John talks with writer-director Noah Baumbach about his film Marriage Story. With script in hand, we discuss his writing process, handling overlapping dialogue, and how to find balance in a two-hander.

We also answer a listener question about LA vs. New York apartments (01:05:16), and the challenge of making boring things interesting.

In our bonus segment for premium members (01:14:26), Craig returns to discuss escape rooms!

Links:

• Read the script for Marriage Story here or watch Marriage Story
• APA Signed with WGA, congrats APA!
• Megan McDonnell, former Scriptnotes Producer, to write Captain Marvel Sequel. Congrats!
• David Byrne’s American Utopia
• Noah Baumbach
• John August on Twitter
• Craig Mazin on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• Outro by Alex Winder (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Megana Rao and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

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You can download the episode here.