Genre: Comedy
Premise: A successful illustrator finds herself friendless after her best friend gets engaged, forcing her to embark on an epic quest to “date” for new girlfriends — as an adult.
About: Scarlett Bermingham has written on a few small TV shows, including “Epic Night,” and “Damage Control.” She’s also had a few small roles as an actress. This script of hers made it onto last year’s Black List.
Writer: Scarlett Bermingham
Details: 115 pages
Slate for Mimi?
How many big ideas do you need for a concept?
There’s a belief that one isn’t enough. That you need a second one to make it truly original.
For reference, a “single idea” concept would be Top Gun: Maverick. A famous flight instructor comes back to Top Gun flight school to teach a new generation of pilots how to fly. A “double idea” concept would be “Nope.” It starts off as horror-mystery movie. Then it turns into an alien/UFO movie. Or the recent spec sale, Classified. It’s a heist movie AND a supernatural Indiana-Jones type movie.
Because my screenwriting philosophy is “keep it simple,” I lean towards one idea. But this topic is open for debate. You can find examples of both types of movies working.
When I read the concept for Mimi on the Black List, I was immediately intrigued. Instead of dating to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, you’re “dating” to find a friend. It was a solid “single idea” concept.
But then you open the script and are attacked by this secondary element of a cartoon world. Every scene involves a break into the cartoon version of what’s happening to Mimi. All of a sudden, you’re in “double idea” territory which means your enjoyment of the script will depend on if you’re a “single idea” or “double idea” person.
30 year-old Mimi works as an illustrator at a billboard advertising center. Mimi is one of those people who’s only ever needed one great friend. And that friend is Caroline. They’ve been BFFs since they were kids.
But, lately, Caroline keeps hanging around her new boyfriend, Kip, who Mimi thinks is a loser. As the weeks go by, Caroline is replying less and less to Mimi’s texts, until Caroline stops texting altogether. A couple months later, Mimi sees on social media that Caroline and Kip are getting married.
It’s around this time that Mimi gets the hint that Caroline is upset about something. But Mimi is too proud to call her and ask what. Which creates a new dilemma for her. Who’s going to be her new best friend? She’s got to find one.
Mimi quickly learns that making friends as an adult is a lot harder than making friends as a kid. She goes to pottery classes, scaring potential friends away with her “Let’s be friends now!” energy. She tries to make friends with her neighbor, who finds her way too overbearing. She even goes as far as to join a “Friend” version of Tinder and go on Tinder Friend dates.
For some reason, Mimi can’t make friends with anyone. She then becomes infuriated when she learns that there’s an actual date for Caroline’s wedding and SHE WASN’T INVITED. So she does what any scorned lover would do – she crashes the wedding!
There, she confronts Caroline, who tells her that Mimi is the embodiment of a selfish friend. It’s always about her. And that Caroline doesn’t want to be her friend anymore. Unfortunately, there is no happy ending here. The two go their separate ways and… that’s it.
Like I was saying earlier, I would’ve liked this a lot better without the animation. I suppose it will add visual flair to the movie itself, which might change my mind. But to me I saw it as a writer admitting that they didn’t believe in their idea enough. The original logline, sans animation, is funny! Trust that. I don’t think you need to add a bunch of bells and whistles to distract people in case it’s not enough.
Also, I felt the script could’ve done a lot more on the comedic side. I kept waiting for that big scene that was going to truly take advantage of the premise, but it never happened. We’d get funny little moments here and there – like Mimi coming on to a potential friend too hard and the friend being scared off. But that laugh takes up 5 seconds of the total screenplay. You need funny set-pieces that last FIVE MINUTES.
The 40 Year Old Virgin is a good example of this. You place a 40 Year Old Virgin on a date with a girl who makes it extremely clear she wants to have sex with him at the end of the night, and then you throw a ton of obstacles at the date (she gets egregiously drunk) which slowly and meticulously destroys the opportunity for said sex. A lot of comedy comes from us watching our main character’s misery.
We didn’t have that scene in “Mimi.”
But there were a couple of things I liked. The first was the choice not to explore the friendship between Mimi and Caroline. In fact, Caroline is absent the entire movie. (Spoilers) Normally, these movies are about repairing the central relationship. But we go 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Not only do we not explore the main relationship, but in the final confrontation, the characters go their separate ways. There is no happy resolution. That’s a very bold choice for a comedy.
I also liked what precluded the confrontation. Once we move away from the muted shenanigans of the first and second acts, we find Mimi truly exploring why she’s unable to have friendships. That was the first time in the script where I actually started to feel something. Cause a lot of what was said was truthful – how friendships are messy and how, if you take more than you give, sooner or later the other party is going to say, “Enough is enough.” Ultimately, Mimi needs to learn how to give more in friendships. That’s her big character journey.
And, to top it off, the script has a nice little epilogue where Mimi learns she’s already made friends with her neighbor without realizing it.
These scripts always mess with my head because I didn’t think much of the first two acts, but the third act really worked for me. And since it’s the most recent act, I’m tempted to give the script a ‘worth the read.’ But that’s still 75% of the script that I wasn’t on board with. So I’m not saying this is worth the read. But it *is* an interesting script in places and should not be easily dismissed.
P.S. Very clever name for a selfish main character – Mimi (“Me” “Me”).
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Any time you feel like you need to add CRAZY VOICE OVER or ANIMATION or YOUR MAIN CHARACTER BREAKS THE FOURTH WALL A LOT or SPEAK DIRECTLY TO THE READER THROUGH THE DESCRIPTION – ask yourself why you’re doing this. If you’re doing it because you genuinely believe it makes the script better, include it. But if you’re just doing it because you’re worried the story itself isn’t enough, you need to take a hard look at your concept and figure out if you really want a write it. No supplemental entertainment factor is going to save a weak premise. And, in some cases, like today’s script, it can actually get in the way of a fun idea.
