building who, in tryng to cheer up a neighbor whose
husband has left, create a song and a video. One of the characters enters it in
a competition for what I guess is supposed to be the Eurovision song contest, and they’re chosen to represent Israel.
Of course that causes conflicts for each of
them, which are eventually resolved by the time of the performance in Paris. The woman whose husband has left learns to let go and have fun, which brings him back. The action of the movie allows the guy who's dating a closeted boyfriend to be honest with everyone. One girl meets a boyfriend, another realizes that a friend can be more, and a third accepts that her boss has been using her and changes jobs.
What
I thought was interesting was how each of the six main characters had an arc
throughout the movie, which was eventually resolved. Most of the arcs were
romantic, but they covered everything from communication between parents and
children and husbands and wives to coming out of the closet and artistic
integrity.
An awful lot to jam into 70+ minutes! But
the filmmaker did a good job in establishing each character and his or her
conflict, then wrapping each strand up, though sometimes with a bit of
coincidence. Overall, a good model for any writer, I think. Make sure that your
characters stand out, that each has an arc, and you find a satisfying way of
resolving that arc.
