Sometimes funny, often poignant, narration can be hugely effective when deployed successfully.
Ryan picks a few great examples…
This article originally appeared onDen of Geek UK.
God help you if you use voice-over in your work my friends!
Thats flaccid, sloppy writing.
Any idiot can use narration to explain the thoughts of a character.
So says screenwriting coach Robert McKee in Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufmans 2002 film,Adaptation.
Used poorly, a voice-over becomes a crutch.
All of them are examples of a screenwriting unit used beautifully.
Carlitos Way (1993)
Somebodys pulling me close to the ground…
I can sense, but I cant see.
Ive been here before.
Same as I got popped on 104th street.
Trainspotting (1996)
Choose Life.
The office job, the white goods, the bouts of DIY at the weekend.
Because if there were no upsides to taking heroin, why would anyone bother?
With the highs, of course, come the crushing, degrading lows.
He fits right in there.
And thats the Dude, in Los Angeles.
And even if hes a lazy man and the Dude was most certainly that.
But sometimes theres a man, sometimes, theres a man.
Agh I lost my train of thought here…
But like the rug in The Dudes hellhole of a flat, the narration really ties the story together.
You wake up at Air Harbor International.
LikeTrainspotting,Fight Clubcaptured the late-90s zeitgeist of hollowness and dislocation.
Its the perfect fit for a story told entirely from the perspective of the central characters subjective reality.
And as we later learn, Nortons protagonist is the most unreliable of unreliable narrators.Where is my mind indeed.
Or, maybe not.
Maybe you wonder how silly putty picks shit up from comic books.
The point is, I dont see another Goddamn narrator, so pipe down.
A famous man once said, We create our own demons.
What does that even mean?
I said it cause he said it.
(Speaking of Shane Black, do go and seeThe Nice Guysif you havent already.)
And his wristwatch said even less.
In short, what would happen if a character in a story could hear the author narrating their life?
Screenwriter Zach Helms sweet-natured story manages to explore multiple themes at once.
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
What does a scanner see?
Down into the heart?
Does it see into me?
I hope it sees clearly because I cant any longer see into myself.
I see only murk.
In one instance, its used for blackly comic effect.
The narration gives this blackly comic sci-fi drama an almost painfully raw, tragic edge.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Mr.
