Written by Jason Fragale + Christopher Fragale + Michael Long

Feature : Drama / Romance

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Young lovers, escaping their grim reality, drastically alter the lives of a small town family, while battling their own fate.

 

With a last chance at life, young lovers’ road trip derails in a small town, leading to dire consequences, exposing the frailty of idealistic dreams. 

 

Academy Nicholl Fellowship Review: At the heart of this story are two memorable people, Zoe and Alex...  the script is crafted well and really captures moments on a road trip that help us understand the complex emotions of these characters...  This contains some memorable, raw, realistic and poignant moments...  The message is a familiar one about appreciating life. However, by the end, you are brought to tears because you have genuinely gotten to know who these people are. Nothing was contrived. Their raw and honest emotions just kept on building. 

 

Blacklist Review: “Mayfly” is a tragic, poignant and affecting romantic drama with two compelling young leads. Zoe and Alex have been dealt a raw deal by life and it can be hard to see the bright side. As Zoe says, they live with death every day. Yet when she and Alex have each other, they do not sink into despair, instead celebrating their love and the remaining time they have left. The script avoids making them into wise and saintly archetypes, instead presenting them as scared, vulnerable kids who don’t always know what they’re doing or where they’re going next. The verisimilitude resonates, and the experience is often enchanting. Sometimes expectations are subverted in a sad and mature way, such as when we see Simon’s waterfall. This is a story that knows a lot about life and young love, and we are along for the ride. 

 

BlueCat Screenplay Review: MAYFLY is a script that compassionately details a final road trip undertaken by two terminally ill young lovers. This is an affecting and involving twist on the road trip movie formula. The writer allows us to gradually get to know the two leads as they undergo this journey. The script moves at a brisk pace and never gets bogged down in exposition or excessive plot detail. The story is unpredictable, it is hard to know where it is going to go next, and there are some big surprises that can stun the reader. The symbolism involving the painting is an effective element of the script. The painting is an ever-present image in the story, and it tells us something important about what the characters desire. The encounter with the painter drives home the harsh reality that the hypothetical paradise the characters have been seeking to find may have only existed in this one man’s imagination. This sequence provides a moving and thoughtful meditation on the nature of grief and memory...  This is a well written and deeply felt screenplay.