Episode 1 - Wonder Boys

For their debut episode, Ed & Vivi discuss this unfairly forgotten but still fit as a fu#%!ng fiddle classic from the very early 21st Century

Episode 1 – Published on Jun 2021

Written by Ed Mac

Spiel

Towards the end of 1998, film director Curtis Hanson was trying to decide what to do next. His previous film, LA Confidential, had been an unmitigated triumph. Based upon hard-boiled crime novelist James Ellroy’s vast, labyrinthian magnum opus of bad hoods and even some even badder cops, Hanson’s film of LA Confidential accomplished what had previously been impossible: creating a thrilling and coherent 2 and a half hour movie out of a large, dense and years-spanning crime saga that jettisoned huge swaths of narrative and plot development, but never sacrificing the soul of the novel. It remains a towering achievement of 90’s cinema and posed as a formidable act to follow. It’s easy to imagine Hanson feeling overwhelmed at the thought of having to follow up an instant classic, and the questions he must have asked himself: What do I do now? Will it be as good as the last one? How can I even hope for that to be the case? Is it worth even trying?

Luckily for him and for us, Hanson happened upon a story that was about those very questions. He received a script called “Wonder Boys.” This was also an adaptation, with Michael Chabon’s novel of the same name having been released in 1995. The story is about Grady Tripp, a creative writing professor based in the cold climes of Pittsburgh, attempting to follow up his critically idolised, but seven years removed, debut novel. He appears to be gripped by self-doubt, constantly craving the comfort of his wife’s pink dressing gown and a hit of marijuana, Grady appears on the way to some sort of crisis: he is having fainting spells, his editor, the incorrigible Terry Crabtree, is hounding him about the new book, his wife has just left him and his mistress is pregnant. To top it all off, Grady gets caught up in the goings-on of his most talented student, the mysterious James Leer. Over the course of a few days with James and Terry, Grady will come to learn some harsh but necessary lessons about himself and the nature of genius that will ultimately lead him to a better place. Before then, he just has to deal with a dead dog, a madman who wants his car, an infatuated student and a stolen jacket that used to belong to Marilyn Monroe. Simple right?

Hanson decided it was worth it, and his film of Wonder Boys was released in US cinemas in February 2000. Although generally well received by critics, Wonder Boys was ignored at the box office. This was a perplexing turn of events for many, so much so that producers created a completely new advertising campaign for a re-release at the end of the year, timed to coincide with Oscar voting for that year. It did receive the Oscar for Bob Dylan’s wonderful title song “Things have changed” and nominations for Steve Kloves’ script and industry veteran Dede Allen’s editing. Beyond these achievements, though, the film was again ignored. Wonder Boys, at least in terms of reception, was certainly no LA Confidential.

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