Telling a story about a creative journey isn’t as easy as it looks. There are plenty of dodgy biopics out there that play connect-the-dots between someone’s life and their art in a way that trivialises both; attempts to dig down into how art is actually made can struggle to dramatise what is often a very internal process.
Each element is firmly established before moving onto the next, and even the big drama in the third act is kept to a plausible level. Some of the resolutions may seem a bit pat (long term troubles aren’t often solved quite so easily), but charitably they can be read as the characters taking a first step down a long road.
Anthony Morris is a freelance film and television writer. He’s been a regular contributor to The Big Issue, Empire Magazine, Junkee, Broadsheet, The Wheeler Centre and Forte Magazine, where he’s currently the film editor. Other publications he’s contributed to include Vice, The Vine, Kill Your Darlings (where he was their online film columnist), The Lifted Brow, Urban Walkabout and Spook Magazine. He’s the co-author of hit romantic comedy novel The Hot Guy, and he’s also written some short stories he’d rather you didn’t mention. You can follow him on Twitter @morrbeat and read some of his reviews on the blog It’s Better in the Dark.
