Weekend Writing: Incredible Movies About Writers
People are fascinated with writers. We may not have a glamorous occupation, but people have their own opinions and perceptions of the daily routine for a writer. We stay at home, procrastinate, drink wine, write maybe a few pages of our work-in-progress, and then call it a day. That's the idea, but it's not always accurate.
Some people are fascinated by writers solely because writers have an imagination others find intriguing. They're jealous of our ability to craft a story "just like that," and our endless amount of stories to tell. We tell stories for a living, which makes it a fun job. We have deadlines to meet, which can be stressful, but at the end of the day, we still love to tell a good story. We're storytellers and we're some of the most passionate individuals you'll ever meet.
Several films have perfectly portrayed a realistic livelihood for writers. They show the pain and suffering involved in the writing process. The passion and excitement of a fresh, new story. The heartbreaks of juggling your writing life with your personal life. The joy when you finally finish writing the project you have labored over for months (or even years).
There are films that portray these traditions for viewers, educating them on what it's really like to be a writer. Whenever a film focuses on a writer as the main character (and the plot is actually centering on his/her life as a writer), I'm always intrigued. I feel like the movie has been made specifically for me to enjoy. The movies are fun, dramatic, and charming.
Here's my list of the best movies about writers/journalists. The list isn't in any particular order. If you haven't watched these films, what are you waiting for?
1. "The Help"
Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, 2011's The Help tells the story of a young woman, Skeeter (Emma Stone), who sets out to write something of great importance. When all of her friends are getting married and having children, Skeeter wants to be a writer instead. Of course, as someone who is in the same boat as Skeeter, I can identify with her.
At first, Skeeter takes a job writing a cleaning column for the Jackson Journal, but after speaking with a publisher in New York City, she's inspired to write about how "the help" are treated in Mississippi. Skeeter, a young white woman, is thrust into the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement--interacting with African-American women who teach her a lesson she hardly expected. With powerful performances from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, The Help is a beautiful film about a woman who stops at nothing to write a story she believes is right.
2. "The Shining"
I couldn't neglect Stephen King's iconic The Shining. The 1980 film adaptation is perhaps the best movie adaptation of King's writing. The classic horror set in a haunted hotel stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a former teacher who takes a job as the caretaker of an empty hotel for the winter. While there, he decides to pursue his true passion of writing, but of course, an evil presence lurks in the hotel.
With his wife and son staying at the hotel with him, Jack starts to go mad, eventually feeling compelled to murder his family. While his desire to become a writer is a minor element in the film, it's instrumental to one of the movie's most famous scenes--when Jack's wife looks at his manuscript, where only one line is written over and over on hundreds of pages: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Yikes.
3. "Sunset Boulevard"
I'm a fan of Old Hollywood classic films, so I had to include the 1950 classic, Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder's masterpiece is a film noir treasure, as well as a beautiful film about writers. While the movie focuses on the story of Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) fading silent film career, the real engine of the film is William Holden's performance as Joe Gillis, a Hollywood screenwriter Norma hires to help her reclaim her relevance in the age of "talkies."
Sunset Boulevard is a love story, but it's also a direct commentary on the film industry. It's a film about screenwriting and filmmaking. Holden's Joe Gillis is a disturbingly deft portrait of a working writer. Sunset Boulevard should be watched (and studied) by every aspiring screenwriter.
4. "His Girl Friday"
One of my favorite Old Hollywood films of all time, 1940's His Girl Friday is one of the best movies ever made about newspaper journalists. Yes, it's a comedy, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, but there's more to the film. The main characters (Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson) are a divorced couple who met and fell in love while working as journalists. Years later, Hildy is planning to remarry and leave the newspaper business.
Walter can't bear this idea--losing Hildy to another man, but also losing her as a talented reporter. When a hard-hitting investigative story lands on his desk, Walter convinces Hildy to join him on the story. She needs to write her final story, after all. Hildy agrees, and it doesn't take her long to get absorbed in the story. She's determined to get to the bottom of the case, like any good journalist does.
His Girl Friday is a timeless movie about journalists who stopped at nothing to report the facts--the truth. If you want to be reminded of how newspapers and journalists used to be, His Girl Friday is a brilliant movie demonstrating the passion journalists have in their stories.
5. "All the President's Men"
All the President's Men could nearly pass as a documentary. The 1976 film, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, follows the rivalry and trials working for the Washington Post as they break one of the biggest stories (and maybe the biggest) of American politics ever--the 1976 burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex (otherwise known as the Watergate scandal). Redford and Hoffman's characters must form a connection as they investigate the scandal. Watching this movie should be a class requirement for every college journalism student.
6. "Adaptation"
A film about several writers all at once, 2002's Adaptation is a multi-layered story about storytelling. The film follows Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) as he struggles to write a screenplay adaptation of The Orchid Thief (by Susan Orlean). He soon realizes the screenplay doesn't belong in Hollywood, which causes Charlie to panic, become neurotic and exhausted, and an endless array of hijinks ensues. He turns to his twin brother, Donald (also played by Cage).
Donald is also a screenwriter, but they're completely different writers. While they agree the story has some potential, they need to talk to the author, Suan Orlean (portrayed by Meryl Streep). There's something more to her original story, but can they talk to her? Connecting three different writers, Adaptation is funny, poignant, and an interesting look at how different personalities translate to the written page.
7. "Shakespeare in Love"
Audiences have been fascinated with William Shakespeare since the Renaissance period. So, of course, a movie eventually had to be made about his writing career--how he penned the famous plays high school students read in English classes and people still attend live performances today. The 1998 film Shakespeare in Love focuses on Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) as the central figure. As a younger man, he's broke and struggling as a playwright (compared to his main rival, Christopher Marlowe).
The film keeps the bald facts of Shakespeare's life but adds a fictional story to Shakespeare's biography with the lovely Viola De Lesseps (Gwenyth Paltrow), who desperately wants to become an actress (forbidden to women in the Renaissance era). Of course, Shakespeare and Viola fall in love in a tragic romance that inspires the playwright's most famous play: Romeo and Juliet. While Shakespeare in Love may not be entirely historically accurate, it's still a beautiful story of love and inspiration--focusing on Shakespeare writing (and rewriting) his famous plays.
8. "The Ghost Writer"
Ghostwriting is an interesting occupation. You write stories and novels for other authors (sometimes anonymously). That's the focus for the 2010 film, The Ghost Writer. Ewan McGregor plays "The Ghost," who is offered an extremely lucrative contract to finish the memoirs of Britain's retired Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). A previous ghostwriter left the memoirs half-finished, so it should be a fairly easy job for McGregor's character.
But "The Ghost" soon discovers that the book contains seriously sensitive material. Lang is at the center of a political crisis and is accused of criminal activity, which makes life more difficult for "The Ghost." He may be in danger himself. Was the previous ghostwriter killed for what he learned? Should "The Ghost" get out of the job while he still can? The Ghost Writer is a great thriller about writing, which is a breath of fresh air from other movie tropes.
9. "Never Been Kissed"
While working on this blog post, I read other articles ranking the best movies about writers. I was disappointed to find the 1999 film Never Been Kissed absent from all of the articles. Maybe it's because it's a romantic comedy (which have a bad reputation), but it's still a movie with its entire plot focusing on journalism.
Josie Gellar (Drew Barrymore) is a copywriter at the Chicago Sun-Times, but she has always dreamed of being a writer. Because she's one of the youngest employees at the newspaper, she's assigned to pose as a high school student and report on how teenagers behaved in 1999. What were they thinking? What were they doing? She has to be an investigative journalist, so her dream is finally coming true.
But at the same time, Josie gets a second chance at high school. She was a geek in high school--constantly bullied by the popular kids. This was her chance to finally be popular. Josie gets consumed by this alternative reality she has adopted that it'll be heartbreaking when everyone finds out she's actually 25 years old and she's a newspaper journalist. How close can you really get to a story? That's the big question.
10. "Midnight in Paris"
Midnight in Paris is a brilliant movie. I'll just say that right now. The 2011 film stars Owen Wilson as Gil Pender, a successful Hollywood screenwriter who is unsatisfied with his writing life. He would rather be a novelist, working in Paris where his idols, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, lived and worked in the 1920s. Gil is so lost in the past and his fascination with writing that he struggles to fit into a world of non-writers.
Gil discovers something incredible: on a late-night stroll, he is picked up by a 1920's-model car and is taken to a party, where he meets (you guessed it) the one and only F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gil's reaction would be the same as mine: speechless.
Gil discovers he can now travel to the past, where he talks romance and writing with the greatest artists of the 1920s, including Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, and more. He learns from these individuals. Could you ask for better mentors? I mean, what writer wouldn't want to go back in time and meet their idols? Midnight in Paris is a fun treat for every writer--who has a strong appreciation for classic writing.
---
There are so many more movies I could list in this post, but I don't have space for them. So, I will simply list them here:
1. "The Help"
 |
| Emma Stone in The Help (photo/The New York Times). |
Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, 2011's The Help tells the story of a young woman, Skeeter (Emma Stone), who sets out to write something of great importance. When all of her friends are getting married and having children, Skeeter wants to be a writer instead. Of course, as someone who is in the same boat as Skeeter, I can identify with her.
At first, Skeeter takes a job writing a cleaning column for the Jackson Journal, but after speaking with a publisher in New York City, she's inspired to write about how "the help" are treated in Mississippi. Skeeter, a young white woman, is thrust into the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement--interacting with African-American women who teach her a lesson she hardly expected. With powerful performances from Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, The Help is a beautiful film about a woman who stops at nothing to write a story she believes is right.
2. "The Shining"
 |
| Jack Nicholson in The Shining (photo/Esquire). |
I couldn't neglect Stephen King's iconic The Shining. The 1980 film adaptation is perhaps the best movie adaptation of King's writing. The classic horror set in a haunted hotel stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a former teacher who takes a job as the caretaker of an empty hotel for the winter. While there, he decides to pursue his true passion of writing, but of course, an evil presence lurks in the hotel.
With his wife and son staying at the hotel with him, Jack starts to go mad, eventually feeling compelled to murder his family. While his desire to become a writer is a minor element in the film, it's instrumental to one of the movie's most famous scenes--when Jack's wife looks at his manuscript, where only one line is written over and over on hundreds of pages: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Yikes.
3. "Sunset Boulevard"
 |
| Gloria Swanson and William Holden in Sunset Boulevard (photo/Old Hollywood Films). |
I'm a fan of Old Hollywood classic films, so I had to include the 1950 classic, Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder's masterpiece is a film noir treasure, as well as a beautiful film about writers. While the movie focuses on the story of Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) fading silent film career, the real engine of the film is William Holden's performance as Joe Gillis, a Hollywood screenwriter Norma hires to help her reclaim her relevance in the age of "talkies."
Sunset Boulevard is a love story, but it's also a direct commentary on the film industry. It's a film about screenwriting and filmmaking. Holden's Joe Gillis is a disturbingly deft portrait of a working writer. Sunset Boulevard should be watched (and studied) by every aspiring screenwriter.
4. "His Girl Friday"
 |
| Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (photo/The Criterion Collection). |
One of my favorite Old Hollywood films of all time, 1940's His Girl Friday is one of the best movies ever made about newspaper journalists. Yes, it's a comedy, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, but there's more to the film. The main characters (Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson) are a divorced couple who met and fell in love while working as journalists. Years later, Hildy is planning to remarry and leave the newspaper business.
Walter can't bear this idea--losing Hildy to another man, but also losing her as a talented reporter. When a hard-hitting investigative story lands on his desk, Walter convinces Hildy to join him on the story. She needs to write her final story, after all. Hildy agrees, and it doesn't take her long to get absorbed in the story. She's determined to get to the bottom of the case, like any good journalist does.
His Girl Friday is a timeless movie about journalists who stopped at nothing to report the facts--the truth. If you want to be reminded of how newspapers and journalists used to be, His Girl Friday is a brilliant movie demonstrating the passion journalists have in their stories.
5. "All the President's Men"
 |
| Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men (photo/Walker Art Center). |
All the President's Men could nearly pass as a documentary. The 1976 film, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, follows the rivalry and trials working for the Washington Post as they break one of the biggest stories (and maybe the biggest) of American politics ever--the 1976 burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex (otherwise known as the Watergate scandal). Redford and Hoffman's characters must form a connection as they investigate the scandal. Watching this movie should be a class requirement for every college journalism student.
6. "Adaptation"
 |
| Nicholas Cage in Adaptation (photo/Rob's Movie Vault). |
A film about several writers all at once, 2002's Adaptation is a multi-layered story about storytelling. The film follows Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) as he struggles to write a screenplay adaptation of The Orchid Thief (by Susan Orlean). He soon realizes the screenplay doesn't belong in Hollywood, which causes Charlie to panic, become neurotic and exhausted, and an endless array of hijinks ensues. He turns to his twin brother, Donald (also played by Cage).
Donald is also a screenwriter, but they're completely different writers. While they agree the story has some potential, they need to talk to the author, Suan Orlean (portrayed by Meryl Streep). There's something more to her original story, but can they talk to her? Connecting three different writers, Adaptation is funny, poignant, and an interesting look at how different personalities translate to the written page.
7. "Shakespeare in Love"
 |
| Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare in Love (photo/Doux Reviews). |
Audiences have been fascinated with William Shakespeare since the Renaissance period. So, of course, a movie eventually had to be made about his writing career--how he penned the famous plays high school students read in English classes and people still attend live performances today. The 1998 film Shakespeare in Love focuses on Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) as the central figure. As a younger man, he's broke and struggling as a playwright (compared to his main rival, Christopher Marlowe).
The film keeps the bald facts of Shakespeare's life but adds a fictional story to Shakespeare's biography with the lovely Viola De Lesseps (Gwenyth Paltrow), who desperately wants to become an actress (forbidden to women in the Renaissance era). Of course, Shakespeare and Viola fall in love in a tragic romance that inspires the playwright's most famous play: Romeo and Juliet. While Shakespeare in Love may not be entirely historically accurate, it's still a beautiful story of love and inspiration--focusing on Shakespeare writing (and rewriting) his famous plays.
8. "The Ghost Writer"
 |
| Ewan McGregor in The Ghost Writer (photo/Kevin Anderson & Associates). |
Ghostwriting is an interesting occupation. You write stories and novels for other authors (sometimes anonymously). That's the focus for the 2010 film, The Ghost Writer. Ewan McGregor plays "The Ghost," who is offered an extremely lucrative contract to finish the memoirs of Britain's retired Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). A previous ghostwriter left the memoirs half-finished, so it should be a fairly easy job for McGregor's character.
But "The Ghost" soon discovers that the book contains seriously sensitive material. Lang is at the center of a political crisis and is accused of criminal activity, which makes life more difficult for "The Ghost." He may be in danger himself. Was the previous ghostwriter killed for what he learned? Should "The Ghost" get out of the job while he still can? The Ghost Writer is a great thriller about writing, which is a breath of fresh air from other movie tropes.
9. "Never Been Kissed"
 |
| Drew Barrymore and Garry Marshall in Never Been Kissed (photo/Decider). |
While working on this blog post, I read other articles ranking the best movies about writers. I was disappointed to find the 1999 film Never Been Kissed absent from all of the articles. Maybe it's because it's a romantic comedy (which have a bad reputation), but it's still a movie with its entire plot focusing on journalism.
Josie Gellar (Drew Barrymore) is a copywriter at the Chicago Sun-Times, but she has always dreamed of being a writer. Because she's one of the youngest employees at the newspaper, she's assigned to pose as a high school student and report on how teenagers behaved in 1999. What were they thinking? What were they doing? She has to be an investigative journalist, so her dream is finally coming true.
But at the same time, Josie gets a second chance at high school. She was a geek in high school--constantly bullied by the popular kids. This was her chance to finally be popular. Josie gets consumed by this alternative reality she has adopted that it'll be heartbreaking when everyone finds out she's actually 25 years old and she's a newspaper journalist. How close can you really get to a story? That's the big question.
10. "Midnight in Paris"
 |
| Midnight in Paris (photo/The New York Times) |
Midnight in Paris is a brilliant movie. I'll just say that right now. The 2011 film stars Owen Wilson as Gil Pender, a successful Hollywood screenwriter who is unsatisfied with his writing life. He would rather be a novelist, working in Paris where his idols, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, lived and worked in the 1920s. Gil is so lost in the past and his fascination with writing that he struggles to fit into a world of non-writers.
Gil discovers something incredible: on a late-night stroll, he is picked up by a 1920's-model car and is taken to a party, where he meets (you guessed it) the one and only F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gil's reaction would be the same as mine: speechless.
Gil discovers he can now travel to the past, where he talks romance and writing with the greatest artists of the 1920s, including Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, and more. He learns from these individuals. Could you ask for better mentors? I mean, what writer wouldn't want to go back in time and meet their idols? Midnight in Paris is a fun treat for every writer--who has a strong appreciation for classic writing.
---
There are so many more movies I could list in this post, but I don't have space for them. So, I will simply list them here:
- Misery
- Barton Fink
- Julie and Julia
- Moulin Rouge
- Trumbo
- Spotlight
- Capote
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- Almost Famous
- Wonder Boys
- Sylvia
- The Pillow Book
- Kill Your Darlings
- The Hours
Writers are fascinating individuals. We're passionate, fun, philosophical (most of the time), creative, and curious. We love good stories; therefore, I'm glad good stories have been written about us. Writers are secret superheroes who stop at nothing to tell a story.
Watch these movies and more. They deserve some attention.
-KJL-
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