Writer’s block is painful. Work term reports are painful. Writer’s block whilst writing a work term report is deadly. Last week I spent so much time editing my report that my eyes teared up (from boredom or strain, we’ll never know) the words blurred together into lamentable configurations, and then I got a cold. But with Herculean effort I prevailed against the evils of WKRPT 300 and completed not only my report, but this column!
Here’s five movies about the poor, lost souls who struggled towards literary perfection.
Ruby Sparks (2012)
Calvin (Paul Dano) is a former child prodigy who at the tender age of about nineteen produced a novel of astounding genius and has been struggling on his followup novel for a decade since. Following a prompt from his therapist, he writes about a manic pixie dream girl – Ruby (Zoe Kazan) – who one day appears in his house exactly as Calvin had written her. But Ruby is more than the archetype Calvin imagined, and he struggles to keep up with his creation.
Ruby Sparks is not quite as good as 500 Days of Summer, but it’s a damn sight better than most of the romantic comedies I’ve seen. Dano allows Calvin’s neuroticism to unfold to something more sinister, without ever losing sight of the floppy-haired foreveralone he began the movie as. Zoe Kazan (also the script writer) is radiant as Ruby. The climax of this otherwise sweet movie is truly disturbing. And Antonio Banderas makes an adorable appearance as Calvin’s new stepdad, a hippie driftwood furniture carver!
Ruby Sparks follows through on its whimsical high-level premise, and is worth a watch.
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Shakespeare (Ralph Fiennes) is having difficulty writing his new comedy, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate King’s Daughter. In a better part of London, Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) is betrothed to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) but yearns for a life of theatre which her station does not permit. Thus she disguises herself as a boy and auditions for the part of Romeo in the guise of “Thomas Kent”. Shakespeare soon discovers Kent’s true identity, and romance ensues. You already know if you’re going to like this movie or not.
This film won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 1998 Academy Awards (the first of only two films to do so, the second being 2011’s The Artist). It beat Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line. I am not sure which film was more deserving, but am glad that the enchanting period comedy prevailed over the war movies. Shakespeare in Love is pluckier than it is melodramatic, with a modern humour and sensibility thinly disguised in doublets, hose, and literary allusions. Ralph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow pull lovely and sympathetic performances, and Judi Dench won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her eight minute performance as Queen Elizabeth.
Adaptation (2002)
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) has bitten off more than he can chew when he gets the assignment of adapting Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) best selling novel The Orchid Thief for the silver screen. Unfortunately he later finds that The Orchid Thief has almost no plot, consisting mostly of the author’s ruminations and facts about flowers. To rub salt into the wound, Charlie’s twin brother Donald (also Nicolas Cage) strains his artistic integrity by fluttering around his house and writing a million-dollar thriller script made of cliches.
I found Adaptation to be a brilliant and meta piece of film. The parts of the film chronicling Susan Orlean as she writes The Orchid Thief in flashbacks is itself is an interesting journey, but the star of Adaptation is Charlie’s increasingly tortured creative process. By watching this movie we are privy to his internal struggles (should he eat a muffin, or write the first scene?) and watch the film unfold as he does – first erratically and aimlessly as Charlie drains the source material of the little inspiration available, and then into unknown waters.
It’s also fun to watch Nicolas Cage play both the self-loathing genius and his twin dudebro.
The Shining (1980)
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts a position as the Overlook Hotel’s winter caretaker and moves into the sprawling building with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd). As he looks forward to nursing his long-neglected habit in the peaceful solitude of the sprawling estate, the head cook (Scatman Crowthers) warns Danny: the hotel has a habit of influencing its winter staff.
I prepared myself for this movie by reading the plot summary and was still terrified by the first three quarters of the movie. Director Stanley Kubrick’s sinuous shots are unsettling and beautiful. The use of early 20th century avante-garde compositions in the soundtrack is suitably eerie and tumultuous, but used subtly rather than for jump scares. Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of Jack’s descent into psychopathy is also stunning. I was very glad to see that Danny Lloyd’s character was not an idiot, but displayed some admirable intelligence for a 6 year old with powerful latent psychic abilities.
The naivitee of Shelley Duvall’s character was extremely irritating and I don’t know why she couldn’t have been written more perceptively but all in all The Shining is extremely deserving of its reputation as one of the greatest horror films ever.
Barton Fink (1991)
It is 1941, and Barton Fink is a screenwriter who lands a cushy job at a LA studio, despite his reservations about becoming separated from his muse: “the common man.” However, his first assignment is to write a movie about wrestling, and Barton keeps getting distracted – first by his insurance-salesman neighbour (John Goodman), and then his alcohol idol’s secretary. Things don’t get better for his writing career.
I have to admit that I don’t enjoy the Coen Brothers, critically acclaimed as they are. A Serious Man made me bored and sad. O Brother, Where Are Thou? was unsatisfying. I didn’t enjoy Barton Fink very much, either. There is a point in the movie where Barton’s life goes spectacularly pear shaped and his living quarters are lit by an apocalyptic fire, which was fun. However, the remainder of the movie is about Barton getting trodden on and disillusioned. There is no catharsis.
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