I spent part of the holiday weekend catching up on the towering stack of magazines that threatened to fall over and crush my cat. Which would be no small feat since my boy is uhhh, how can I say it politely, big-boned. But in my magazine reading, I came across an interesting article in the November 2007 issue of The Writer.
In the article, Darren Miller presents his entries for the 10 best movies for writers. He points out these are necessarily the greatest works of cinematic arts. But rather that they illustrate useful lessons for all of us afflicted with the writing bug. I won’t give you all the details of the lessons… you should refer to Miller’s article for that. But here are his movie suggestions for writers.
- Adaptation
- All the President’s Men
- Almost Famous
- Capote
- Factotum
- Finding Neverland
- Frida
- The Hours
- Stone Reader
- Stranger than Fiction
So those are Miller’s suggestions and I’ve definitely updated my Netflix queue. What are your favorite writer movies?
How could Wonder Boys be overlooked? I, too, spent part of the holiday weekend watching DVDs for a little inspiration and resuscitation. I think it gives a fairly realistic portrayal of the writer’s life complete with pretensious academics and struggling editors.
That’s a good call, Jim. I didn’t even think about Wonder Boys.
It’s funny… I tend to avoid movies about writers. But I’m intrigued by this list so I want to give them a try.
I think part of my aversion stems from Finding Forrester. All my friends kept telling me this movie was custom made for me. Basketball, a reclusive writer, and Sean Connery–some aspects that are right up my alley. But I was oddly blase about the movie. I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it.
But for some odd reason, I’ve avoided movies about writers ever since then. I’m going to have to break that habit, I suppose.
Barton Fink?
yeah, I’ve got a list like this tucked away somewhere. and yeah, WONDER BOYS is on it, ADAPTATION too, and STRANGER THAN FICTION would be, except I made the list before STF. Alas, though, none of the others, though I did and do love ALMOST FAMOUS. As for the one I consider the obvious-missed: HENRY FOOL. Maybe QUILLS? But just being about writing doesn’t make it a good movie ‘for’ writers, yeah. Anyway, back in my first grad workshop, the prof — who denies this now, thinks I’m making it up — said, kind of just as an aside, that that old (well, 87) MISTRESS was the best movie example of how the short story worked. So of course I got myself immediately to a video store, thinking I’d be just ahead of all my classmates (wrong). Anyway, yeah, he was right: MISTRESS was kind of a clickover point for me, writing-wise. Too, talking movies for writers (see: ‘cautionary tales’), hard to duck Stephen King, yeah? Take your pick, I suppose: THE SHINING, SECRET WINDOW, DARK HALF (LISEY’S STORY and BAG OF BONES, should they ever get filmed), and I don’t even want to get into some King-list contest here. With myself, even. Though I would like to see IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS on that list somehow. But as for Capote being on that list: I hate it being on any list. Which is maybe some indication of my taste, or lack of. Note that I don’t even give it the uppercase. Wonderful performance, beautiful book, but not a movie that did anything for me. Same with WALK THE LINE, I suppose. But soon here I’ll be hardly talking about writing at all.
Deconstructing Harry (without peer); Squid and The Whale; Love Jones; Wonder Boys; Manhattan; Author Author; Husbands and Wives; Before Night Falls; Barfly; Man From Elysian Fields; Bright Lights, Big City; Bullets Over Broadway; Finding Forrester; Permanent Midnight … to name a few.