Keith Black

Get the Script... conveniently opened at film festivals from prestigious Venice, Italy to preposterous Malverne, New York the same time as Allen's latest Anything Goes was released. It began as an idea Black had after actually handing a script to Allen at one of Woody's jazz gigs. The Prozac-fuelled premise concerns a nearsighted, neurotic-obsessive screenwriter convinced if he can get his screenplay to Woody Allen that true love will follow and he'll at last have someone to share his life and half-priced diner coupons. Tax and gratuity not included.

Opening with a shot of writer/actor Keith Black in his bedroom, surrounded by Woody Allen memorabilia and enough prescription bottles to impress Elvis, the film chronicles a presumably typical unsuccessful afternoon of Black pitching his script to potential agents followed by an equally disastrous blind date that same night. Clearly, it's the latter of the two that has Black stressed to the max as he mutters out loud, in true Woody style, "Just once I'd like to go on a date without taking my medication."

Though the date lasts about as long as an Italian ice in August, Black eventually finds a potential special someone to deliver his script and practice his tentative kissing techniques, culminating in a loving tribute/blatant rip-off of the Allen/Keaton smooch in Annie Hall.

So all's well that ends well and none too soon. To his credit, Keith Black has crafted an admirable homage to his myopic mentor and garnered a fair share of press clippings along the way. It'll be interesting to see if he can come up with enough neuroses of his own should he get a chance to create a full-length feature. At the very least, Get the Script... makes a nice reel to send Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for the next season of HBO's Project Greenlight. A perfect match considering HBO's shoestring budgets and Black's knack for clipping coupons.