Once Upon a Time on Miracle Mile will be a classic dramatic build: beginning, middle, and end. Internally, however, the build spins out with the lambada, the dance, the family parties once Nick, Maria’s father, begins to call the Lieberman’s house. The story concludes with a true ending, heartbreak being very real if we consider the cultures present in the room, celebrating. Most of the story happens in one house.
The high emotional and dramatic pitch and social bent of the story will allow us to target reputable actors who care about these issues, think Matthew McConaughey. Not Jewish but married to a Brazilian and emoting at Congress for children.
PART ONE will depict Angelita getting Maria and arriving at the house to love songs. The manipulation game will kick off that day: money. Maria will bond with Nicole and turn the house upside down with behavioral problems. Jose will step in. Anthony will blow. Maria will chuck a racket across the court at an adult male singing her love songs. Dr. J will accuse Maria’s father of child molestation. Jose and Nicole will fight. Angelita will tell Maria she can never see her father NICK again.
PART TWO Nick will call. Angelita will take his “nice guy routine” to an even nicer pitch on the phone with talk of gratitude and safety. Maria will play along, just say “no,” I ain’t going on vacation with you. Maria will rehearse her script for the lawyers. High five! Angelita will clap, baby, time to dance sexy. The best family party ever will begin. People will pour into the house. The family will be an unbreakable unit born to dance. At full swing, the phone will ring to a skirt flying. Nicole and Maria will climb over the couch throwing pillows on another night. Angelita will open the door. Nick will stand there and watch. Maria and Nicole will ignore him with a gleeful show. Angelita will close the door nicely in his face. Jose! will fly over the banister, ottoman, exercise confusing footwork to get Maria as women hold down the perimeter. Jose! Maria will bite Nicole. Anthony and Angelita will fight. Nicole and Maria will climb up to the treehouse taken over by bees. Maria will fly off the slide and dive into the grass. Angelita will throw the tweezers. Nicole will appear sad. Maria pushed her. Maria will say “sorry” for the first time. Nicole will hug her. Angelita will open the door. Dr. J will ignore Maria to the same cruel, joyful pitch and fawn all over Nicole. Nicole will hug Maria. Dr. J will show up without a top, drunk, hit on Jose, and pass out. Anthony and Angelita will fight and she will confess. The money will start running out. Nicole will twirl in the backyard “there’s no place like home.”
PART THREE: Angelita will scream into the phone. Dr. J found a protector. No more money. Angelita will drop Maria off; no one is picking her up. Maria will run away. Angelita will have to get her. Angelita will invite Nick over and tell him that Dr. J lied. Anthony will blind,“ he said she can stay with us…until he figures this out?”
PART FOUR: They call social services driving the drama to its climax. Maria will be taken away. Anthony and Angelita will fight the state to keep her. They will win. Maria will remember asking what the words to the lambada meant at the last party at its height. “But this is a sad song.” Anthony will rise. Angelita will diffuse the wisdom of the lambada. A Jewish boy will be called to dance by hot Brazilian women. “This is a miracle…”
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Well, one can hope, first of all, about Mr. McConaughey. He’s clearly not the only person who cares about these issues, but I’m just following The Stranger Things bible. I’m taking a small break to share this because I wanted to work out the basic steps of the story, so I could continue to shape this. but this is basically what happened.
Now, Anthony, right now, doesn’t seem to have as big of a part as Angelita, but he does as the drama keeps rising…
I have to sit here and problem-solve. I don’t have the time to do all that this instant, but I don’t know where her husband was in reality. He worked all the time. I don’t know what he knew and what he didn’t, so I have to figure out these steps. Already there’s a discussion around the money in the beginning, and that will obviously build. I seriously have ZERO clue if the kids were told not to tell him about my behavior…you see? I have to work that out. Maybe he might have insisted on calling the authorities, so she might not want to tell anyone, she can’t handle the idea of sending a kid there, given what might already be going on…IMAGINE? Which might propel her to try and get Dr. J to leave him…all that.
“What is she doing here?” I remember that.
I have to move on to tone and style which I started since writing functions like that: just move on, come back, and it keeps coming together. I did “the story” section, too, since this is an ensemble piece, and it is pretty dramatic, no? Anthony can — look — be there for the treehouse incident lol, just because it’s getting weird, I don’t know, tell her to stop getting angry at Maria, even, which could piss her of, (again her legs lol), and you see, for an actress, this is a stellar role, because she’s going to lose it, wondering if Anthony slept with Dr. J, or not being able to handle what she was heard, seen, though I don’t know the full extent that to since Dr. J “came over like twice,” once with her top off, totally open, passed out, and Anthony was there. Okay? Just picture little me. Jose being told to keep everyone back lol. And then, imagine this discussion, with JOSE AKA Ben Stiller acting like Maria’s guardian. “What the hell is going on?” It’s time to call the cops. But they decide not to…just because…they don’t want to send her there…Angelita trying to help this lady leave her husband. But the thing is, the money starts running out, but “no problem,” again, another goddamn game. It’s good because it just keeps developing, super complicated.
I took out the scene where Nick calls to come “visit” and Angelita prepping the girls for “showtime” because I thought that maybe that style worked with the party on the rise…the phone ringing to a skirt, and the girls taking off over the couch works. Most of this takes place in that same house, so it can move like that. The lambada parties, the dancing, was all the time. Dr. J bombarded her with phone calls until it stops. The sprinklers coming on — Angelita SCREAMING into the phone. Because Dr. J found herself a protector. No more money. But no one is PICKING UP THE KID! What the hell is she supposed to do? Imagine? I was too young and traumatized but Jesus Christ, I could slap both my parents to the next county.
Nick acting like this.
Now, picture Anthony sweeping in with a cool shot at night…
Sure, she acted “really really nice,” can you imagine Anthony saying this…? “To him…” needing to wrap his head…His wife has gone temporarily insane, still making rum cakes for the city of Los Angeles with a hoard of kids training to go pro. It’s gotta be tight, bold, and dynamic. So much happens, and there are six kids (though four at home, but I throw grandkids at her on top of it…cousins helping her bake rum cakes) so it spills out of the house. Just the hilarity of her legs in a tennis skirt.
Maybe I’ll watch Dog Day Afternoon which is one of my absolute favorites since that’s SO ensemble. One space. Though this is a house. Angelita is constantly snapping at her kids, JOSE the snappiest of the lot, truly, Michele is too, but JOSE is the most like his mother in this regard. My behavior was FOR REAL. Jose stands by me. My cousins were like…what problems does a four year old have? Well, Dr. J gave me away, in a sense, to another family. Sure, who gives a shit? I get it, not your kid, call the cops, social services, but for the love of GOD, I was lucky.
So, what would Anthony do? Money, lots of it, okay, so they need money, or…something. Dr. J and this mother strike a deal — right? 1200 hundred? If I remember correctly? For 24/7? Might have been more. A week. My “undercover investigation…”. Maria emerging from this shit at 8, 9 years old.
Not able to compute literally speaking for thirty years, almost, that she sent me home with these people a couple of times! I had that memories, but once I started putting that together, like “wait a minute?! WTF? Where did I sleep? WTF. Home for some weird ass Christmas party. My parents nowhere to be found. I didn’t see them once. I woke up at this party, like WTF? 7 years old? Already feeling like 15. Dr. J was dying upstairs in the bed that is supposed to be mine. I didn’t even have my own bed. People. So, some of that can come out…I have a scene with Anthony and Angelita in the car…but I’m not sure if that’s going to be possible with social services, in fact, unless they “make an exception” on the way to Maria’s house…this section I don’t know yet, but as this situation spins out of control, I have to figure out what to do with what I have with everything coming out. She’s not our kid. She works for this person. The lunacy. You can go temporarily insane. Imagine… I saw a mother sending the girls to the car after school when Dr. J pulls up with a limo…with Nick…coming out. But in reality, we had some weird photo op? “Working things out?” Again, not her problem, and now…Nicole and Maria are going to the same fancy private school…I imagine that Dr. J paid for that, just because no one else did! Jose looking at this. I don’t know though. How crazy is that?
His wife gets a touch inebriated which I think I show, I just don’t know the details of my clothes…maybe that came with the fee? Maybe we met her at Neiman’s — I watched that Batman show PS with ALICE, that female joker…here’s the thing…Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This is like the creme of the creme, Dr. J. I hated the dresses. Angelita just put me in regular clothes. But at least she didn’t reject me, man, in a sense.
She’s busy, she says, I’m picturing Anthony now. And at what point does she confess or he finds out that Maria’s father is a child molester…? We just needs some support? In leaving him? Okay? Then, as the money runs out, as the stories spin in her head, she lied! These scenes between Anthony and Angelita are what I can’t wait to get to, partially because they’re a real couple, and it’s probably going to be funny. She lied? She had to…so she invited…him over??????
“You let him into our house?”
And she…told him that she lied! And he said…
I yearn to hear Anthony say this line…
“She can stay here…until he figures it out? Figures this out?”
That’s fine and fun.
And then, Anthony wonders if she spoke to me directly? And no. Back then, for the majority of my life, I would have said no, that was always the story, and I went through utter hell a few years ago…and WTF was that? Someone told me…that even if this was “around me,” really? I could have processed that as real? Since it was. I can see my cousins in Naples — wanting Dr. J bad. Wanting Dr. J real bad. Eventually, I’ll speak with someone. So, I don’t quite know what to say about that part…but maybe once social services come…they can handle that, Anthony can — send his head. But, come on, what a terrible situation. I didn’t want to point to where I sleep. It doesn’t look good. You see? But, look, at this point, I can say…he would have been diagnosed with a disease, because he was. He just didn’t tell anyone.
And given that we were in this situation, no one, okay? Nobody…is going to tell me that it wasn’t true. One of the things we will see, and maybe law schools will use this, is that people make shit up. Money casts illusions, it’s a REAL manipulator, it can be, and it’s one of these that we believe is all-powerful. You’d be surprised. Crazy, someone who comes from outer space is like one big blind spot. Uh, what is this? Who…has a good job…Dr. J = outer space. Then, with the father, the picture doesn’t change, but the story she has begins to break down. The money starts running out, the crazy stories spin around Angelita’s head, as my mother was a LIAR. Big time. You have no clue. She lied! She must have lied. My father never acted…normal. Or, he acted WAY too normal. He did nothing. From beginning to end. I was 4 operating with the awareness of rape, at least, that’s what it looked like? With Dr. J. What was this? This was — drawing a box — the situation. So, it’s an unusual situation that I hope will be riveting, fascinating, and illuminating. I came from “a light” situation? That’s what I heard. When it comes to foster care situations. But in real life, I was sent home with my father to mirrors being smashed off the walls.
“This is how she left it,” like excuse me for going APESHIT. At 8. I mean, truly. “Are you insane?”
So, the unbelievable space, this unbelievable space, infuriated me beyond my ability to tell you. But yes, unusual.
When I started writing about this…you see…when it came to that part…me being sent home with him…I felt a collective “nooooo….” not “awwwww.” That’s not what that was. I’m not ending there…that’s not an end. And then, I promise you, she asked me after this at the club, quickly, “it wasn’t true, was it?” Now, as an adult, when that clicked in my head along with her questioning how my mother handled me, I could have thrown a table. This will be a heartwarming family picture, more on that end even if a family gets psychologically thrown, confused, they’re fundamentally very very caring people. I’m just sharing “my personal process.”
I’m super excited because it’s emotional, sweeping, and somewhat “Action-packed?” I cannot use words according to Mr. Phoenix unless that’s what it is. It’s a true drama, right? There are moments of air, more or less at the beginning, with Angelita is her bedroom, but it moves…pretty dramatically, comedically, too, by nature of the elements involved. Mr. Phoenix could have played JOSE, too, by the way. I thought about him too. Just his face on an adjacent court — when I chuck my racket across the court upon arrival, because my instructor started singing me “Maria” from Westside Story, and I HATED this song, a love song, to me, at four, with the mother I had. That’s what it was. The instructor was chill, impressed. I was four, but I gave him a piece of my mind about it. He liked me so so much. He thought I had GREAT potential, truly.
I’m off, I gotta do tone and style. I don’t know quite what to say about the love songs…but I’ll probably add that to tone and style. I put a few into my synopsis…since…they are on regardless. Like, imagine Ben Stiller as Jose, or just the kids fighting, and then, the lambada comes on upstairs… or just music…and she’s off, NINA in The Forbidden Dance. It’s truly funny. In the car — it’s a love song regardless, but these are snippets, since Angelita has a big musical number on the way over to her house…we get it. But, the feel is, she seemed to not want me to “lose my innocence” about it, meaning it’s amazing, love love love, you must make love in the ocean one day. “Was it cold?” She cracked up. It was refreshing, I wasn’t asking for details, I didn’t know exactly what was going on…but she seemed to meet me where I was at…I just didn’t understand why it was bad, or a secret, when I got here…because of it. I really didn’t understand that, how is this going to ruin my innocence when…it’s how we…all got here. Again, not having any…so she was meeting someone like that. “It’s beautiful,” okay, I mean. lol.