Max Davis

This is unsustainable. Our public services can’t even cope with the current numbers.

If there was ever a perfect film, it's TOOTSIE. A book on the making of TOOTSIE changed my screenwriting forever. Reading Sydney Pollack break the entire story down as, "a man who dresses up as a woman and becomes a better man" was perhaps the key moment that led to more consistency in my work. A light bulb went off. THAT is how you define a story. Two points about the screenplay: 1) It has a fun structure with how the hero gets what he always wanted at the midpoint, only to realize he's trapped by it. Ratatouille does something similar when Remy and Linguini are the toast of Paris, but their success makes everything worse. If I am having trouble with the midpoint, "What if I just give them what they always wanted?" remains a fun possibility for me. 2) There are few actual jokes in Tootsie. It is played less for laughs and more for truth, trusting that playing it as truthfully as possible will be the source of the laughs. This is how someone like Pollack, who Dabney Coleman described as, "Not the funniest guy in the world," made one of the best comedies ever. Needless to say, a lot of help from Murray Schisgal, Larry Gelbert and Elaine May, all brilliant in their own right. The scene here between Dorsey and his agent George still makes me laugh and I must have seen it 100 times. I love this movie. An all-time classic.

Audible gasps in room at result - James Cleverly was 18 points ahead y'day. I've spoken to Tory MPs today who were voting for their preferred *second* candidate in final two - all were working on basis Cleverly was safe. "The most sophisticated electorate in the world" 🤨