Twenty-five years ago, director Curtis Hanson (8 Mile, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) followed up his widely acclaimed crime drama classic LA Confidential with this quirky adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel of the same name.  This tells the simple story of Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) who wrote ONE great novel several years and is having.....some difficulties....writing the follow-up.  Beyond that, he has one headmaster's wife (Frances McDormand) who he's been having an affair with, a highly impressionable much younger student (Katie Holmes) who is enamored with him, a nebbishy editor/publisher (Robert Downey Jr.) who keeps hounding him for that next book, and.....a wayward student James Leer (Tobey Maguire) whom he gets mixed up with in some incident involving a dog that gets shot.  James Leer also looks up to Grady and also just might be The Next Great American Writer.  And there's more plot and several more characters to boot....plot is almost incidental as this Pittsburgh-set character comedy has more to it than plot.  How about interesting characters, comical situations, and loads of fun dialogue to boot!

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

https://livingforthecinema.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/

Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/