last month, recalling his introduction, at age six, to the man who would become the subject of his screenplay decades later. After working on a couple independent films, explained Makowsky, “I wanted to write something more personal about my hometown...and this story was ostensibly the biggest thing that has ever happened in it.”
Tassone held a unique place in the Roslyn ecosystem, said Makowsky. “He had been in the Roslyn school district for 10 or 12 years—and in that time, he had grown the school district to this point of national prominence...which meant that the town itself was doing well because the regard of a school district is directly tethered to things like property values.”
But with greater prosperity came greater pressure. “The administrators were asking for more and more money, and, because they were doing an incredible job, the tax payers were happy to oblige,” he continued. “All their kids were getting into amazing schools and doing great on their SATs, and property values in the town were going up.