How have unlikely friendships shaped your life?

The Story

Thinking Habits is the story of Miles (50s), a taxi driver and aspiring musician, dealing with the loss of his close friend, Lance. At the funeral, Miles is asked to play a song, but his string breaks in the middle of the performance. Lana (20s), Lance’s niece with an unrecognized talent for singing, saves him from this embarrassing moment by restarting the melody herself.

The two start playing together at local gigs. After receiving some notice from Ryan a big city label guy, Miles and Lana become obsessed with the possibility of success. So much so, that it worries their friends and families. 

As they play more gigs, and without any responses from Ryan, Miles grows more and more anxious…

The Characters

MILES (50s) is a taxi driver, aspiring musician, and a generally outgoing guy. So much so, that he may even get himself in trouble, at times. He tends to play things close to the chest, often being more affected by things than he allows others, or himself, to believe. Despite this, he loves and grieves deeply, even if it doesn’t seem that way on the outside. 

LANA (20s) is a young woman who is nice and agreeable but tends to keep herself at a distance from people and her own emotions. She tends to think about her feelings instead of letting them in. She isn’t entirely sure why she stepped in to help Miles when his string broke - in most instances she would just laugh to herself - but she almost pitied him. She worried about their friendship, even when things seem to be going well. 

MICHELLE (50s), Miles’s wife, is concerned about how Lance’s death is affecting Miles. She understands that his antics are his way of processing grief but is still upset by how some of his recent behavior is reflecting on them. She admires Miles’s confidence in his image but doesn’t engaged in his sometimes bullheaded behavior. She’s a worrier. She worries about him, and their relationship, maybe more than she should. 

RYAN (20s) is a young man working for a major label in Boston. He’s out in the valley to take care of his sick mother. Those close to him see him as a nice guy, but on the business end of things he can be ruthless. It is hard to tell if this is true to his nature or because its part of the ‘uniform’ of being a business man.

Director’s Statement

Thinking Habits was written to express the confusion and convolution of human emotions, and how this dictates how we perceive and interact with the world. It creates a world where people are unsure of their own emotions and even more unsure of how to express and deal with them. Characters contradict themselves, lash out, stumble over their words, laugh when they’re meant to cry, and cry when they’re meant to smile all in misconstrued attempts to connect with each other and deal with how they’re feeling. They feel so intensely—such intense grief, hope, love, and uncertainty— that they don’t know how to handle it. But these flaws, foibles, and missed intra-/inter-personal connections are what make life beautiful. The way that our emotions and our imaginations alter how we perceive the world is what gives things meaning.  

Thinking Habits is a film that uses structure, performance, and music to create this world and with it, hopefully, new feelings and emotions. I hope that this film is exciting and new, but mostly that people connect  with it and enjoy it.

Robert Bresson: “I'd rather people feel a film before understanding it.”