I strongly recommend the following two movies for every writer, one sympatico and the other more depressing, but both wickedly funny and insightful: Wonder Boys (2000) and The Squid and the Whale (2005). I'll write more about Squid in a later post.
With Wonder Boys, Director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 1997; 8 Mile, 2002) ensures a crackling film; Bob Dylan won an Oscar for "Things Have Changed," the title song. Steven Kloves actually improves upon Michael Chabon's excellent 1995 Wonder Boys novel, mostly by compressing it in all the right places and tweaking a few details for film.
The ensemble team of actors is near-perfect pitch. Every line, every scene is a gem. The viewer is treated to a completely on-target representation of the writer-in-residence/Eastern university milieu. Though set in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this could just as easily have been set in Chapel Hill or any number of other college towns or university cities in the East.
Every time I watch this, Wonder Boys gets better.
All the characters are well-rendered. Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas in rare form as a somewhat demoralized creative writing professor in messy disarray) hasn't been able to follow up on the success of his well-received book, The Arsonist's Daughter, in seven years. His editor (Robert Downey, Jr., as Terry Crabtree) is in town for WordFest, one of those comically overblown academic literary conferences, to check on the progress of Grady's latest manuscript, praying to dear God that his wonder boy "isn't one of those writers who freeze up" after initial success. One of Grady's students, James Leer (Tobey Maguire) acts in weird fashion but shows promise as a writer; Hannah Green (Katie Holmes pre-Tom Cruise), another student, with "feeelings of tenderness" for her professor, has a room in his house; his third wife has just left him in the morning; he's having an affair with Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand), Dean of the university and husband of the English Department Chair (Richard Thomas as Walter Gaskell) who "despite his much-vaunted Harvard education," remains clueless and has one of Marilyn Monroe's wedding jackets as a museum piece in his basement. Quentin 'Q' Morewood (Rip Torn), visiting writer and key speaker at WordFest, adds to the nutty mix. To top things off, Sara is pregnant thanks to Tripp, so choices have to be made (instant series of conflicts!).
If you haven't seen this one (and it's not a family movie, more an adult-writer film), don't be put off by the terrible DVD covers out there. The marketing people botched this one in a big way. The movie itself is invaluable -- even if just to see what the competition is like, antics and all.
"On that particular Friday afternoon, last February, I was reading a story to my Advanced Writers' Workshop by one James Leer, Junior Lit major and sole inhabitant of his own gloomy gulag. . . . ."
Today's Rune: The Blank Rune.
Birthdays: Amy Lowell, Brendan Behan, Alice Walker.
Ciao!
3 comments:
I haven't seen "The Squid and the Whale" yet. I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it. As for the "Wonder Boys," you're right on target with this cast of characters. Any movie depicting a writer's life usually holds my interest.
Downey and Douglas are unsympathetic kooks. This is just one of many levels on which the film just doesn't work.
You know, I think I've seen this, because of the connection to writing. At least I seem to remember Michael Douglas in such a role. As I remember it was pretty funny in places. I tend to watch movies about writers and writing as well.
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