While We're Young Page #11

Blue (09/16/2013) 6767.

JOSH:

I don’t care. I want to share him

with you.

(to the table)

Look ma, I’m sharing!

JAMIE:

Jeez Louise, that would be f***ing

beautiful.

CORNELIA:

(suddenly, caught up in

the whole thing)

You know, if you want help... I

could help or...produce this for

you...

Josh looks at Cornelia, surprised. He smiles.

CORNELIA:

My dad’s between things now...

JAMIE:

Oh, my God. Are you kidding, I’d be

so pumped. Thank you, thank you.

Josh keeps smiling. He wants very badly for this to feelgood.

44 INT. SCHOLAR’S APARTMENT 44

Ira, the scholar, is talking about the power structure of theUnited States. Jamie shoots him. Tipper holds a boom. She

wears a T-shirt that reads in generic lettering: A College IDidn’t Go To. Cornelia stands close by. Josh sits in a

chair in the back, listening through headphones. His eyesdrift away from the scholar and turn inward. He looks almost

afraid.

45 INT. SCHOLAR’S BEDROOM 45

A mess of books and clothes and dogs and dog beds. Josh

pulls Cornelia inside and shuts the door.

CORNELIA:

What?

JOSH:

(hushed)

Can I say something I’m ashamed of?

CORNELIA:

Yeah.

68.

JOSH:

It’s not generous. And I probablydon’t really mean it.

CORNELIA:

Okay. Go.

JOSH:

And I think Jamie’s great so -

CORNELIA:

Say it!

JOSH:

(snapping)

I can’t f***ing believe his idioticFacebook idea paid off! It’s so

f***ing stupid! And my thing is a

mess. A total f***ing mess.

(pause)

Sorry, I feel bad saying that. But I

also hate the fact he’s calling hisband Cookie O’Puss.

CORNELIA:

What’s wrong with that?

JOSH:

It’s just some funny old kitschything to him he saw on YouTube. But

that was my commercial. I actuallyexperienced it. You know?

CORNELIA:

I don’t know from Cookie Puss.

JOSH:

Really? It was for Carvel. Cookie

Puss was the original one but theydid an ice cream cake for Saint

Patrick’s Day and it was thisfloating green Irish cake that said,

“My name is Cookie O’Puss.”

Cornelia is silent.

JOSH:

(exhales)

I’m being ridiculous. I probablydon’t mean any of it.

CORNELIA:

My dad likes to say, “The more, themore.”

69.

JOSH:

That’s because your dad haseverything. And then he gets more.

(off her look)

No, he’s right. There’s enough to goaround for everyone.

JAMIE:

Yo, Yosh! You got a pitch you got toattend!

She kisses him.

CORNELIA:

Good luck.

46 EXT. FINANCIAL DISTRICT. DAY 46

Jamie walks with Josh through stopped traffic toward theGoldman Sachs building.

JAMIE:

Remember, ask him questions. You’re

interviewing him. He’d be goddamnlucky to invest in your film.

JOSH:

Okay.

JAMIE:

And talk about sh*t he understands,

see. Short and to the point.

A bike messenger swerves by them on the sidewalk.

JAMIE:

(suddenly furious)

Ride on the street, man!

(and then back to Josh not

missing a beat)

Psych him up. Talk about money.

Talk about war. Power. Race. Make

it relevant to him.

JOSH:

Right.

JAMIE:

Be yourself, everyone else is taken.

Jamie straightens Josh’s jacket collar.

Blue (09/16/2013) 7070.

JAMIE:

Ira was beautiful today. I’m gonnahave a screening of the cut footageat the apartment on Friday.

JOSH:

You cut it already? We just shot ittwo days ago.

JAMIE:

I know. I was up all night.

(patting Josh on the back)

We’ll be okay, Joshy. Don’t youfret.

JOSH:

Maybe take a day or two to make sureyou like it.

JAMIE:

Or I can take ten years.

Josh hesitates, taken aback. Jamie laughs.

JAMIE:

I’m f***ing with you, Joshy. Your

thing is going to be totallybrilliant.

They reach the doorway of the office building. Jamie takes

the big headphones from around his neck and puts them onJosh. Jamie presses Play. “Eye of The Tiger” by Survivor.

JOSH:

I remember when this song was justconsidered bad! But it’s working.

JAMIE:

Remember, he’s lucky to have thisopportunity. You’re friggin’ JoshSrebnick.

JOSH:

My name sounds so much better whenyou say it.

47 INT. OFFICE, HEDGE FUND. DAY 47

Josh shakes hands with a bulky fratty looking hedge fund guy,

30’s, in a suit. This is Dave.

Josh sits on a couch, Dave in an armchair. Dave drinks from

a highball glass.

71.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

You see Mad Men?

JOSH:

No.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

(waves it off)

It’s really apple juice. Nah, it’swhiskey. Nah, it’s not. It is.

He drinks.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

So, tell me more about your project.

JOSH:

Well, maybe a good way to start is byasking you a question.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

Hey, they were all raped when I gotthere.

Josh stares at him blankly.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

(re:
highball)

This is my second in twenty minutes.

Shoot.

JOSH:

Do you know the percentage of AfricanAmerican adult males currently in jail?

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

I don't.

JOSH:

Take a guess.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

(playing along but notreally thinking)

Like 60%?

JOSH:

Jesus, no!

(pause)

It's over 9%. That's nearly 1 in 10African American adult males, nearlya million and half.

72.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

A million and a half is a lot.

JOSH:

It's insane, but people don't realizethis. They think because we have ablack president...

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

(as if he's helping Josh

out)

So this is about prison. Like a

black Shawshank. But real. A real,

black Shawshank.

JOSH:

(thrown)

No, not...no.

(pause and then speaking

quickly)

There's a section, an Entr'actereally, on the function of race inthe prison industrial complex...

(trying to get back on

track)

But the film is really about howpower in America works... Do you knowthe historian, Ira Mandelstam?

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

Yeah.

JOSH:

(pleased)

Really?

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

No.

JOSH:

Well, we have over a hundred hours ofinterviews with him. Now -

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

The movie’s a hundred hours?

JOSH:

No, we’ll cut it. Now, this guy,

he’s not particularly charismatic,

he’s kind of anti-social, maybeasbergers, but not interestingasbergers. He’s kind of boring even.

But he’s a charismatic thinker.

73.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

How do you show what he thinks?

Cartoons?

JOSH:

(what?!)

No, not cartoons. He says it.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

But he’s boring.

JOSH:

Well...yes, but like many boring

things, the longer you watch it, it

takes on a different dimension -

Josh wipes the sweat that has now accumulated on his face.

Dave’s glance goes to his Blackberry. He types somethingquickly.

HEDGE FUND DAVE:

Mmm hmm. So, what’s it about?

JOSH:

It’s really a very simple idea. The

three sections correspond to the

three nodes of what Mills called the

power elite:
the political, military

and economic. But, and this is key,

each part has to interconnect to show

how none of these three nodes

functions without the other.

Dave tries to surreptitiously glance at his Blackberry.

JOSH:

It’s a linear film of course, but I

imagine it as a kind of hypertext.

To be clear, the film is really about

the working class and, I can’t speak

on behalf of the working class. I

can’t make their film, of course.

They have to be felt as the

impossible subject of the text.

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