Change is hard. Just look at the great lengths we’ll go to in order to change ourselves. “Atomic Habits,” silent retreats, a round trip to Istanbul for hair plugs and if all else fails, there’s always hypnosis. But in storytelling change comes more simply… Change comes from pursuing one’s goal. As Michael Hauge teaches, the goal we set for our hero must be difficult to reach, practically and emotionally. For our characters to truly attain their goals, they must move from their identity...

By all measures, SINNERS was a smash. It grossed about a quarter of a billion dollars and boasts a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Numbers aside, it was the most fun I’ve had at the movies in some time. It left me staggering out of the theater, slack-jawed and grinning, like a kid climbing off the Tilt-a-Whirl after three too many snow cones. And so, with the sugar-high subsided, I’ve returned to break down this Blockbuster through the lens of the Hero’s Two Journeys– To see how it aligns...

Last week, my mentor Michael Hauge shared a piece on whether or not a visible goal can change over the course of a story . In short, the answer is yes , but he clarified that goals don’t so much “change” as they evolve. As the hero blazes ahead, the plot unfolds and they respond accordingly. But there are edge cases, too, where the hero’s goal changes, or remains murky, because they themselves are unreliable, delusional, erratic and unsure. Take Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) of TAXI...