ten Very best Fictional Writers in Motion pictures, Ranked

Writing a excellent film character can be a challenging job. Much more normally than not, the characters that go down in history as audience favorites have an emotionally resonant arc, a vivid character that tends to make them really feel really alive, and a compelling motivation that audiences can relate to. What is specifically entertaining, nevertheless, is when a screenwriter writes a character who’s a writer, adding a thing of a meta angle, even if the film is not necessarily meta itself.

Lots of entertaining and fascinating characters from films are in the magical profession of coming up with wealthy worlds that really feel lived-in and stories that audiences appear forward to. From films that are straight about writing, like The Wife, to ones that are about a thing else completely but have a writer involved, like Stalker, these characters’ operate is normally utilised as a automobile for themes about the really nature of storytelling itself. These are the ideal fictional writers in films, permitting a special viewpoint for audiences and providing their stories a bit of an added kick.

ten Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright)

‘American Fiction’ (2023)

The current Oscar-winning American Fiction is about a novelist, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), who’s tired of the establishment’s habit of profiting from Black entertainment. So, below a pen name, he writes a book that he intends as a mockery of modern American society, but which alternatively propels him into the heart of the hypocrisy he claims to disdain.

At the heart of American Fiction lie two films. A single is a poignant loved ones drama, and the other is a single of the ideal satires in current memory. The character of Monk completely transitions from a single location to the other. As funny as he is compelling, complete of fascinating layers and with a complicated motivation that evolves all through the story, he has a magnetic presence that viewers can not get adequate of. Wright’s Oscar-nominated overall performance additional elevates this curious character, generating him a single of the ideal fictional writers.

American Fiction

Release Date

December 22, 2023

Director

Cord Jefferson

Runtime

117 minutes

Writers

Cord Jefferson , Percival Everett

9 T.S. Garp (Robin Williams)

‘The Planet According to Garp’ (1982)

The Planet According to Garp is a single of Robin Williams‘s ideal films, but it is most absolutely also a single of his weirdest. It is complete of absurdist comedy and the most random gags, from a plane crashing into a residence in the suburbs out of nowhere to Robin Williams biting a dog’s ear off. It is the story of Garp, a young writer who lives in the shadow of his mother, whose autobiography accidentally created her the leader of a feminist revolution.

Garp is a complex character with dreams, ambitions, frustrations, and sadness. The casting of Robin Williams in the function was genius this was only his third film and his 1st somewhat dramatic function, and he nailed even the deepest nuances of his complicated component. Specifically as the story keeps moving along and the film begins expanding extra and extra tragic, Williams gradually transitions from dramedy to pure pathos without having sacrificing his signature charm.

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eight William Forrester (Sean Connery)

‘Finding Forrester’ (2000)

Its story is not precisely groundbreaking, and its white savior tropes have not aged all that effectively, but even then, Obtaining Forrester is a fairly excellent and endearing film. It stars Sean Connery in a single of his ideal roles, playing the component of a renowned writer named William Forrester. He decides to assistance Jamal (Rob Brown), a 16-year-old student, learn his innate writing talent by mentoring and enrolling him in a prestigious college.

Forrester begins the film as a bit of a conflict-avoiding recluse. When he meets Jamal, nevertheless, it is not only him that requires on the function of a teacher. Whilst he shows Jamal how to learn and make the ideal of his expertise, so also does Jamal force him to come out of his shell and have the courage to reside life to the fullest. Even when their stories closely stick to the genre’s tropes, there is constantly a thing irresistibly charming about excellent films about inspirational teachers. Connery totally embodies the reclusive writer tropes, playing Forrester as sensible, somewhat conceited, and slightly eccentric.

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7 The Writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn)

‘Stalker’ (1979)

Even though it had a brutal production procedure, reportedly getting indirectly accountable for the death of lots of crew members and even director Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker will constantly be remembered as a single of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. It is the story of a man who leads two males, a single professor and a single writer, by way of a mysterious location referred to as the Zone to obtain a Space that grants visitors’ innermost desires.

Frequent Tarkovsky collaborator Anatoly Solonitsyn plays the Writer, a man who embodies Stalker‘s themes of faith, how it is founded on human connections, and what takes place when it is lost. Tarkovsky constantly had a special way of writing characters, which helped him make some of the ideal foreign arthouse films of all time. They have a deeply dreamlike way of speaking, and their personalities match his stories’ surreal tone. The Writer is no exception, his layered motivations and Solonitsyn’s exceptional overall performance generating him a single of Tarkovsky’s most fascinating characters.

Stalker

Release Date

May well 25, 1979

Director

Andrei Tarkovsky

Cast

Alexander Kaidanovsky

Runtime

162 minutes

six Paul Sheldon (James Caan)

‘Misery’ (1990)

A single of the ideal adaptations of Stephen King‘s terrifying operate that the silver screen has ever observed, Misery ditches the author’s usual taste for the supernatural in favor of a significantly extra human and significantly scarier horror thriller. In it, a renowned author experiences a automobile crash and is rescued by a recluse fan of his. He quickly realizes that the care he’s getting is only the starting of a nightmare of captivity and abuse.

Kathy Bates is transcendental as the horrifying Annie Wilkes, a function for which she deservedly got an Oscar, and the late James Caan is an fascinating casting option for the function of the writer Paul Sheldon. It is constantly straightforward to empathize with a person going by way of horrors like the ones Paul has to endure, but he’s far from just a straightforward victim. There is a rugged texture to his character, and his flaws make his desperate attempts at escape all the extra gripping. As a writer attempting to venture out from his usual brand, Paul is also relatable, specially amidst the ongoing debate of commercialism versus art.

Misery

Release Date

November 30, 1990

Cast

James Caan , Kathy Bates , Richard Farnsworth , Frances Sternhagen , Lauren Bacall , Graham Jarvis

Runtime

107 minutes

five Joan Castleman (Glenn Close)

‘The Wife’ (2017)

Led by a jaw-dropping turn by the legendary Glenn Close, The Wife is a single of the actress’s ideal films. It is an understated character drama about a wife (Close) questioning her life selections as she travels to Stockholm to see her husband (a magnificent Jonathan Pryce) obtain the Nobel Prize for Literature. The truth? For decades, she has been ghostwriting all of her husband’s operate.

The Wife is a tremendously highly effective study of the nature of toxic marriages and the destructive energy of narcissism meeting selflessness. Director Björn Runge‘s subtle method lends the story a significantly extra potent emotional punch, permitting Close and Pryce to shine. The character of Joan Castleman is brilliantly written, and mixed with Close’s capacity to make good characters even extra nuanced and complicated, she becomes a single of the most fascinating protagonists of any film of the 2010s. The Wife could’ve gone deeper in its exploration of the correct nature of artistry, but Close’s depiction of a frustrated writer will ring correct to lots of out there.

The Wife

Release Date

August 17, 2018

Director

Björn Runge

Runtime

105 Minutes

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four Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson)

‘The Shining’ (1980)

It is not uncommon to see Stanley Kubrick praised as a single of the greatest filmmakers of all time, and his adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel of the very same title, The Shining, as a single of the ideal horror films ever created. It is the tale of a loved ones heading to an isolated hotel for the winter, exactly where the husband has agreed to grow to be the short-term caretaker, looking for peace and quiet to create his novel. Having said that, a sinister presence in the hotel begins influencing him into violence.

A single of the most stylized horror films of the ’80s, The Shining intelligently and terrifyingly explores a single of Kubrick’s favored themes: the nature of violence and the duality of man. This theme is embodied in the character of Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson at the prime of his game. The explanation why Jack is such a excellent villain is due to the fact, deep down, audiences know that he’s a excellent loved ones man who has been unfortunate adequate to be possessed by the spirits of the Overlook Hotel. Jack embodies the inherent frustrations of getting a writer, struggling with one’s inner conflicts though attempting to create operate that matters. His difficulties manifest as supernatural threats, but his struggle to obtain inspiration ahead of succumbing to darkness remains relatable.

The Shining

Release Date

May well 23, 1980

Director

Stanley Kubrick

Cast

Jack Nicholson , Shelley Duvall , Danny Lloyd , Scatman Crothers , Barry Nelson , Philip Stone

Runtime

146 minutes

three Jesse Wallace (Ethan Hawke)

The ‘Before’ Trilogy (1995-2013)

Richard Linklater‘s Ahead of Trilogy is likely the ideal romance film franchise of all time, exploring the notion of relationships and romantic adore as opposed to something else the genre has ever observed. Ahead of Sunrise—one of the ideal romantic films of the 90s—depicts the poetic and idealized nature of young adore. Ahead of Sunset poignantly explores the feeling of regret and seeking back that lots of folks knowledge in their thirties. Lastly, Ahead of Midnight caps points off with a single of the most raw and realistic depictions of adore cinema has ever observed.

The series charts the romance in between Jesse Wallace (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy), two folks brought with each other by fate. Every single installment’s script is phenomenal, providing Jesse a special and charming way of speaking, along with an enchanting but complex character. Possessing grown up in a dysfunctional loved ones, his outlook on life and relationships is dosed with just a hint of cynicism, a viewpoint which evolves considerably all through his partnership with Céline. Jesse is the ultimate bohemian writer, a romanticized take that may well be slightly unattainable but is no significantly less compelling.

Ahead of Sunrise

Release Date

January 27, 1995

Director

Richard Linklater

Runtime

105 minutes

Writers

Richard Linklater , Kim Krizan

two Jo March (Saoirse Ronan)

‘Little Women’ (2019)

Louisa May well Alcott‘s seminal novel Small Females has observed a quantity of adaptations in each films and Television more than the years. The ideal a single, even though, is arguably Greta Gerwig‘s 2019 revision of the story, about a young lady named Jo March reflecting on her life. She tells the story of the March sisters, 4 girls determined to reside life on their terms.

A single of Gerwig’s ideal films, Small Females is specifically sturdy due to the fact it is unafraid to discover the story’s feminist overtones a lot extra openly and deeply, a thing that the novel wasn’t fairly in a position to do due to the time when it was published. Permitting Jo to be totally devoted to her literary operate created her even stronger and extra fascinating without having negating her will need for adore, as a result denying the trope that correct artistry needs complete sacrifice. Jo is a timeless heroine, and Gerwig discovered the ideal actress to play her in the remarkable Saoirse Ronan.

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1 Charlie and Donald Kaufman (Nicolas Cage)

‘Adaptation.’ (2002)

Just place, Charlie Kaufman is a single of the most inventive and brilliant screenwriters in the Hollywood method. His private experiences in the sector are possibly ideal exemplified in Adaptation., a single of his ideal scripts and a single of director Spike Jonze‘s ideal films. Kaufman was hired to adapt Susan Orlean‘s The Orchid Thief for the massive screen, discovering the job practically nothing quick of not possible. In his struggle, he alternatively wrote an exceptionally meta film about him attempting to create the adaptation when his fictional twin brother Donald (the only Oscar nominee who does not truly exist) crashes at his residence.

Adaptation. is practically nothing quick of genius, a delightfully earnest and hilariously neurotic meditation on writer’s block, inspiration, and how stories reflect reality in all its chaos. Kaufman’s self-insertion, flawlessly embodied by a profession-ideal Nicolas Cage, is an extremely entertaining character to adhere to about. His dynamic with Donald, who’s just as fascinating a character (largely due to the fact he’s a figment of Charlie’s subconscious), is the beating heart of the film. There is no writer like Charlie Kaufman, and there are no two characters like him and his brother.

Adaptation.

Release Date

February 14, 2003

Runtime

115 Minutes

Writers

Susan Orlean , Charlie Kaufman

Subsequent: The Very best Motion pictures About Writing, from ‘Adaptation’ to ‘The Shining’