Ostensibly, I watch films as producer education. I turn on my DVD player, dim the lights, and pull up a chair, pen and paper in hand, ready to analyze. “What about this film works well?” I ask myself. “What about it would I want to replicate?”

Each time, however, by the time the credits roll, I sit up with a start. I notice that halfway down the first page, my notes trail off as though I’d been hypnotized mid-sentence. And each time, I realize that’s the point of producing films: a good movie can, quickly and completely, suck you into the veracious parallel world behind the screen. A very good movie can let you sit within that world, looking back out at your own life.