News and Thoughts
Hollywood's Take on Writers and Writing
Binged out on Netflix shows? Try a movie about writers and the writing process. One of my favorites is the Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito comedy about writer’s block, Throw Momma from the Train.
Here’s a list of others to get you started: some are pure fiction, others are fictionlized versions of real writers, and others are biopics.
All Is True and Shakespeare in Love, both about Bill the Bard; Can You Ever Forgive Me?, about biographer Lee Israel’s creative solution to being a starving writer; Misery, which reminds us that “fan” comes from the word “fanatic”; Adaptation, a surreal film about a screenwriter struggling to adapt the real book The Orchid Thief to film; Capote, about Truman, Harper Lee, and the writing of In Cold Blood; Spotlight, about journalists reporting on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church; The Shining, Stephen King’s terrifying writer-gone-amok tale; Stranger Than Fiction, which features Will Ferrell as a writer who realizes his life is being written by another writer; Sunset Boulevard, in which a wannabe screenwriter finds himself ensconced in the mansion of a has-been movie star; Little Women, in which Jo Marsh pens her novel; Moulin Rouge! (poet in Paris, bohemians, music, Nicole Kidman!); Julie & Julia, about a blogger obsessed with Julia Childs; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, about Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table; Agatha and the Truth of Murder, about mystery writer Agatha Christie; and Finding Neverland, about J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan. There are many more, including Barton Fink, Trumbo, Iris, My Brilliant Career, Becoming Jane, Young Adult, and The Hours.
Pick your poison, pop your popcorn, plop in your favorite chair, prop up your feet, and enjoy!