In 1983 New Hampshire, a high school movie buff takes up a mentorship with a burnt out B movie actor attempting to reinvent himself as a filmmaker.

SYNOPSIS:

ACT ONE It's 1983, almost a decade after the blockbuster boom of the 1970s. In a small New Hampshire town, RANDY THOMPSON, a hyperactive, yet enthusiastic high school movie buff, has been using cinema to come with his parents' divorce since he was seven. His obsession is to the point where his room is filled with books, VHS tapes, super 8mm reels, and posters of various films and TV shows. His mother, SUSAN, tries to be supportive of her son's movie watching habit, yet there's still a distance between the two. One day, when Susan takes him to a yard sale to get him out of the house, he comes across a VHS tape at a yard sale called Divinely Conquered, a schlocky sci-fi film from the 70s. Watching it at home, he's floored by its B-movie charm and seeks to find it's director, Oscar Bentley, who apparently shot the film in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, his results come up short – no Oscar. Not in the phone book, local listing, nowhere to be found. Luckily, he manages to locate an actor that worked on the film, ISSAC ROBERTS, a hefty, hungover middle aged black man, working as a grocery bagger at the local market. He arrives at his doorstep, VHS tape in hand, and after two door-in-the-face responses, manages to get in. Issac, hungover and unkempt, lets him in, as Randy sees that he has about three stacks of screenplays scattered on his table, all of which are written by Oscar Bentley.When Issac leaves the room to take a phone call, Randy snags one of the scripts, Cindy and Melina, and runs off. Meanwhile, Randy's grades are suffering at school due to his new obsession. His teacher advises him that the only way to boost his grade us is the upcoming mentorship assignment; six months performing a community based project with a preferred mentor, and a term paper that demonstrates how it best represents the idea of “community”. Randy tells his teacher that he already has his project laid out: a job on a feature film with the “one and only” Oscar Bentley. After some coaxing, the teacher allows this. Randy heads back to Issac's house and admits to being overwhelmed by how good the script is. He questions Issac if Oscar Bentley is still in town, to which Issac quickly tell him that Oscar left and has been sending him scripts to work on for years. Randy, sensing a potential window of opportunity for his project, tells Issac that he should direct the film. Issac is skeptical at first, but is eventually won over given Randy's excitement over the script. With a shake of the hands, they agree to start work on the project. ACT TWO That night, Issac has dinner at Randy and Susan's house to commemorate the partnership, as well as get to get her to sign the parent approval form. The atmosphere is quiet and uncomfortable, at least from Issac and Susan's perspective. After beaming to his mother how this is his first job on an actual film, he leaves the table to head to the bathroom, leaving Issac and Susan by themselves. At first, Issac tries to liven the mood by complimenting her son's charm and enthusiasm, but this quickly turns into a conversation about Susan's protectiveness over Randy, how she feels that he's been fragile since the divorce, and that she hopes that Issac, as the closest thing to a father figure that he has, won't disappoint him. Issac promises that nothing like that will happen, garnering Susan's approval. The next day at the market, the first thing the two discuss concerning the film is the budget: how are they going to finance this project? At first, Issac decides to hold a screening of Divinely Conquered at the local movie theater, under the marquee “Super Sci-Fi Saturday.” Randy shows up outside the movie theater to see Issac standing out front, passing out flyers to disinterested street walkers. Issac asks him to pass out some as well, and that this is “the nature of the beast.” After passing out flyers until showtime, the total attendance for the event is nine people people, two of which walk out of the film halfway through, saying they'd rather see that “something Jedi” film. Issac leaves defeated, yet optimistic, while Randy leaves purely defeated. The next morning, he gets a call from Issac, saying that they've managed to finance the film, although he can't disclose that information at the moment. He tells him that they can begin principal photography within the coming weeks. Principal photography comes. Randy finds his way to the set, with a call sheet and letter provided in the mail by “Oscar Bentley”. Inside, he meets the rest of the crew as well as the leading actresses of the film: STACY MONROE, a SAG actress who responds somewhat coldly to his greeting, and JESSICA TOWNSHEND, an aging flower child of the previous decade. Eventually, it's time to get off the first shot. The camera starts to roll and, in the middle of a sensual scene between Stacy and Jessica, her four year old son Jacob walks into frame. In order to solve this, and Stacy's growing concern over this being a closed set, Issac assigns Randy to be the “baby wrangler”. Randy reluctantly agrees and spends the rest of the shoot in Jacob's room, while he hears muffled moans and ecstasy on the other end of the door. The shooting wraps and Randy, not being utilized at all, leaves the set, once again disappointed. A few days pass and Randy hangs out with Issac at his job, taking notes wherever he can, but otherwise bored. Issac senses Randy's disappointment and tells him an “Oscar Bentley story”. This perks Randy up somewhat, as Issac describes how Oscar had to wait ten years before he could make it in the business due to segregation, working at a fish market in Rhode Island and writing script ideas on torn pieces of cardboard. Randy's attention is glued to this story as his attitude starts to soften. The next shooting day arises. Issac arrives on set with a hoarse, quiet voice – it's laryngitis. He pulls Randy aside and tells him that he can't control the cast and crew by himself with such a low voice, so he deems him “assistant director” for the day. Nervously, Randy accepts this responsibility. He walks in the middle of several conversations going on between the cast and crew, all of whom are standing around and not prepared. At first, Randy tries to politely get their attention. No success. He tries a few more times, meekly trying to talk to them; at the most, they just give him a glance and continue their conversation. This goes on for a while before Randy finally screams at them, getting their absolute silence. His posture straightens as he finally instructs everyone what to do, according to Issac's instructions. While this proceeds, Issac stands in the corner of the set, impressed. The shoot goes on without any problems as Issac faintly yells cut, which Randy echos to everyone on set. The crew wraps and exits the set, leaving Issac and Randy by themselves. Issac congratulates Randy on his initiative in such a bad situation, and just as he walks through the door, he turns to Randy and, without a shred of hoarseness in his voice, tells him to “expect the unexpected.” Back at school, Randy's teacher compliments him on his notes so far, yet doesn't necessarily see how this ties into the theme of “community”. Randy tells him not to worry, that the community aspect will come at the appropriate time. A few weeks pass, with a lot of the principal photography covered. At the market, Issac talks to his manager HARVEY about getting the next weekend off to shoot at the Hamptons, to which Harvey informs him that he's used up all of his vacation days and has no available time to ask off. Issac deliberates on this for a while before he decides to call in sick, masking himself over the phone with the same laryngitis voice from earlier. On the drive to the Hamptons, Issac tries to get Randy to open up about himself. Randy tries to make the conversation about film, but Issac persists on asking him on his home life, school, etc. Randy reveals more insight into his parents' divorce, as well as talks about his relationship with his mother, telling Issac that he can't really communicate with her given their lack of commonality. Listening to this, Issac opens up about coming from a single parent household himself, with an abusive father as opposed to Randy's single mother household. This conversation builds a deeper bond between the two, as this is the first time, particularly for Randy, that the conversation didn't involve film or the project. They arrive on the Hampton beach and shoot an intimate, tender scene between Jessica and Stacy, one that Issac describes as the crucial point in the film. They scene goes off beautifully, with Jessica and Stacy giving emotional, heartfelt performances. The mood, despite the content of the scene they're filming, is lively and full of positive energy. After filming, everyone hits the local bar to celebrate, with Issac sneaking Randy inside. While the others toss back drinks, Issac orders Randy a ginger ale, even though he later slips him a few sips of his beer – a rite of passage, he says, he adopted from his dad. A few hours later, Randy and Issac are pretty well smashed by this point, with Issac being at his most intoxicated. They walk outside the bar and attempt to start the car, but by the time they get it started, Issac accidentally swipes the side of a police car. Another one, in the distance, runs the sirens and proceeds to head over to Issac's car. Issac, sensing trouble, gives Randy a few bucks and tells him to sneak out and take a taxi home. Randy regrettably does so, as he runs far away from the car and watches as Issac is eventually arrested by the police. Morning dawn comes. A taxi pulls up to Randy's house as he stumbles out, hungover. He sees Susan asleep on the living room couch and manages to sneak back upstairs. This proves unsuccessful, as a phone call awakens Susan. Randy tries to hide behind the staircase, but Susan calls out to him, saying that Issac's in jail for drunk driving. Randy shows up at the town jail and sees Issac sleeping in his cell, waking him up. Issac stumbles awake and talks to Randy about the whole situation, telling him he's sorry he ran him off. He tells him the project is still gonna continue despite this setback, and says that he'll recoup the dent in the budget from bail through his job. Later that day, Issac walks into the market, still somewhat hungover, and approaches Harvey about when he'll be needed for work. Harvey tells him that he's not needed anymore; he knows about the drunk driving situation and knows that he was lying about being sick, so he fires him on the spot. The next day, Randy walks over to Issac's house to ask him about the next shooting day. A few knocks on the door. No one answers. He tries again – no one answers. He continues before Issac, weary eyed and exhausted, opens up, revealing bottles upon bottles decorating the floor. He tells Randy that he lost his job and that the movie might have to be cancelled. Randy asks him if there's any extra money he has saved up to put into the budget, with Issac telling him that he put a mortgage on his house just to come up with the money. As a last ditch effort, Randy asks him if he can ask Oscar Bentley if he can loan him some money for the film; it is his movie, Randy tells him. In an angry drunken stupor, Issac exposes that he is Oscar Bentley, that he was all along. This mortifies Randy, who questions why he lied about it this entire time. Issac tells him that when he did Divinely Conquered, he wasn't allowed the control that he wanted, so by the time the film wrapped, he “Alan Smitheed that shit” and changed his name on the credits. As he continues to speak, he progressively starts to get angrier and embittered, walking over to the stack of screenplays he has on his table and starts to soak them in beer. Randy tries to save the scripts, swiping them all away from him and saying that he's ruining his work. Issac tells him that he has no work, no vision, nothing of substance anymore, and that Randy is wasting away his own potential by hanging out with a deadbeat burnout like himself. He finally kicks Randy out of his house, leaving Randy in tears as he walks away. ACT THREE At home, Randy sits in the living room with Susan, quietly watching TV. At first, there's barely even a whisper between the two, just the static and tones of the TV filling the ambiance. Then, he looks at Susan and, without telling her anything, leans his head on her shoulders as she comforts him. Later that night, Randy sits in his room with a legal pad filled with his notes on the project. He taps his pen on the pad, trying to muster up an idea. He looks over at his book and reel collection, thumbing through the various films and subjects. He turns back to look at the script and an idea strikes him. A few days pass and Issac gets a phone call from Randy, telling him that there's an emergency and he needs to meet him at the Cindy and Melina house down the road. Issac, not having a car, runs over there at rapid speed, only to find his crew setting up lights and equipment, as well as Stacy and Jessica rehearsing lines. He looks further on and sees Randy, legal pad in hand, talking amongst the crew. He asks him what's going on, to which Randy tells him that he and everyone on the cast and crew (except for Stacy, for SAG reasons) donated to the film, with him donating the largest amount due to selling his film and book collection. It takes a while for this to sink in for Issac, who looks at all of this as a waste of time. Randy tells him that this is the best opportunity he has as finally getting the vision he wanted that he didn't get from Divinely Conquered, and that if there was anyone that deserved to make this film, it's him. Issac, looking at his cast and crew and sensing the amount of support in front of him, takes Randy's legal pad and takes charge. Three months later, the film has finally been wrapped in post production and is, in Issac's words, getting its “world premiere” at the local theatre. Randy is given the invite over the phone, although Issac can't make it due to a potential job interview at a fast food restaurant. So, Randy heads to the theatre at showtime to represent the film, only to find that the entire theatre is empty, with the only other person in there being the projectionist. Randy asks him where the other customers are, before the projectionist tells him that he's the only customer – everyone else went to that “something Jedi” film. Randy sits down in the theatre as the projectionist starts the film. At school, it's time for Randy to present his project. He stands at the front of the classroom and, after explaining that he worked on a feature film with “the Oscar Bentley”, he reads from his paper. What follows is a heartfelt sentiment on the moviemaking process, telling his classmates that the sense of community came out of working with these men and women from all walks of life to create something that could never be made alone. As he describes his paper, we see glimpses of Cindy and Melina, as well as Randy's overwhelmed reaction in the theatre. He continues, saying that he learned that even though film had the chance of not getting made or not a lot of people probably wouldn't see it, it was the experience of making it that was worth it.

LOOKING FOR OSCAR BENTLEY