Favorite Movies about Writers

[sc211]

What are your favorite movies about writers? Whether they look at it comically, or get down into the dark passages of a creative life, which ones do you like the best?

For myself they'd be...

"Shadowlands" - Anthony Hopkins as CS Lewis and Debra Winger bringing him out of the confines of his academic life.

"Finding Forrester" - Sean Connery as a Salinger-type recluse teaching an inner-city kid the ways of a writer.

"Reds" - Warren Beatty as Jack Reed and Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill in an epic story of the Russian Revolution.

[Gala]

off the top:
Nora
Big Bad Love
The Door in the Floor

[anatole ghio]

Misery
Wonder Boys
Third Man
In the Mood for Love
Romancing the Stone
As Good As it Gets

- Anatole

[triceretops]

Oh, boy. Gregory Peck played the part of the author and I can't quite think of the author. But I believe it was called Beloved Infidell. I cried like a baby. Not to forget
THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN.

Tri

[pencilone]

'Just Write'
'Alex and Emma'
'The Swimming Pool'
'The Funny Farm'

[sc211]

"Come Live With Me" - a classic b/w James Stewart romantic comedy about a down-on-his-luck writer.

"Bullets Over Broadway" - Woody Allen's comedic take on old Broadway, with John Cusack as a playwright and Chazz Palmonteri as a gangster who can write better.

"My Left Foot" - Daniel-Day Lewis as Irish author Christy Moore. An incredible performance in a very moving film.

"Shakespeare in Love" - Oscar-winning picture with Tom Stoppard's brilliantly witty take on Shakespeare.

[anatole ghio]

Beloved Infidel was about F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I was thinking about Throw Momma From the Train just today, don't know how I forgot about it... those scenes of the workshop class were priceless.

Oh yeah, I'd put Shakespeare in Love on my best list as well.

- Anatole

[katdad]

"Shakespeare in Love" -- I'll try to think of others in a bit.

[Arisa81]

I haven't seen this one yet, but "Sylvia" is about Sylvia Plath

[wurdwise]

The Shining:rollin

[maestrowork]

Shakespeare in Love is good.

Finding Neverland.

Misery.

[ChunkyC]

LAST CALL (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302240/), a TV movie about F. Scott Fitzgerald. I thought it was exceptional, especially Jeremy Irons' performance as Fitzgerald. Based on the book by Frances Kroll Ring, who was Fitzgerald's assistant at the time of his death.

[triceretops]

Thanks, Anatole. I didn't think anyone would remember that.

Tri

[dannyne330]

I think every writer should see Adaptation with Nicolas Cage.

[macalicious731]

Finding Neverland, definitely. Even if Hollywood did take some liberties.

[Fresie]

Romancing the Stone! It's so light and uplifting, and it makes me feel so much more optimistic about the entire thing :-)

Oh yes, and why didn't anyone mention The Wolf? It IS about writing, after all -- Jack Nicholson's character IS an editor who plucks up the courage to confront the publishing nasties.

[XThe NavigatorX]

Barton Fink!

[Risseybug]

How about Misery :D

Nobody else liked The Hours?

[macalicious731]

Oh, Rissey, I forgot about The Hours. Great one!

[anatole ghio]

Oh yeah, the Shining. Good call.

I'll add The Accidental Tourist, Geena Davis is great in it.

- Anatole

[SimonSays]

Adaptation

[vstrauss]

Wonder Boys is one of the few movies I've seen that gets inside the writing life in a believable way (as opposed to portraying it from the outside, as with a biopic such as Sylvia, or portraying it ridiculously, as in the appalling Alex and Emma). I find most movies about writers seriously bogus.

One of my pet peeves is films and TV shows that show book manuscripts done up like scripts, with card stock covers and metal fasteners.

- Victoria

[mr mistook]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas!

[SimonSays]

Victoria -

Could Alex and Emma have BEEN any worse? I think not.

What I loved about Adaptation is totally nailed the struggle, the self-doubt, those damn blocks.

[pencilone]

I agree with you guys about "Alex and Emma", it's not the best of movies, but I found it a bit amusing at times.

"The Hours" - this one I quite enjoyed, but my husband said he would not watch it ever again ;) .

"The Muse" - this is my favourite: it amuses me no end!

[Jamesaritchie]

I like some of the older movies, such as "The Bad and the Beautiful." (1952) It had Leo G. Carroll as British director Henry Whitfield, who was supposed to be Alfred Hitchcock. Dick Powell as a screenwriter/Southern novelist who was supposed to represent William Faulkner, or F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every character in the film represented someone real, and while it was more about screenwriting than novel writing, I still think it's one of the best films ever made in the genre.

Alex and Emma was just bad, but I loved Finding Forrester, Wonderland, and Adaptation. Finding Neverland was very good.

Shadowlands was great.

But I also love "As Good As it Gets."

[macalicious731]

Hm, I just remembered 'Little Women.' I don't remember the film very well.. did she do much writing in it?

[pencilone]

I've just watched again "Love Actually" - a very smooth script!
Highly recommended!

[Terra Aeterna]

This is not a movie about writing or writers (and really it's a wretched horrid movie, but what can I say, I have a 7 year old daughter, she made me watch it. . .) but there is this fabulous bit character in The Princess Diaries. The writer who lives next door. He spends all of his time in his bathrobe and much of his time taking notes about things going on around him on a yellow legal pad. It's stereotypical in a funny way, at least to me. I could turn into that guy-- at least the scribbling down notes all the time part.

[James D Macdonald]

Basic Instinct

Totally bogus, but Wow! I mean, Sharon Stone! (She's supposed to be a writer in that movie.)

[maestrowork]

It's not about a writer, but a writer's childhood adventure, etc.... Stand By me

[bgbohemian86]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Nobody else liked The Hours? <hr></blockquote>

The Hours is practically my all time favorite film. Other than that, Finding Neverland, and Stand by Me and Adaptation, if you count those.

[sc211]

Found a list on this at Amazon...

www.amazon.com/exec/obido...62-5824862 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/1W1OL7P3VBHHF/002-3161262-5824862)

You can also check the first two lists on the right for a couple other classics of the genre.

And then there’s Angel at My Table, which I've never seen, but remembered from Siskel and Ebert.

www.amazon.com/exec/obido...2?v=glance (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6303980368/002-3161262-5824862?v=glance)

[vstrauss]

Angel at my Table is a bizarre and fascinating movie, but although it's about a writer, not much of it is about writing.

- Victoria

[sc211]

Chevy Chase! Funny Farm! He's a sportswriter who heads to the country to write his great novel and there he is, sitting down in his writing room for the first time, and he's got his coffee, and the birds are chirping, and... nothing. A great flick, with lots of wacky characters, for when you're feeling stuck.

[sc211]

Woody Allen's Manhattan. It's got writers in it, the screenplay is a delight, and the cinematography by Gordon Willis (The Godfather) is a wonder to watch.

Plus, every writer's gotta love the intro...

"Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion." Uh, no, make that: "He romanticized it all out of proportion.… To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles." Nah... too corny.

"Chapter One. He adored New York City. To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of the contemporary culture…” No, it's gonna be too preachy. Let's face it, I wanna sell some books here.

"Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat." I love this. "New York was his town. And it always would be."

[Coco82]

Adaption
As Good As It Gets
Barton Fink
Finding Neverland
Finding Forrester
I can't think of any more at the moment.

[underthecity]

Just saw Duplex with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore. Ben Stiller plays a writer who is finishing a novel with a very strict deadline. A lot of people didn't really like the movie, but Stiller as the writer is pretty accurate. I found myself paying attention during all of his writing scenes and references to his writing. His editor refers to his books as a "mid-level" (does anyone call it that? thought it was "midlist"), but otherwise pretty accurate. He also has a successful novelist friend who reads his books for enthralled audiences in bookstores.

The part that made me laugh out loud was when the old lady in the movie asked Stiller to sign the copy of his book she just bought. When he opened it up to sign, there was a big 99cents sticker on the inside cover. The look on his face when he was forced to sign next to this sticker was priceless.

Fun to watch for writers' references.

utc

[maestrowork]

There's some good and "accurate" parts about Stiller's character. Given it's a comedy, I don't mind some exaggeration. But at the end, when (*spoiler alert*) when he finished the novel in a day, at a crowded BAR nonetheless, it's a incredulous. He will have to type at least 70,000 words in 12 hours... and that's just typing. It says nothing about actually writing the story. I can't imagine anyone writing a 70,000-word story in 12 hours at a noisy bar and for it to be any good. He must be the most gifted, disciplined, single-minded writer (not to mention fastest typist) in the world. So that part really didn't work for me. Then the whole laptop thing... I just KNEW where the story was taking me way before it happened....

/vent off

But the ending is cute. I really do like the twisted, semi "everybody lives ever after" type ending. It's subversive.

[underthecity]

Maestro,
I believe he had to just finish the book at the bar, not write the entire thing. I understood that by the time the movie started, he already had most of it written. I could be wrong and would have to rewatch the movie (and I don't really want to do that) to find out for sure.

The other big contradiction is that at the beginning of the movie, he didn't want to go to Starbucks to write his book "with those other novelists," leading me to believe he writes better alone. And (generalizing here), but some writers work better alone, and some writers work better in a crowded coffeehouse or bar. In Stiller's case, he had to focus on finishing his book in twelve hours and was able to do it in a noisy bar. I know I couldn't do that, but others might. Probably would have been better to choose a library.

AND (spoiler alert) I guess we all knew that somehow his laptop would get destroyed before he submitted his ms. AND his editor would be unforgiving about his missing the deadline. I suppose in real life, after getting "fired" from the publisher, a writer would suck in his breath and rewrite the whole thing from memory and submit it to a different house (or have his agent do it--I would think that Stiller would have had an agent, successful that he was). However, in the end he did take his experience and write a book about it, so it still had the Hollywood happy ending.

Drew Barrymore as his wife was very supportive: the kind of wife that writers hope to have. I liked her portrayal,
seemed realistic.

utc

[maestrowork]

I agree about Drew Barrymore's character. IIRC, Stiller's character had only started his new novel as the movie begins. I could be wrong. And he also had major writer's block. I think that's why I find his last 12-hour sprint incredulous. And yes, the unforgiving editor bit is kind of ridiculous, too, especially since we are not led to believe that he had been anything but a "cooperative" writer. I mean, do book editors really have that kind of "12 PM on Friday the 13th or else" strict deadlines? But it could happen and it is a dark comedy, I guess.

But yes, it did have a happy ending for Stiller, so that's good.

[anatole ghio]

This film just occurred to me: Almost Famous. A thinly veiled autobiographical look at early 70's rock criticism, it's about Cameron Crowes start in the field at the tender age of 17.

Especially noteworthy is the scene between the main character and fellow rock critic Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) where Lester gives rambling advice at 2 something something in the morning while spinning records in the background.

- Anatole

[underthecity]

Maestro,

(Spoilers of Duplex ahead)

I rewatched parts of Duplex. Near the beginning of the movie, Drew Barrymore tells the old lady upstairs that Ben Stiller is "almost finished" with his novel. Stiller also states that his deadline is (I think) in three weeks.

This suggests that he was probably 3/4 of the way through, and perhaps had maybe less than a hundred pages left.

And the old lady bugged him so much, and her TV kept him awake at night, that he napped during the day when he wasn't doing chores for her. So, he leaves the house and starts writing at Starbucks where they show him several times typing away. He probably spent at least a week and a half doing this, and should have been nearly finished when he writes for twelve straight hours at the bar.

Chances are that he was reading and editing during the last few hours, somehow concentrating despite the noise of the crowd around him.

Is all that possible? I think so. If his laptop hadn't been destroyed, and he had been able to hand it in, it still would have required editing. But at least it was finished on time.

One part of the movie I found unbelievable is that they were somehow able to sell everything in their apartment in two days and make $25,000 to pay the hit man. Unless they combined their furniture sales with their savings, but by this point I think they were strapped for cash.

Fun movie, though.

utc

[maestrowork]

utc, must have missed it. I really thought he was just starting on his new novel. We will never really know how many words he had left to write, but my guess is, even if he just typed it out, it would take a while to bang out 10,000 words. Anyway, it just sounded incredulous to me. :-)

And you're right, the $25,000 sale was also incredible. But I tried not to dwell on that one since it was "necessary" for the plot to move along...

:-)

[pencilone]

'Iris' about Iris Murdoch

[triceretops]

Well, if you want to talk about a writer under stress or pressure, until it contributes to his death, we would have to include AMADEUS (not sure on this spelling)

Triceratops

[DarkHaven80]

LOVED 'Her Alibi' - such a humorous portrayal of a writer.

Basic Instinct has its redeeming qualities, Jim is right on that.

Romancing the Stone is hilarious. It was a childhood favorite and I still watch it every blue moon. I probably have most of the dialogue memorized; I know I have every scene down pat.

As Good As It Gets was an exceptional comedy; almost everything Nicholson touches turns to gold.

[cactuswendy]

:rollin

THE FUNNY FARM....without a doubt the best for good chuckles.....i re-watch it at least three times a year.....




:rollin

[Meryena]

My favorites include:

Romancing The Stone - Me too!!!! I still watch it every chance I get and I have almost memorized the whole movie!

The Shining - Saw that in the movie theatre when it first came out - scared the pahdookie out of me.

Never Been Kissed - Drew Barrymore plays a newspaper writer who goes through major changes. Very cute.

Somewhere In Time - Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Reeves plays a playwright who travels back in time to meet a famous actress in circa 1912 - if I remember the year correctly. Another one I watch whenever I can and remains one of my all-time favorites alongside Romancing The Stone.

I Remember Mama - an old b/w starring a VERY young Barbara Bel Geddes who grows up to be a writer and her debut story is about her mother. A very touching movie.

[James D Macdonald]

House, with William Katt. A blocked writer is hard-up against a deadline; to get solitude to finish, he goes to a house that is, unfortunately, haunted. Hijinks ensue. Great booksigning scene. Happy ending: He finishes his novel.

Two TV shows:

X-Files: Jose Chung's From Outer Space

Millennium: Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense

(Includes a classic booksigning scene, and the wonderful line, "On my honor as a writer!")

[triceretops]

Ben Stiller is supposed to be a struggling novelist in "There's Something About Mary" but we get rooked because it's only mentioned a few times and he never does anything but chase Mary all over the place. Bah!

"Back To The Future." Dad's a nerdie sci-fi writer who goes HARD BACK at the end!

Tri

[maestrowork]

Royal Tannenbaum.

[Richard]

I vote "Not Misery". Just because. Brr...

Although, to be honest, I spend most of my day writing computer related copy, and thus find films about writers to generally be about as much fun as watching one about hackers and 14 year old computer geniuses. I'd much rather watch something like, say, Ed Wood, where I'm not thinking 'So, are you ever planning to touch a keyboard at any point' or 'What? They're taking over the internet with random scrolling text?!'...

[Elizabeth Genco]

Jose Chung!! That's my second favorite X-Files episode ever! (My first being the one with Peter Boyle (also in season 3) as the dude who can predict when people are going to die. Those two episodes were so well-written and so damn funny and charming...

One of my favorite writer movies is one that I don't think that anybody has mentioned yet (though it was on that Amazon.com list that was posted a while back): THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. It's about Robert E. Howard and his relationship with a teacher.

[sc211]

So that's three Stephen Kings (Misery, the Shining, Stand By Me) and four Jack Nicholsons (As Good as it Gets, Reds, the Shining, The Wolf). Not a bad hand of poker.

For a couple more...

Room with a View - Gorgeous Merchant-Ivory take on EM Forster's novel, with a superb cast and a novelist who writes of what she saw in that field on the hill.

Anne of Green Gables - the PBS miniseries filmed on Prince Edward Island, with Megan Follows as the young writer out walking the woods and quoting "The Lady of Shalott." It's mostly for kids, with that old Disney sense of humor, but still good (as anything would be with Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth).

[James D Macdonald]

...four Jack Nicholsons (As Good as it Gets, Reds, the Shining, The Wolf)...

My brush with movie fame -- if you look on the wall of bookshelves behind Jack Nicholson in The Wolf, some of my books are on that shelf.

(That's because the publishing materials that the set decorator used were picked up at Tor books.)

[EGGammon]

I don't know if this counts, but Heathers. There was just something about Veronica's journal writing and her voice-overs throughout the movie, that made the movie feel even darker.

[pepperlandgirl]

Misery--I have so many reasons to love this movie (and the book) that I could literally write a ten page critical essay on the topic. It's just a brilliant exploration of the role of a writer, the role of fans, the process of creativity, being an artist, selling out, writing to save your life which I think we all do to some extent...just brilliant.

Secret Window--Starring Johnny Depp based on King's "Secret Window, Secret Garden." Honestly, I saw myself in the main character. Slight Spoilers Ahead:


Even the part where he's fighting with himself and yells "I don't need to take this @#%$ from you!" I've had the same conversation. Napping all day, smoking even though you don't smoke, eating doritos, not getting dressed for days at a time...and of course, the undeniable fear that you just aren't as good, you just aren't as creative as you thought you were, and any day, somebody is going to knock on the door and say "I know you're a fraud."

[wurdwise]

James Macdonald said:

My brush with movie fame -- if you look on the wall of bookshelves behind Jack Nicholson in The Wolf, some of my books are on that shelf.

That is way cool!:smokin

[ChunkyC]

Movie fame ... I'm behind a tree in a scene from a 1980s TV movie VANISHING ACT with Mike Farrell, Fred Gwynne, Elliott Gould and Margot Kidder. They were shooting down the street from my house and I went to watch. At one point, Mike Farrell jumped into a red Camaro to get away from Fred Gwynne who was shooting at him ... and drove right at me! I hopped behind the nearest tree and he zoomed on by. In the finished film, you can see the tree I jumped behind to the left of the car.

I know I can't prove it, but it's the closest I've been to being in the movies, and I'm a writer, so in a bizarre way, it counts as a writer movie ... no?

Didn't think so. :p

[maestrowork]

Just thought of another one: Something's Gotta Give. Oh, no, another Jack Nicholson movie! But Diane Keaton was wonderful in it. Didn't both get Oscar noms? It's a delightful movie (except I didn't like the ending that much) and the writing part is central to the plot (but wouldn't everyone love to work in a beachfront Hampton house?)

p.s. it just shows you that "write what you know" works. Some people complain about books/movies about writers. But look a Stephen King. Many of his books are about writers.

[snarzler]

I am not above admitting I have had conversations similiar to the climax of Secret Window starring Johnny Depp from Stephen King's novella Secret Window, Secret Garden.

Andrea and Aerdna 0]

[rhymegirl]

I liked The Door in the Floor with Jeff Bridges.
Misery was good.
There was a TV movie about L. Frank Baum, Wizard of Oz author called The Dreamer of Oz, which I really liked.
I saw The Hours and I thought it was really depressing.

[maestrowork]

Just thought of another: Under the Tuscan Sun. Technically it's not about a writer (the protagonist is an editor). But she also writes and ends up publishing the book about her Tuscany adventures. It wasn't a completely flawless movie, but it has nice moments and Diane Lane is mmm mmm good.

Then there's Sideways. I haven't read the novel, but the movie is rather good, capturing some of the anguish a writer faces (rejections, depression, writer's block, etc.)

[JanaLanier]

How about Big Fat Liar?

It's an adorable movie -- a Hollywood producer (played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti) steals the idea for a blockbuster movie from a story written by a teenager (Frankie Munoz). Unrealistic, sure. Entertaining? You bet!