The TV Addict 

Reminded by the recent STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (you can read my review here) of how much I love films about writers of all shades and colors, I thought I’d recall which ones I’ve enjoyed the most.

Honorable Mentions: MISERY, SHATTERED GLASS, MISERY, STRANGER THAN FICTION, THE SHINING, IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

10. THE TV SET
Though the film ends up beating you over the head with its message a bit, it’s a great darkly funny and cynical look at the emotional wringer a writer (David Duchovny) is put through when trying to get his pilot – and series – picked up by a major network that has everyone’s interest in mind except the writer’s original vision. You’ll be hard pressed to find a more scathing critique of corporate/network dumbing down of artistic material for the sake of the lowest common denominator, or a more heart-breaking portrayal of how a lot of writers get treated in the film and television industry.

9. STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING stands out because, as I pointed out in my Richard Yates, one of my favorite authors, and one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century that most people have never heard of.

8. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
Sure, this is light “film about writer” fare, but it’s entertaining and sweet, and I’ve always been a sucker for a “behind-the-scenes” kind of film that reinvents a famous historical event or literary text. Also, in the end SHAKEPSEARE IN LOVE is not only about one of the greatest writers ever, but also about one of the central inspirations of any writing: love. Also, creditors, and the threat of torture.

7. HIS GIRL FRIDAY
Perhaps this choice is cheating a bit because it’s more about the romance than the writing, but I just find this film such a delightfully manic take on journalistic investigation, and ultimately the sheer passionate rush that writing (or what leads up to writing) can inspire.

5. IN A LONELY PLACE
An often forgotten gem in Humphrey Bogart’s canon, here he plays a struggling screenwriter that becomes entwined in a typical film noir/Hitchcock “wrong man” scenario. But what matters is not the plot, but Bogart’s performance as a writer who is consumed by a complicated mixture of pride, insecurity, reckless self-involvement, emotional impotence, alcoholism, and a fiery passion that fuels both his work and his anger. In other words, he’s exactly like some of the greatest writers (especially novelists) that we’ve ever had.

4. ADAPTATION
In this film we get not one, but two writers. We get both Charlie Kaufman (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLINESS MINE) – the very writer of ADAPTATION – and his fictional twin-brother, Donald. Charlie is struggling to adapt a sophisticated book, while Donald is working on a derivative multiple-personality disorder serial killer script that ends up selling for over $1 million dollars. It’s a delightfully strange film, one that reflects aptly on writer’s block, and on the twin desire of writers to write high-art, but also see the appeal of the money in low-art, and what happens when sometimes the two mingle. It’s a film many a screenwriter felt hit eerily home.

3. BARTON FINK
BARTON FINK is probably one of the strangest films the Coen Brothers have done, and that’s saying something. Nevertheless, it’s another classic take on writer’s block (a common motif in films about writers), but it’s also a pretty good portrayal of how in the classical studio system playwrights or novelists were often brought in to Hollywood, only to get less than stellar treatment once they were there.

2. WONDER BOYS
I adore WONDER BOYS, and it breaks my heart that it never found the audience it deserved, or that Michel Douglas never got any substantial recognition for his performance. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen about writers, littered with any number of them working in different genres, struggling through the very source that inspires all writers: life. It’s a loving take on living life – no matter how messed up you do it – and having adventures (existential and otherwise) are all part of the creative process, and can inform both one’s writing and one self. It’s in many ways a genuine romp, a lark of a film, a lover letter to writing through its immersion in the joys and complexities of simply living life.

1. SUNSET BOULEVARD
Few films have ever offered such a bleak portrayal of the dreams Hollywood entices its pursuers with, as well as how viciously and deeply it can dash those hopes and expectations. It doesn’t get more downbeat than an hack unemployed screenwriter living in a run-down hotel room, hiding away from his creditors, eventually ending up prostituting himself both creatively and physically to a border-line insane former silent film star. Just as he seems on the cusp of making good and becoming a successful screenwriter, he (SPOILER ALERT) gets show and dies face-down in a pool. I suppose the reason this film finds itself at No. 1 is not only because it’s the best film on this list, but because it’s the most crystallized representation of the ultimate writer’s nightmare.