Drew Brees became the NFL’s all-time leader in touchdown passes, throwing for four scores to lead the New Orleans Saints to a 34-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night.

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The scoring strike that broke Peyton Manning’s record of 539 career touchdown passes came in the third quarter, when Brees hit tight end Josh Hill for a 5-yard score. Brees’ next pass in the game was the 541st scoring toss of his career, a 28-yard TD to reserve QB and utility player Taysom Hill that put the Saints up 34-0.

Brees came into the game already holding NFL records for completions with 6,792 and yards passing with 72,577 — and built on those numbers by also setting a record for completion percentage in a game. He completed 29 of 30 passes — 96.7% — for 307 yards before being relieved by Teddy Bridgewater in the fourth quarter. That broke the mark Philip Rivers had held since completing 28 of 29 (96.6%) against Arizona last season.

The victory kept the Saints (11-3), who’d already won the NFC South, in the running with San Francisco (11-3) and Green Bay (11-3) for one of the top two seeds in the NFC playoffs. The Colts (6-8) were eliminated from playoff contention after losing their fourth straight and sixth out of seven.

Jacoby Brissett struggled at times with accuracy and finished 18 of 34 for 165 yards against a Saints defense looking for redemption after allowing 48 points in a loss to the 49ers a week earlier.

Meanwhile, Colts defenders had no answer for Michael Thomas, who caught 12 passes for 128 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown. Thomas’ eighth game this season with at least 10 catches give him 133 for the season, which is also the fourth-highest single-season total in NFL history.

With four more catches, Thomas will pass Antonio Brown and Julio Jones for second most in a season and needs 11 to eclipse Marvin Harrison’s record of 143 from 2002.

Tre’Quan Smith caught a 21-yard touchdown pass for New Orleans.

Jordan Wilkins scored the Colts’ lone TD on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have shot and killed a man they say pulled a gun as they confronted him in East Los Angeles.

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The shooting took place about 5:30 p.m. Monday on 4th Street as deputies approached the man, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.

“Upon contact with the suspect, the suspect drew a firearm“ and was shot several times, the department said.

He died at the scene. His name was not immediately released. No deputies were hurt.

A handgun was found at the scene, authorities said.

Other details, including how many deputies opened fire, were not immediately released.

It’s been difficult lately for Ingrid Carrillo to pay for life’s most basic necessities, like groceries and rent.

The mother of two had no clue what she was going to do this year come Christmas morning — that moment when her girls roll out of bed and race to the tree to search for their presents.

“That day has always been the biggest blessing,” Carrillo, 29, said.

This past weekend, she found relief at a day-long toy drive in Lennox organized to help struggling families provide gifts for their children.

Hundreds of volunteers transformed Lennox Middle School into a Christmas wonderland. They turned a classroom into Santa’s North Pole, the auditorium into a kid’s playground, the gym into a toy give-away factory.

It was all part of St. Margaret’s Center’s 31st Annual Christmas Program, an event that this year helped 500 families living at or below the poverty level in the neighborhoods south of LAX.

While there are dozens of toy drives across the county this time of year, this one is special in the way the donated toys are passed along to families.

It’s a top secret operation: While children are whisked away to play and do arts and crafts, parents are quietly escorted to pick three to four gifts for each child. The toys are then gift wrapped by volunteers and stashed away in giant plastic bags inside the parents’ cars.

“One of the main principles for us is the dignity of the family,” said Mary Agnes Erlandson, St. Margaret’s Center director. “We want to be sure that the parents select the gifts — that they’re the givers.”

As Carrillo waited in a long line with other families, she was grateful that her sister had invited her along.

The waitress and her husband, a painter, had been doing well until September. Then she developed a cold. The cold worsened due to her diabetes and she had to be hospitalized. She’s been out of work for months and though her husband works six to seven days a week, they struggle to cover all their expenses, including the $1,150 rent for their 1-bedroom apartment in Inglewood.

“It’s been really stressful,” she said. “We’ve had to borrow money, my sister has helped us with food.”

Last Saturday morning, those worries vanished as Carrillo stepped into the gym to pick her daughters’ toys. Like most parents, she came with a checklist. Her youngest, Giselle, 5, was easy. She wanted anything involving her favorite cartoon, Paw Patrol. Kaylynn, 7, had asked for a scooter. An L.O.L. Surprise! folding kick scooter to be exact.

Moments after a volunteer guided Carrillo to the gift stalls, all decked with garland and stockings, she let out a shriek: “Oh my God!”

There it was, right in front of her: Kaylynn’s brand new scooter.

“She’s going to be so happy,” Carrillo said, taking it into her arms.

Throughout the day, similar scenes unfolded as moms and dads made their selections. This year, local businesses, churches and schools donated about 4,000 toys.

Often, parents didn’t pick the biggest gift or the most expensive. They chose whatever they thought would bring the most joy to their child.

Kenyada Ellison from Gardena grabbed a basketball and a few board games for her 9-year-old daughter, Daijah. She has three more children — ages 13, 14 and 15 — but they were too old to benefit from the program.

The 34-year-old single mother moved to Los Angeles from Georgia a couple of years ago. She lost her job at a senior center in the fall. She’s applied to at least 60 jobs in the past few weeks — at restaurants, shoe stores, clothing stores and the post office.

“I’ve been knocking on every possible door,” Ellison said. ” I’m on my own out here so I have to keep pushing.”

Over the years, the program has helped all sorts of families. Some have struggled with homelessness, addiction and physical and emotional abuse. Most live paycheck to paycheck — always at risk of losing their footing.

Claudia Molina’s eyes welled with tears as she held on to her bag loaded with gifts. She got her 6-year-old, Michael, an art set, her 8-year-old, Kevin, some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and her 10-year-old, Kayla, a skateboard. She planned to go home and hide the presents in the garage, then tell her husband all about it.

For years, the two have been trying to figure life out in Los Angeles — to find some financial peace of mind.

He works the graveyard shift at the airport, sleeps a few hours, then drives for Uber during the day. She looks after the children and manages the house.

“Nowadays, no one stops to give you a dollar,” she said. “These kinds of programs are a true gift. They mean so much.”

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 17, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

On Monday, the Supreme Court delivered a victory to homeless advocates and dealt a setback to Western cities trying to regulate encampments on sidewalks.

The news came by way of a non-decision: The high court refused to hear City of Boise vs. Martin, a landmark case on homelessness.

This outcome means that the challenged ruling from a federal appeals court — which found that it was unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping on the sidewalk when there aren’t enough shelter beds or housing available as an alternative — will remain the law of the land in California and eight other western states, at least for now.

[See also: “Supreme Court leaves cities with only one option on homelessness: Build more housing” in the Los Angeles Times]

The city and county of Los Angeles, along with dozens of other local governments, had urged the court to hear a challenge to the case. The prior decision from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has prevented cities and counties from sending law enforcement to enforce ordinances to shoo away homeless people or to clear their encampments.

Here’s what all this means for L.A. and California, according to my colleague assistant Metro editor Erika D. Smith, who oversees The Times’ housing and homelessness coverage:

[Read the full story: “Supreme Court decision on homeless case is a blow to cities wanting more policing powers” in the Los Angeles Times]

How did this happen?

Last year’s ruling in the Boise case essentially turned what was supposed to be a stopgap arrangement in Los Angeles into a sweeping and open-ended curb on police powers.

In 2007, the city of L.A. stopped putting people in jail for sleeping in the streets as part of a court settlement known as the Jones agreement, which halted police enforcement of laws barring encampments in public spaces until the city could build more housing for homeless people.

That settlement came the year after a previous ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found L.A.’s sweeps of encampments on skid row were cruel and unusual punishment. Then in 2018, the federal appeals court issued a similar ruling in the case out of Boise, setting up the push for a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Why is this a big deal for Los Angeles?

It essentially leaves in place the status quo — meaning L.A. and other cities cannot prevent people from sleeping outdoors on public property when there aren’t enough shelter beds available.

Los Angeles County has nearly 60,000 homeless people, most of them living on the streets in encampments, which pop up faster than city sanitation crews can dismantle them. The city and county, like much of California, where rents have skyrocketed, haven’t been able to build housing or shelters fast enough to keep up with demand.

Are there any other options?

Other than dramatically scaling up new shelters and housing, there aren’t many other options under the existing legal framework laid out in the Boise ruling and now solidified by the Supreme Court.

But co-chairs of the governor’s task force on homelessness, L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, are discussing a possible statewide ballot measure that would create a legal “right to shelter” or “right to housing.”

Such a plan, though still vague, would mean requiring cities and counties to provide enough shelter beds for any homeless person who wants to come indoors. It also could force homeless people to accept shelter if offered.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Waters off the California coast are acidifying twice as fast as the global average, scientists found, threatening major fisheries and sounding the alarm that the ocean can absorb only so much more of the world’s carbon emissions. Los Angeles Times

The U.S. is preparing to send adults and families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to Honduras, even if they are not from the Central American country. This would also effectively end their chances of seeking asylum in the United States. Earlier this year, the administration reached a similar agreement with Guatemala to take asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they were not Guatemalan. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Earl C. Paysinger, a pillar of the Los Angeles Police Department and a respected leader in South L.A. who was credited with driving down crime by focusing on community partnerships, died Monday. He was 64. Los Angeles Times

Strong winds are forecast to continue through Tuesday evening for much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Los Angeles Times

Fashion Nova’s ugly secret: The online retailer makes fast fashion for the Instagram elite, but many of its garments are made by underpaid workers in L.A. factories. New York Times

ICM Partners has laid off about half a dozen agents as the Hollywood talent agency and its rivals are grappling with a months-long standoff with the Writers Guild of America. Los Angeles Times

Jeff Shell will become chief executive of NBCUniversal in January. Shell, a Los Angeles native, has been in charge of NBCUniversal’s West Coast properties, including NBC Entertainment and Universal Pictures, for nearly a year. Los Angeles Times

A guide to the essential Los Angeles cookbooks, in case you still have some holiday shopping to do. LAist

How Rosa Porto created the most beloved bakery in all of Los Angeles: An appreciation of Rosa Porto, who died Friday at 89, creator of one of the most beloved food institutions in Los Angeles. In one of her last interviews, she and her daughter Margarita Navarro spoke about the origins of Porto’s Bakery & Cafe. Los Angeles Times

Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

A San Diego State University librarian has collected more than 1,700 letters from detained migrants. The mostly handwritten letters detail poor conditions inside the detention centers and shed light on events driving migration to the United States. “In 20, 30, or 40 years, or even longer down the road, when researchers are researching this time in U.S. history, I think these letters are going to be invaluable,” the librarian said. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

The California bullet train authority is moving ahead with an aggressive plan to issue its biggest contract in history, steering into sharp criticism by federal regulators and even the state-appointed peer review panel that it is overreaching. Los Angeles Times

Television viewers in Southern California can hardly miss the ads promoting Michael R. Bloomberg for president this holiday season — he’s spending millions to make sure of it. The billionaire’s advertising for California’s March 3 election is unprecedented for a Democratic presidential primary. Los Angeles Times

It’s a boy! And a boy and a girl. Congratulations to Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes, who just became the state’s first legislator to have triplets while in office. According to her office, Cervantes is the fourth state legislator to give birth while serving, and the first openly LGBT legislator to do so. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

A Chinese woman was sentenced to 10 months in prison for running a “birth tourism” operation that helped pregnant women in China lie on visa forms and to immigration authorities so they could travel to Southern California to give birth to children who would automatically have U.S. citizenship. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Fire-starting weed or ecological scapegoat? The battle over California’s eucalyptus trees, explained in comic-book form. The Guardian

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Gender diversity is on the elementary school lesson plan in suburban Ventura County. Administrators in the Oak Park school district are teaching students about “Casey,” a boy who likes to wear glitter and skirts as part of a lesson about the complexities of gender. The topic sparked an explosion of controversy. Los Angeles Times

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Vox Media has cut ties with hundreds of freelance writers and editors for SB Nation’s California-based sports blogs ahead of a new California labor law taking effect Jan. 1. Los Angeles Times

“Saturday Night Live” thinks people in San Francisco live in stucco tract houses with two-car garages. A San Francisco-set segment in the show’s cold open was … less than accurate in depicting what San Francisco residences look like. SF Gate

More national press for the “Bakersfield boom”: This time focusing on the growing field of startups in the Central Valley city, along with the resources to sustain them. Inc.

How working at SFO has changed in the last 40 years, according to a woman who has spent four decades as a bartender at a San Francisco airport restaurant. SF Gate

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: cloudy, 66. San Diego: sunny, 65. San Francisco: cloudy, 57. San Jose: cloudy, 61. Sacramento: cloudy, 54. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Susan Bruns:

“I remember walking down the streets of Fresno and picking up cotton bolls as they flew off the trucks passing by. On Sundays we would drive to Yosemite, Bass Lake or Kings Canyon after church. It seemed like such an ordinary thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. I’ll never forget the thrill each time we drove through the tunnel to have Half Dome suddenly appear before us. It was magic and I guess still is. California in the ‘50s lives on in my dreams.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

With the state’s housing costs near record highs, Californians are increasingly naming housing and homelessness as pressing problems. In a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll, more than a quarter of residents said one of the two issues was the most significant facing the state — by far the highest in the survey’s 20-year history.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers passed new policies this year, notably a significant increase in funding for low-income housing and a cap on large rent hikes, the governor largely failed in advancing efforts that match the scale of the problem or his campaign promises. He has vowed substantial action in 2020.

On this episode of “Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast,” we discuss what’s likely to happen in housing politics in the coming year, including a likely showdown between the state and the Trump administration over homelessness and a new ballot measure in November to expand rent control. Our guest is Ben Metcalf, Newsom’s former director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, who left the administration this fall to start a consulting firm.

“Gimme Shelter,” a biweekly podcast that looks at why it’s so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters.

You can subscribe to “Gimme Shelter” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast.

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“Hustlers” fell apart, for the first time, the day before my 40th birthday. It was a real one-two.

A few months later, the studio officially dropped the movie. The producers and I scrambled to bring it to other financiers/studios/streaming services/anyone who would listen. Some rejected the concept over the phone. Others reluctantly said yes to a meeting. The pitches landed during the week of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, when husbands and wives weren’t speaking to each other. The rooms were cold, filled with mostly men who sat back and stared, stone-faced, arms folded, waiting to be impressed, as I gave my spiel.

As I danced for the money.

I was used to it. I had been trying out various moves to get financiers to open their wallets in a post-recession world for almost two decades. I moved from New York to L.A. a week before 9/11 when I was 23. I spent most of my 20s trying to sell specs in general meetings with producers and studio execs, accompanied for a brief period by a male writing partner who was shocked to witness such gems as, “We talked about your script for five minutes, we talked about your tits for 20.”

A year later, I was on my own in these rooms. One producing team spoke to me at length about their abilities at cunnilingus. The younger one emailed me later writing, “Miss you, crave you, want you, OR let’s just f— work together.” I wrote back, “I think I got your wife’s email by mistake.” We did not f—work together.

I was sent Jessica Pressler’s brilliant New York Magazine piece, “The Hustlers at Scores,” in the summer of 2016. The article read like a movie — a pulsating true-crime story about a team of strippers who drugged and fleeced their Wall Street clients after the financial crisis brought the global economy to its knees. It touched on so many themes that I wanted to talk about — gender as it relates to money, women under capitalism, our broken value system, loneliness, friendship, motherhood, survival, greed, power, control.

I had been sent a lot of “female empowerment” stories since that phrase had become a genre, but most of them felt manufactured and condescending, simply making characters female rather than telling stories that depict and explore the female experience. Pressler’s article was different.

It wasn’t just a story that happened to involve women — it was a story that could only be about women. It was inherently female. Its danger, its moral ambiguity, its tenderness, its brutality, all of it stemmed from the women themselves, from the women as women in a society that values women and men differently. It was messy. And it had to stay that way.

I wrote draft after draft. Some elements would change, but the crimes were always the same. At one point, I deleted “Hustlers” from the title page, typed “Destiny and Ramona” and did a page-one rewrite. Then, I did another. I focused more and more on the central relationship but stayed true to what excited me about the article in the first place. It was a tougher sell than I thought.

I danced my ass off. I pitched “Hustlers” as an event movie. A movie for women and men. Something that could spark conversations rather than give easy answers. I thought it could be a movie for everyone.

They disagreed. The men in the room identified with the men in the story. And the women in the room didn’t like strippers to begin with. Grown-ups couldn’t seem to say the word “stripper” without giggling or gagging. The characters weren’t just being judged for where they ended up but for where they started.

The women were “unlikable.” The men weren’t unlikable enough. The crimes were too great. “There’s nobody to root for.” I brought up the many beloved male antiheroes in film and television, first and last name. “You expect more from women.” “Are they good enough moms?” “Can you cut out the drugging?” “Can you write in a rape?”

By the time I met with STX, I was out of breath. I thought that when I sent them the shooting script, that was that. I said one last tearful goodbye and pushed it away. Twenty-four hours later, it got the green light. A week later, I was living in New York for the first time since 2001, scouting strip clubs.

In Charles Brandt’s excellent book, “I Heard You Paint Houses,” Frank Sheeran describes his life, all 83 years of it.

It’s fascinating, but I’m not really interested in, or may just not be very good at, writing film biographies. So how to approach what is essentially a biography without it becoming one?

The great William Goldman advised screenwriters in his astute and wildly entertaining “Adventures in the Screen Trade” to get into stories — and every scene in them — as late as possible. Figure out what the thing is really about and cut as close to that bone as you can.

I read this advice when he wrote it back in 1983, at the beginning of my own adventure in the screen trade, and have adhered to it ever since. Except once.

I wrote a script about Walter Winchell some years ago, detailing his life in vaudeville, newspapers, radio and television, and it wasn’t until I was done that I realized Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets had done it much better than I ever could decades earlier with their Winchell proxy character J.J. Hunsecker in “Sweet Smell of Success.” The action in that film didn’t take place over 60 years like mine but, rather, in just a couple of days.

I was determined to avoid the cradle-to-grave Winchell Problem with Frank Sheeran’s story. What was the shortest, most essential part of his long life of crime I could contain the story to? How late would Goldman come into it, and how soon would he get out?

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Frank said that his experiences in WWII — 411 days of combat as a rifleman in the 45th Infantry Division in Italy — shaped the rest of his life. So several scenes of battle at Salerno, Monte Cassino and Anzio beach seemed necessary.

But upon reflection, and discussions with Martin Scorsese, we realized the same thing could be accomplished in just one scene of Frank describing over a glass of wine to Russell Bufalino — who had not been in the war — what it felt like.

So I could skip past the war and get in when Frank made the first friendship that would guide his life — with Bufalino — and get out when he lost the second — with Jimmy Hoffa.

Yes, I’d have Frank years after that, in an assisted-living facility, but the main action would be contained to about 20 years, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s.

Still, that’s a lot of years. How do you navigate them? I felt that some kind of framework — some kind of story within the story — could help.

Deep in Mr. Brandt’s book, Frank says in regard to a fateful drive he took with Bufalino and their wives in 1975, “The whole thing was built around the wedding.”

I thought, “What a great line to begin a story with — too bad it comes so late in it …” then thought, “Maybe it can be moved to the beginning, and the long drive from Philly to Detroit across three states could be used as architecture for the entire script.”

The fact that nothing much happened on the trip — mainly just collecting money and taking cigarette breaks at the side of the highway — was all the better. The main story, the alliance and eventual clash between organized crime and organized labor figures, would eventually catch up to and then overtake this prosaic one on the road, and we would understand, when we needed to, what “the whole thing” was.

There was another obvious challenge. A film like “The Irishman” can hardly escape our memories of the other gangster films Scorsese and De Niro have made together yet somehow had to work on its own.

There are ways to deal with this, to have a scene that acknowledges their other films while at the same time says something new. The first shot in “The Irishman,” written as a long tracking shot in the script, is one such scene. In the context of this story, almost 30 years after “Goodfellas’” famous Copacabana shot, its meaning is different.

The most obvious shared element, perhaps, is narration, so effectively used by Nicholas Pileggi in both “Goodfellas” and “Casino.”

I shied from it at first, for that reason, but soon realized it was essential to “The Irishman” for the same reason it was for the other films. Not for information or to explain what a character is thinking or feeling — that’s fine for a book, but not a film that should be dramatizing such things — but rather because Frank’s use of language, his idiosyncratic way of describing things, his cadence and the patois of gangsters that only someone who has lived in that world knows, lets us, the uninitiated, in on its secrets.

When Alma Har’el began working with Shia LaBeouf on the film that eventually became “Honey Boy,” she never expected to find herself knee-deep in the annual awards-season quagmire. At the time, LaBeouf was attempting to artistically express the difficulties in his life that stemmed from alcoholism and PTSD after an unconventional relationship with his father as a child actor.

After “Honey Boy” premiered to rave reviews at Sundance last January, Amazon Studios acquired the film and has diligently campaigned for Har’el, LaBeouf (who wrote and costars in the film) and stars Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges over the past few months. That means there have been some good moments along the cross-country journey and some that can only be described as less than ideal.

After the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced a slate of Golden Globe Award nominations that snubbed female directors and screenwriters last week, Har’el took to Twitter to respond to fans messaging her over their frustration at her omission. She thanked them and publicly noted, “I was on the inside for the first time this year. These are not our people and they do not represent us. Do not look for justice in the awards system.”

Only a few days earlier, Har’el was sitting in the lobby of a Beverly Hills hotel for yet another interview. It was clear the context of our conversation was foremost on her mind. Over a wide-ranging discussion that mostly centered on her narrative feature debut, the first subject she broached was, unexpectedly, the awards campaign itself.

“You wait for so long to make work that touches people and means something to people, and that has been the most exciting thing that ever happened to me in many ways,” Har’el says. “The awards part of it has been kind of like a satire of sorts, where you’re like one of the players but you didn’t know you were cast in it.

“And the more I dive into it, the more I realize that I’m living the legacy of Harvey Weinstein basically, because he really is the person that politicized award campaigns in the year of ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ And prior to that, there wasn’t so much of a political campaigning around awards as much as it is now. I feel like I’m on a political trail in many ways.”

Longtime industry observers might fiercely debate whether Oscar season wasn’t political or intense before Miramax broke onto the scene in the early ’90s, but there’s no disputing how integral it’s been over the past few decades in providing a revenue-generating platform for films that might not earn that particular spotlight otherwise.

Throw in the advent of streaming companies that are less concerned with box office than publicity-garnering accolades and Har’el finds herself in truly uncharted territory. She says there were other great offers to acquire the picture but Amazon promised to get behind the film in a “real way” and has kept its word.

“They weren’t just like, ‘OK, we’re going to release it for one week in two theaters and see what it does.’ They really saw some strength in it,” Har’el says. “The whole idea of a theatrical release is changing in general, not just in relation to awards. The way that young people are seeing stuff on their phone. They don’t really care that much necessarily, not all of them, if it is in a theater, or which streamer it is. It’s just like they hear about something they want to see, and they go and get it.”

Despite the jarring campaign, the Tel Aviv-born filmmaker has been most struck by the passionate fans of the film who have seen it three, four or five times and continue to post about it on social media. Har’el and Amazon asked for testimonies about why these moviegoers were seeing it so often and their answers genuinely surprised her.

“I guess what struck me about it is that certain people almost treated it like a meeting, like an anonymous meeting, because the topic and the things that are discussed are usually discussed in the rooms, you know?”

Har’el adds, “I mean, there’s a lot of addiction films that are very melodramatic, and this film covers topics like abuse and addiction, but [‘Honey Boy’] is from the perspective of the child of the addict and it does it thanks to Shia’s script and everybody in it and with some humor too. It’s really hard to put things like that out there. It’s just like you see films even when they are emotional, that the emotional path that they take, tonally, is usually safe.”

There is still a long way to go on this particular awards road for Har’el. She’s already nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award as director and potentially a DGA Awards nominee. That being said, she’s taking a three-week “creative” break before the start of the new year to recharge. She’s developing other films and potential television projects but knows there is one key element for anything she commits to.

“The most important thing is, whatever I do, that it stays a little dangerous,” Har’el says. “That it’s not like the thing where you’re like, ‘Oh, here’s the biggest book ever written that everybody bought and the biggest superhero and now we’re going to jump on that train.’ You know? That’s not what I’m about to do.”

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When you look beyond Joaquin Phoenix’s fixating performance in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” you’ll start to see that the ominous world around him is subtly connected to the dynamic arc of his character.

It was production designer Mark Friedberg who helped detail the color palette and texture of the allegory set in the 1980s where a struggling nobody named Arthur Fleck, who lives with and takes care of his aging mother (Frances Conroy), spirals down an uncontrollable path of self-destruction.

“When I first talked with Todd, my question to him was, ‘Are you all in?’” says Friedberg, whose work includes “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Wonderstruck.” “My heart is generally in the indie world and when I read the script, I thought if it was made without compromise and risked failure, it could be a very strong movie. Todd looked at me and said, ‘That’s exactly where I’m going.’”

The script — from Phillips and Scott Silver — described a “crumbling city piled high with trash,” notes Friedberg. “It’s a harsh, gritty world that’s dehumanizing and impacts Arthur in such a profound way, so in defining Gotham, it needed to reflect a version of the character.”

Friedberg settled on the South Bronx to depict Arthur’s neighborhood of Otisburg for its hilly topography that’s as if “San Francisco and New York had a baby.” He mapped all of Gotham, including its elevated subway, to chart Arthur’s long trek home. Colors were muted and desaturated with a worn patina illustrating a “lack of care.”

Market and Broad Street in Newark, N.J., stood in for Gotham Square, but at the center of it all is where Arthur lived, a six-story Deco building that was found near Yankee Stadium.

“He’s this small thing in a very large maze, and because there are hills, his journey is quite literally upstairs,” says the production designer. “And if you think about it, he really only has a couch and a little bag of clothes. The apartment is an extension of his mother, so he’s out in the streets with everything hanging over him.”

That small bag of clothes was meticulously considered by costume designer Mark Bridges, who won Oscars for “Phantom Thread” and “The Artist.”

“I look to bring the printed page to life and try to figure out how to represent the character,” he says.

Arthur was dressed for comfort over style with a worn look to the fabric using blues, browns, maroons and khaki. His clown character touted a ’70s Charlie Chaplin silhouette in dated polyester and oversized shoes.

One hurdle for Bridges was Phoenix’s weight loss. The designer needed to tailor clothing over several months’ time and hide the actor’s physique when called for. “With Arthur, everything is motivated organically and right before he becomes Joker we added in darker colors in his wardrobe to echo his emotions,” says Bridges.

Arthur suffers from a labyrinth of childhood trauma and mental illness and what ultimately pushes him over the edge is his mother’s lifelong lie, shaking everything he believed of himself. He suffocates her as she lies in a hospital bed and then turns to open a curtain where the sun shines on his face revealing who he truly feels he is — Joker.

“There’s a theatrical component to his character. He’s a performer. He makes a curtain in his apartment while practicing his lines. Then there’s the elevator door that acts like a curtain when we first see him as Joker. One of the biggest moments is when he walks through the curtain on ‘Live with Murray Franklin’ [Robert De Niro]. It’s a theme we explored where colors start to pop in the world,” says Friedberg.

Transforming Arthur into the smiling Joker, Bridges detailed a maroon ’70s inspired suit with a teal shirt and an orange vest so that every piece had appeared before in the story. A longer line in the jacket added a sense of confidence in his stride.

“When Mark [Friedberg] and I first started talking about color, I said, ‘Show me something and I want to react to it.’ His pitch was ’70s muscle cars and different combinations of oranges, greens and browns while saving red for the clown, Joker and blood. The costumes have a yin and yang to them where what he wore as Arthur, he eventually wears as Joker. One comes out of who he [already] is in a way.”

Asked how the entire experience came together, Friedberg notes, “Every once in a while when all 18 million pieces of filmmaking get in harmony, something good can happen. It’s what makes great movie making so difficult. Everyone has to be staring at the conductor, and no one can miss a beat.”

Want a cool outfit waiting for you on your next vacation? Travelers who like to pack light can choose designer clothes delivered to their rooms at select W Hotels.

Whether you want to dress up for a gala or dress down in sweaters and overalls, the new service has you covered.W Hotels’ Closet Concierge partners with Rent the Runway to deliver whatever you don’t want to schlep on your next vacation.

“Teaming up with Rent the Runway means we can solve some of the biggest travel pain points: what to pack and what to wear,” says W Hotels’ global brand leader Anthony Ingham. “Every traveler has dreamed of heading out for a trip without the hassle of luggage, and now they can arrive to their own destination-curated wardrobe awaiting right in their room.”

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Closet Concierge is available for guests (womenswear only) who stay at least four nights at W Hotels in Hollywood; Aspen, Colo.; South Beach, Fla.; and Washington D.C.

Here’s how it works: Hotel guests go to the website’s online closet and choose up to four items to rent at least seven days in advance of their trip. You can choose from high-end gala dresses by Badgley Mischka and Nicole Miller to leggings, puffer jackets and hoodies and everything in between.

There are options for little girls too. Accessories such as sunglasses, purses and jewelry also are available. Rentals don’t include shoes, so you’ll have to pack your own.

When you reserve a room and choose the Closet Concierge service, you will receive a promo code with the confirmation email. Use the code to place the order, and your selected items will be pressed and hung in your room when you arrive.

Guests may keep an item for up to eight days. When you’re done, just drop off the clothes at the concierge desk and check out.

Info: Closet Concierge service at W Hotels