SHORT SYNOPSIS
Nolan is a frustrated young writer who has hit rock bottom. With little patience for his own life, he
becomes increasingly vulnerable to his past mistakes, until he meets Cassie. Stunning and
unpredictable, she invites him to let down his guard and enjoy the world around him. Just as
suddenly as Cassie enters his life, she’s gone. Already unstable, this loss propels Nolan deep
into his own imagination to keep their romance alive. It’s not long before his ego-serving fantasy
crumbles around him and he must acknowledge that his misery, like his fantasy, is in his own
hands.
LONG SYNOPSIS
Nolan (Cole Alexander Smith) steps onto the tram at SFO. He looks crazed. A voicemail from
Jeannie (Heather Ryan), his soon to be ex-girlfriend, calls him out on his erratic behavior. This
is the last straw.
In the wake of their failed relationship, Nolan returns to his routine. He accompanies his
roommate Tina (Briana Eason) to one of her tedious street performances. When he understates
the importance of her work at a bar, she storms out into the street.
That evening, Nolan unwinds with some whiskey and begins to write. As inspiration strikes, the
room around him transforms into a lush dreamspace, with an ethereal Jeannie calling to him.
Before he can get the emotional nourishment he needs, he is thrust back into the soul draining
routine of daily life, canvassing for a non-profit irrelevant . In his evening writing class, led by his
mentor and friend, Scott (Jake Lyall), he disrespects a fellow classmate by scoffing at her
earnest attempt at poetry.
Nolan watches on as Tina’s next street performance is interrupted when Cassie (Lisa Greyson)
runs up and joins in on the show. Tina flirts with Cassie at the bar afterward, while she develops
a deeper connection with Nolan. Once home, the girls disappear into Tina’s room and Nolan
immerses himself in his writing. Opening the journals returns Nolan to Jeannie. She ominously
asks, “Who is she?” The dreamspace is shattered by Cassie bursting through the door, insisting
on sleeping in his room. He finally acquiesces that she may sleep on the floor, and in the
morning, Cassie jumps up and down on the bed, waking Nolan. Over coffee, Nolan struggles to
explain the inspiration for his book, and Cassie coyly misunderstands.
After parting ways, Nolan returns home and finds Cassie's ringing phone on his bed. He then
visits the local bookstore where his book is on consignment. Chester (Baruch PorrasHernandez) offers him encouraging anecdotes about potential buyers. Outside of the bookshop,
Nolan answers Cassie's phone. On the other end, Cassie demands he come over and
whimsically whisks him away to spray-paint graffiti underneath a freeway overpass. Their
evening ends with Nolan asking Cassie to go to a party with him. At home, Tina is upset Nolan
didn't attend her latest performance. When Tina inquires whether Nolan knows what happened
to Cassie, he conceals the truth and patronizes her. He spends the next day with Cassie pulling
pranks and ends up overlooking the ocean. Cassie scolds him for missing the beauty that exists
all around them. They kiss; she is winning him over.
Together at the party later that week, Nolan quickly gets jealous and anti-social. He browses
through books until the alcohol sets in. Cassie is forced to pull him upstairs when he starts
embarrassing himself with another girl. Nolan passes out and spends the night coughing up
blood. He wakes for another day of canvassing, neglecting Cassie as he leaves. Upon returning
home, Nolan finds Tina distraught. He thinks nothing of this at first, until she reveals that Cassie
has died. He is blindsighted.
As his mental state unfurls, he reaches into a chapel and removes a miniature casket. He brings
the casket to class and lowers a small puppet Cassie into a diorama, while describing bizarre
animal mating rituals to his classmates’ delight.
Nolan brings his newfound fascination to Chester in the bookstore, before Chester announces a
publisher’s interest in his book. Mr. Publisher (Brad Smith) emerges with the publishing contract,
which Nolan cautiously signs. At the book release party, Nolan’s friends and colleagues gather
to celebrate. Nolan searches for Cassie in the crowd even though Tina insists Cassie’s not
there. She then appears as a life-size puppet and the room goes silent. Later that night, they
make love and lie tangled in rope.
Nolan and Puppet Cassie continue their streak of petty vandalism by throwing water balloons on
passersby from the roof above. He takes her to where they first kissed, and she refuses his
marriage proposal. Enraged, Nolan thrashes his room and throws the miniature casket out the
window. The next day, he’s confronted by Jeannie. Nolan is offended by the intervention and
does what he can to charm his ex-girlfriend. She attempts to explain what led to their eventual
break-up, but an obstinate Nolan throws her out.
Nolan calls his friend Grant (Amir Motlagh) from the subway station on his way to the airport.
Grant reluctantly confirms their longstanding routine and Nolan catches his flight. In Los
Angeles, they quickly go to the docks and, to Nolan’s surprise, steal a boat. Inspired by the
journey toward Catalina Island, Nolan borrows Grant’s pen to write. Their island hike is cut short
when Nolan reveals he left the pen on the boat, implicating Grant - and his family’s business - in
the theft.
Nolan, full of passive-aggressive rage, swims out to the undocked boat, grabs the pen, and
returns to shore. He presumptuously proposes their next adventure, but Grant explains his new
responsibility, having inherited his father’s real estate business, and the two return home.
The two friends part ways when they return to the docks. Grant calls to Nolan, giving his best to
Jeannie. Having exhausted the goodwill of everyone that cares about him, Nolan realizes that it
is he who must change. Back in San Francisco, Nolan wanders through the streets. He
apologizes to Jeannie in a voicemail. In the end, he finally confronts himself.
CAST
Cole Alexander Smith
Lisa Greyson
Briana Eason
Amir Motlagh
Jake Lyall
Baruch Porras-Hernandez
Heather Ryan
Karina Wolfe
Tony Sommers
Brad Smith
Melissa Quine
Nolan
Cassie
Tina
Grant
Scott
Chester
Jeannie
Esmeralda
Jed
Mr. Book Publisher
Girl at Party
CREW
Director
Writer(s)
Story By
Producer
Production Manager
VFX Supervisor
Production Designer
Composer
Sean Gillane
Theo Miller
Katherine Bruens
Sean Gillane
Katherine Bruens
Stephanie Petrus
Ken Fisk
Tamara Larson
Jess Sylvester
Director Statement
CXL subverts the expectations that come along with the classic story of boy meets girl. The
subversion was born of an investigation into that easy on the eyes (but hard on the brain) trope,
Nathan Rabin’s “Manic Pixie Dream Girl;” the empty-headed love interest that predictably lifts
the brooding spirits of the heady male protagonist. She is a highly functional mechanism in the
machine of modern entertainment, that in turn offers us a dangerously misguided idea of the
male-centric “purpose” of a romantic relationship.
Being that she thus is a puppet of both the protagonist and the filmmaker himself. I was
interested to see this literalized in CXL. That convention was then framed through a darker lens
and the story extended to find out what happens to our protagonist after the usual resolution
upon discovering the foundation for his shiny new life is shoddily built.
Both the plot and the style of CXL explore the hyperbole of this overly simplified narrative. To do
so, I wanted to utilize the hyper-authenticity of documentary filmmaking in contrast with a more
traditional, conventional style to draw attention to the manipulativeness of storytelling. My hope
is that pitting clashing styles against each other will place the value of the individual story
elements under scrutiny.
This experimentation was made possible by the freedom of micro-budget filmmaking. To build
on the continued collaboration with Katherine Bruens, we added Theo Miller to our team, a
screenwriter with a playwriting background, to arm the characters with stronger dialogue and
provide the actors with a solid structure to improvise around.
Making CXL reinforced my passion for the unique character of Bay Area filmmaking and
reminded me how much this community deserves recognition on the international stage for its
contributions to modern cinema.
Director Biography & Filmography
CXL director Sean Gillane has made his home and base of operations the San Francisco Bay
Area where he is active in several aspects of the independent film world.
His creative work includes co-writing and acting as Director of Photography on the feature
documentary CORNER STORE. The film received praise from the New York Times, earned
festival play throughout the United States, and is being broadcast worldwide. Meanwhile, his
commercial production work includes clients such as LEGO, Costco, Tecate, and All-State.
Beyond his feature work, he regularly engages in short subject film and music video productions
to maintain his development as a filmmaker, often taking opportunities to collaborate with
musicians to experiment with visual effects and animation as a way to explore new narrative
techniques. He has acted as a director and/or animator to create videos with bands including
The Black Heart Procession, Three Mile Pilot, and Benoit Pioulard.
Gillane is constantly working to broaden his creative scope by investing his time in the projects
of his peers. Beyond collaborating in his areas of focus, he also acts as an Assistant Director
and motion graphics artist to help push the community forward. For the last three years he has
also covered the San Francisco International Film Festival for The Playlist blog on the Indiewire
blog network as yet another way to investigate and explore modern cinema.
Press Contact
Katherine Bruens
(415) 307-1212
katherine@cxlthemovie.com
http://www.cxlthemovie.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2182267/
https://www.facebook.com/cxlthemovie