Horse in the elevator

INT. STUDY – NIGHT

Joanna has her glasses on and a notepad open. A YouTube review plays softly from her laptop.  
Gyles is in the armchair, nursing a decaf.

                         JOANNA
           It’s not a real 4K scan.

                         GYLES
           I’m sorry?

                         JOANNA
           The new *True Lies* disc.  
           LE LABO DE JAY did a full breakdown—  
           the visuals are soft, the digital noise reduction is aggressive,  
           and it’s likely just a 2K upscale.  
           He even shows moments where the VHS looks better.

                         GYLES
           I liked VHS. It had a kind of warmth.

                         JOANNA
           That was tracking error.

                         GYLES
           Still, it felt alive. You could hear it thinking.

                         JOANNA
           The review references an *American Cinematographer* interview  
           where they praise Super 35—  
           but the film is constantly out of focus.  
           They tried to fix it with AI upscaling, filtering,  
           and now everything looks like damp plastic.

                         GYLES
           Oh! I remember *True Lies*. Jamie Lee Curtis on the bed.

                         JOANNA
           And now it looks like it’s been sandblasted.

                         GYLES
           I thought James Cameron directed that one?

                         JOANNA
           He did.

                         GYLES
           He’s the chap who made the movie about the blue people.

                         JOANNA
           *Avatar*.

                         GYLES
           That’s the one. Everything glows.

                         JOANNA
           Well, nothing glows in this.  
           They’ve filtered it to death trying to mimic sharpness.

                         GYLES
           Still... it's nice to see it available, though.

                         JOANNA
           Not like this.

                         GYLES
           I always liked the horse in the elevator.

[Joanna doesn’t respond.]

                         GYLES (CONT’D)
           Was that real, or did they do that with computers?

                         JOANNA
           (quietly)  
           Everything is computers now.

FADE OUT.