#22: Wonder Boys (2000) (dir. Curtis Hanson)

“Nobody teaches a writer anything. You tell'em what you know. You tell'em to find their voice and stay with it. You tell the ones that have it to keep at it. You tell the ones that don't have it to keep at it too because that's the only way they're gonna get to where they're going." - Grady Tripp

If there’s ever been an appropriate movie to experience writer’s block with, it’s Wonder Boys. Well, okay Adaptation is probably more apt since our lead character Grady in Wonder Boys has the opposite problem. (“He never made any choices”). Nevertheless, this is a film about writing and writers struggling to maintain stability both in their work and with their behavior. I haven’t felt quite stable enough to sit down and write after recently being promoted at my library job. It isn’t pressure, it’s depression. I go through this phase at the beginning of the summer to where I often wonder if I still love movies the way I used to. 

It feels like my mind never leaves the workplace now, which is good and bad. It means I am passionate, dedicated and loyal to the profession I’ve chosen. Bad in that I come home and don’t feel like being creative or productive like I had when I was only working 6-hour shifts. I think the commute time as well has also made me feel like a zombie when I get home. 

I’ve been indulging in some comfort watches since I think the transition has stirred some depression and imposter syndrome. I don’t know if I can handle the workload but I’m so grateful for the opportunity, not to mention the chance to make the kind of money I’ve needed to make for a long time. The film that came up on the randomizer is probably my go-to comfort watch, one I’ve seen the most. It’s a film by Curtis Hanson called Wonder Boys adapted by Steve Kloves from a book written by Michael Chabon.

As a critic, I can point out the fact that the film is a bit meandering, doesn’t have enough Rip Torn and is a little too hung up on the fact that Crabtree’s first love interest happens to be trans. Also, there’s a scene that I would’ve liked to have seen in which Crabtree bails Leer out of getting in trouble. Things also do wrap up a little too neatly, but all is forgiven. This is a case of me putting criticisms aside and letting myself enjoy this hangout picture in a way not unlike I do with a film such as Jackie Brown. It feels like revisiting old college buddies. 

Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas, easily my favorite performance of his) is a celebrated English professor at a small university. Grady was once regarded as a literary luminary, but it has been seven years since his critically acclaimed Arsonist's Daughter was published. His editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) is itching to release the much-anticipated follow-up, but the author keeps putting him off. It isn't that Grady is suffering from writer's block, but he can't figure out how to end his latest novel - an epic endeavor that is at least twice the length of War & Peace.

Grady's personal life is a mess. His wife has left him. His married girlfriend, Sarah Gaskell (Frances McDormand), who also happens to be the college's chancellor, is pregnant with his child. And a student named Hannah (Katie Holmes), who rents a room in his house, has a huge crush on him. Then there's the bizarre case of James Leer (a hilarious Tobey Maguire), a brooding, brilliant young man with unlimited writing potential who also may be suffering from depression and an identity crisis of sorts. Grady decides to take James under his wing and teach him a little about life. The experience turns out to be much more unexpected than Grady anticipated.

What’s exceptional about the film is how Hanson orchestrates a free-flowing quality and relaxed pacing. For some, maybe it’s too relaxed, much like our protagonist. It does feel like a calmer, reflective take on a character like Jeff Bridges’ The Dude sans the surrealism. Granted, The Dude probably wouldn’t make for a great educator. At any other pace, the story could exist as a screwball comedy or slowed down into a chilly, austere tragedy.

Wonder Boys works so well because of the story’s aimlessness, showcasing how Grady floats through life without a set plan in mind and how James has yet to truly find himself even if he’s talented. It feels like a 70s film - a ramshackle character study that veers from being extremely funny to melancholic (due in part to Bob Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet,” a song that fits this story pitch perfectly). Somehow tonally it never veers off course in a way that other dramedies do. Or nowadays they’ve become too stale and compartmentalized into the dreaded “Sundance indie” darling that now makes a lot of people yawn.

This didn’t strike a chord for many in the way it did for me, and it makes me wonder if folks watching it for the first time today would simply shrug it off. Even on opening weekend, when I saw it, the theater was barely half full. In an interview with Amy Taubin for the Village Voice, Hanson said of his film’s advertising, “The very things that made Michael Douglas and I want to do the movie so badly were the reasons it was so tricky to market. Since films go out on so many screens at once, there’s a need for instant appeal. But Wonder Boys isn’t easily reducible to a single image or a catchy ad line.”

What’s indelible for me is the fact that some movies exist to simply make me feel better and smile nearly through the entire running time. Don’t ask me about why I laugh so hard at the delivery of Tobey Maguire saying the word “knapsack” at one point. Or him licking a powdered donut. James Leer is someone I instantly identified with twenty years ago in the same way I did his character in The Ice Storm (which might explain one of my first crushes was Katie Holmes when this came out). Maguire is one of those actors that charms me even if I don’t think he does anything outside of ‘amusing’ or enjoyable. In other words, he doesn’t have a lot of range, but I like Maguire being Maguire. Which even holds true when he’s playing a beloved superhero. Actually Spider-man gets into bed with Iron Man at one point so there’s that element to savor as well!

Michael Douglas has given a fair share of good performances playing different characters but right around winning awards for Wall Street, he just became pigeonholed as the privileged, oversexed white yuppie who starred in a variety of thrillers in the 90s. His take on Grady was refreshing after being typecast as a singular version of a rather played-out archetype. Douglas doesn’t attempt for a moment to be ‘sexy’ especially when he’s stumbling around in a pink bathrobe and slippers. He even has these “spells” that indicate some vertigo or withdrawal effects from various substances leaving his system. Slyly, this is also about someone who masks his self-loathing with pills, pot and booze to a degree that is troubling, but he also appears to be mostly functional. I know he is loosely based on a professor that Chabon had but Douglas really makes Grady Tripp all his own and it’s wonderful to see. Even the house he lives in does feel grounded in academia / college town territory. Hanson’s attention to detail deserves every bit as much acclaim as the actors do here.

Curtis Hanson’s career is a fascinating one having started out with domestic thrillers that I also happen to enjoy along with the award-winning L.A Confidential being his most acclaimed work. He’s someone I would like to explore further and watch everything eventually, only because everything I’ve seen, I’ve either really liked or loved. Somehow, he was the perfect fit this material at the time even if he doesn’t make it entirely cinematic. Honestly, I would have to imagine a recent TV show like Lucky Hank must’ve been inspired or influenced by Hanson’s subtle work here. But he is also not The Coen Brothers so don’t expect that level of direction - it’s just exactly the right place at the right time for Hansen here.

Robert Downey Jr., is another who got lost along the way for those very reasons that were highly publicized. This is a role that represents his strengths that would later be cemented in something like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and now we’re at a time when I hope his career bounces out of the world of comic book superheroes and back into performances like the one he gave in Zodiac. As Crabtree, Grady’s editor, he does seem to portray being broken and lost very well here. Not to mention his penchant for being impulsive in a different way than Grady, this time he’s driven by lust. The three men here play off one another so well throughout, highlighted by a scene where they each make up a story around a certain standout character named “Vernon” who comes into play later on. A lot of supporting turns here are memorable and keep an eye out for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fresh-faced Rob McElhenney late in the film.

Rip Torn is given little to do which is surprising given he’s Rip Torn. Sadly, Katie Holmes is also very much like she is in films like The Ice Storm and The Gift, an object of desire and not much else that’s fully fleshed out. Though this time she’s pining for the older, wiser professor and he’s not reciprocating, thankfully. Frances McDormand fares better but really this is about the main two men and their struggles for self-actualization in the midst of depression and stagnation. Something that I personally understand quite well. I can openly admit this is a flawed film but it’s just one that brings me great joy every time I go back to it for mostly simple pleasures. The dialogue, these characters, even the academic surroundings and random asides and weird characters all feel at home here. 

The reason I think of Jackie Brown is because any time I go back to that world, there’s a similar comfort in experiencing that story with those same people time and time again, even if I know how things play out. I recently interviewed Matt Johnson (Blackberry) who actively tries to avoid re-watching movies which is an interesting and unexpected angle to take when it comes to cinephilia especially when, yes, there are still so many films I’d love to see for the first time. But when you have a hard day, maybe you want to revisit something familiar and safe. There’s a reason why I kept going back to watch Groundhog Day at the local theater when my parents were possibly on the verge of divorce.

Wonder Boys isn’t really “deep” or something you can parse in a philosophical or psychological way, it just is a great dramedy that does feel like a warm cup of coffee on a cold winter morning. I watched it first thing on a day when I felt like crap and it changed my mood entirely. That and the fact that Tobey Maguire plays a bit of a movie nerd doesn’t hurt especially when he’s drinking bourbon and hearing Judy Garland singing “Good Morning.” If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face along with nearly every moment in this, then I’m glad it does for me especially since I fear being overwhelmed more than usual, but for good reasons.

Plus I understand the writer’s mind. I wish I were more like James Leer, but we do share the same initials. I’ll never be “fit as a fucking fiddle.” (Oh, the amounts of quotable dialogue that live inside my head from having seen this so much). Not to mention the fact that I would’ve loved to have read Leer’s novel after The Love Parade in which he is clearly writing about time spent with his professor. The words that Crabtree reads off the typewriter at one point are among the best in the entire film, summing up a lot about what’s going on in both Tripp and Leer.

The Bob Dylan song featured in the opening and closing credits hit me harder now more than ever this past week. “Things Have Changed,” because they certainly have in my life. And it’s “Not Dark Yet” even if I feel it seeping in from time to time. 20 years ago, I went to college specifically to become a writer. You can imagine my instant connection to this achingly personal story about going to college and wanting to be a writer from the point of view of a character named James. Two decades later, I feel more like Grady though I mostly stumble through writing in ways that often disappoint me. The goal is to keep writing in the same way I practice guitar or go for walks or watch my diet. No longer am I filled with wonder but now it’s about consistency, survival, comfort and hopefully, more joy. All of that and being able to find the free time to write as well.