The Crummiest Book

THE CRUMMIEST BOOK is a character-driven, feature-long dark dramedy about the relationship between life and death. The best tonal comp to would be Manchester by the Sea meets The Silver Lining Playbook. Two young men drive late at night, unbeknownst to either, they're on opposite ends of the same path. They crash at high speed, and the impact changes two families forever. BILLY BRYCE is a good guy and loyal to a fault, but he's lost and has been for quite some time. He wakes up hungover to get the news that his little brother DENNY died in a car accident the night before. Back in Pennsylvania, MIKAELA HALIS rushes to the hospital to find her older brother GREG comatose and wrapped head to toe in bandages and casts. Her mother JULIA and younger brother JJ are also there, and we come to learn that Mikaela has basically taken over as caretaker of the family ever since her father died back in high school. Mikaela definitely wants something more, but she's unable to ever think of herself first. Her selflessness is a prison that has kept her stuck in her hometown with no escape in sight. Mikaela's heart almost skips a beat when she learns that it was Denny Bryce, who was killed in Greg's accident. It's Billy's mother ANNE who has to identify Denny's body, with Billy's obedient stepfather PETER STONE at her side. She gets offended when the coroner uses the term "remains." She reminds him, "His name is Denny Bryce. We're the remains." When Billy returns home, he's forced to deal with his family and his friends—everyone processing everything differently—while trying to remain strong for all. He's stoic and emotionless though much of the wake at his mother's house, the funeral and the burial. But when Mikaela shows up at the reception, things brighten a bit. The duo takes off to spend the day together, taking a trip down memory lane— including Billy's childhood home and the park he and Denny used to play at when they were kids. They end up visiting Denny's gravesite later that night, so that Billy can say a few words, but it's Mikaela who ends up doing the talking. She reminisces about her father, who was buried in the same cemetery, which reminds both of them that their previous relationship ended with a death in the family, and now here they were all these years later, brought together again because of another one. They spend a passionate night together, but at an awkward breakfast the next morning, Billy finally starts to show emotion, offended that Mikaela asks him to go with her to see Greg in the hospital. This sends Billy on a downward spiral, finally trying to process all his emotions at once, from missing his younger brother, to survivor's remorse, to witnessing his mother devolve from the strongest human being he's ever known into a completely broken mess, to seeing others living their lives without a care in the world. Confused, hurt and emotionally destroyed, the unstable Billy heads to the hospital with a plan to suffocate Greg! But when he arrives to do so, he learns a dark secret that opens up a whole new emotional roller coaster for the families to experience…