Lessons from Big Fat Liar

Sorry, the Lessons from series have been absent for a little while. I haven't watched anything that I felt I could apply to this. Was doing a lot of reading recently and with more obscure writers (at least ones I'd never heard of).

big FAT liar is pure genius. I'm still in the watch and be amazed phase. I've seen this movie so many times that I can recite many of the lines and know the plot like one of my own stories.

I laugh every single time I watch it. According to some research this movie didn't do so well and got panned by many reviewers. I have to admit to being surprised at first, but then I remembered that often the movies and shows that I love generally don't do well either in the general populace or with reviewers (reason why I never base my viewing on any reviews).

So back to the movie itself. big FAT liar is a kid/teen comedy about pathological liars. My favorite parts of this movie are the characters and the running jokes for each one of them. You have to really listen to the dialogue to catch all of them or you'll miss them. The movie may be over the top in many ways, but also has a lot of under the radar humor. Part of what I think makes the movie so good is the soundtrack. Of course, soundtracks isn't something that writers have a lot of say in, but I'd say the music could even be a character of it's own.

Onto the lessons...

1) Our hero is met up with who he could become as the villain. You have the pathological liar as a child seeing what a pathological liar as an adult can and does do. It's actually kinda deep. Consider when creating your stories, taking an element or key characteristic of your hero and bestowing it on your villain as well. What type of dynamic will you create when something the hero does without thought or is proud of is also something the villain does well?

2) I love the gags. I would like to be able to think of gags like this off the top of my head. Alas, I don't appear to be there yet, but I hope to be able to learn to be as creative as the writers were in this one.

3) Not really a lesson, but Amanda Bynes is a comic genius. Need I say more.