After recently watching the Michael Douglas ‘writer-in-crisis’ campus drama Wonder Boys (2000) the other night, following my Kirk Douglas retrospectives, I tried to recollect other films that have this particular pleasing melancholic-but-somehow-uplifting vibe. I’ve selected some snippets from a few of them below.
Although slow-moving and occasionally indulgent, these often winter-set pictures have a real appeal around this time of year, great in a ‘late night, I don’t want to go to bed’ kind of way – even if it’s work tomorrow… How about The Ice Storm?
Aside from those listed at the head of the piece, others include the J.D Salinger-esque trio of Tadpole, Igby Goes Down (both 2002) and Rushmore (1998), as well as Ghost World (2001).
And Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003) and the very underrated Somewhere (2010).
Unfortunately here in the UK we seem largely incapable (IMO) of replicating this particularly US feel. Honourable exceptions include This Year’s Love (1999) and 2010’s Submarine.
And I can’t forget the Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) a slow, teasing, rapturously moody romance with Michele Pfeiffer and Jeff and Beau Bridges.
Any more you crazy kids?
