How Brigsby Bear (2017, McCary) Breaks Common Story Structure, and Why That's A Good Thing

This brings me to Brigsby Bear. When I watched the film, I loved it, but I noticed something was a little off. I automatically track films stories to the story circle when I watch them because I became obsessed with it in college (UK, age 16). The film does Call to Adventure AFTER Crossing the Threshold and even a little bit of Road of Trials!!

The film opens with a dude called James who is obsessed with a TV show called Brigsby Bear. The audience is initially led to believe he's on some alien planet, or future dystopia where all are forced to stay indoors (LOOOOL) and that his family is all he has. Then the cops show up and we take him away, revealing in the process that he was kidnapped as a child and spent his life with his captors believing that he --

                                                            -- was their child and they lived very happily together. He has Crossed a Threshold into a new world where his new parents and new sister want him to adapt to living in an Unknown World. All he wants is to watch the latest episode of Brigsby. Here's the thing. There has been no Call to Adventure by this point. The aim of the Call to Adventure is to help the protagonist figure out a Goal (want) and that drives the narrative forward. He doesn't really have a goal until after he's crossed this threshold. He has hints of a goal that are introduced as his obsession with Brigsby, but his capital-G Goal doesn't occur until page 37. He goes through a few Road of Trials before this happens where he must adapt to the world by learning that there are less restrictions in his new home, and also going to the cinema with his new dad. AFTER these trials, during a family therapy session, he is told his old dad was the maker of the Brigsby Bear show and that anyone can make movies. He puts two and two together and thus BOOM -- there's ya Call to Adventure. A full 37 pages in, after the Threshold Crossing and a couple of Trially Roads.

Here's why this is GREAT plotting. This is a fish-out-of-water story. It's about a creative problem-solving dude who is not from our world, coming into it and adapting to it. He can't have a goal until he understands how our world functions. He chooses to make a movie because he's an obsessive fan boy and that what fan boy do. You gotta take the fish out of the water before you give him a mountain to climb.

The writers understand that there too much fun to be had with the guy-adjusts-to-unknown-world premise. I wonder if they knew this going in, or if this came about organically. What draft did this happen in, I want to know.

I don't remember where I read this, but someone said that really great films don't follow typical structure. They fuck with one or two fundamental "rules" and find a way to make it work. There is no such thing as a by-the-numbers masterpiece. I'm not calling Brigsby Bear a masterpiece, but I do love it, and it does break the "rules". I guess the lesson here is to trust your gut if you're writing something and it doesn't follow the structure you've learned? Idk. Now I've gotten the main point out of the way, I have suddenly dipped in energy and I can't be arsed to properly conclude this.

Brigsby screenplay:

https://www.sonyclassics.com/awards-information/screenplays/brigsbybear_screenplay.pdf

Where to watch it:

https://www.sonyclassics.com/brigsbybear/

Harmon's blog (there are six entries and they're all gold):

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit