Rat’s TalE
Feature, 94pgs — Comedy, Coming-of-Age, Rom-Com
After appearing in his father's pest-control ads as a rat, Ricky's high-school life is an exercise in lonerism, at least until Vicky shows up. She brings whimsy and magic to Ricky's teenage angst, but she also has a crush on his beloved English teacher.
Synopsis —
Rat’s Tale mixes the high-school angst of Booksmart or Ghost World with the whimsical and frenetic feelings of Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep (complete with surreal, literary-infused dream sequences). This coming-of-age story focuses on Ricky, a teenage loner who can’t live down his childhood appearance in his father’s infamous local pest-control ads. Ricky’s outcast status is interrupted by the arrival of VK, a new student who shares Ricky’s penchant for wordplay, witticisms, and general nonconformity. They connect and lose themselves in their young romance. All is well until VK develops a close relationship with Ricky’s only other confidant, his English teacher. In order to not let his jealousy and misanthropy push his dream girl away, Ricky must muster the courage to shirk his lone-wolf mentality or risk losing her for good.
Accolades —
Winner, Dallas International Film Festival's Screenwriting Competition 2020
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Fall 2020
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2021
Quarterfinalist, Filmmatic - Inroads Fellowship Season 4
SuspenseTV
Feature, 99pgs—Thriller, Mystery, Dark Comedy
A woman's past sparks the interest of the trauma-for-profit network SuspenseTV, unraveling the truth that connects TV producers, backwoods criminals, an aging detective, and America's love for violence.
Synopsis —
SuspenseTV is a non-linear narrative that mixes the studio chatter of Network with the guns-drawn standoffs of Reservoir Dogs. The story focuses on how different characters are all connected through a single crime. Beverly is a middle-aged woman whose family was brutally murdered in a robbery when she was a girl. She copes with the residual effects of the crime by binge-watching true-crime television and takes extra pleasure in the criminals being caught. Hen Bragg is a lifelong criminal who commits the murders and gets away, only to use his haul to indulge his own love for murder-mystery pulp. Their stories are being investigated by both Detective Lawton, an aging cop who goes beyond the law to try and catch Hen, and a production crew at the immensely popular SuspenseTV. In their search for realistic and engaging material, the production crew finds Bev’s case and ultimately brings all the players together for one final confrontation.
Accolades —
Semifinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Fall 2020
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2021
Quarterfinalist, Emerging Screenwriters - Genre Screenplay Competition 2021
Nixon Van Buren
Feature, 104pgs —Dark Comedy, Crime
A financial planner haphazardly fakes his own death, but still cannot escape his dog-obsessed wife, the insurance company, the feds, or the criminals who are chasing him.
Synopsis —
Nixon Van Buren is a criminal farce in the vein of Coen Brothers films like Fargo or Raising Arizona. This off-beat cat-and-mouse film follows Nixon Van Buren, a scheming, silver-tongued financial planner whose borrowing and scamming has finally caught up with him. In need of an escape--from his job, from the loan-sharks who he owes, and from his beagle-obsessed wife--Nixon coerces a huge sum of money from his elderly neighbor and takes off to Mexico in order to fake his own death. On his heels are the grisly debt collectors who want to break his knees, an FBI agent, and an insurance adjuster who specializes in pseudocide. They track Nixon across the Mexican border while he drinks tequila, dances to mariachi, and exhumes a corpse to play off as his own. The orchestration of Nixon’s cons continues to grow until it becomes untenable, forcing him to finally decide what he’s willing to sacrifice for his freedom.
Accolades —
Semifinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Fall 2020
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2021
Quarterfinalist, Emerging Screenwriters - Genre Screenplay Competition 2021
Midnight Tonight
Feature, 107pgs—Horror, Thriller
After the death of the family dog, Veronique turns to spiritualism and her African roots to bring him back, but her grief awakens a larger evil. As her hauntings grow worse, her husband Greg uses his expertise in forensic anthropology to save both the dog and his traumatized wife, only to uncover a cultish, supernatural gathering in his own lab.
Synopsis —
Midnight Tonight synthesizes horror elements, meditations on grief, and classic narratives of reanimation. Hereditary meets Frankenstein. In this story, empty-nesters Greg and Veronique mourn the sudden death of their beloved dog, Tugboat. While trying to cope with the loss, each is sent on a journey to resurrect Tugboat and their aging love. Veronique recedes into herself and the traditions of her Ivorian upbringing while seeking spiritual answers to bring Tugboat back. After consulting with an eerie medium, she spirals through a series of ominous nightmares that become too real to avoid. Meanwhile, Greg, a forensic anthropologist, deals with the dead and decaying every day. He remains sterile about Tugboat’s death but worries about his wife’s deepening obsession. To save Veronique from her growing sadness, he attempts to bring Tugboat back through his clinical expertise, yet his experiment is spoiled by weirdness of his colleagues, who are deep into their own forms of mystical resurrection.
Accolades —
Quarterfinalist, Horror2Comic Competition, 2023