Author! Author!

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Michael B "Author, Author," has improved with age because of its top shelf casting, honest performances and a heart of gold story of a New York orphan. Flawed? Not really as this film was ahead of its time. Why? 1982 audiences would not have connected as well with the blended family and modern relationships between kids and the parents they choose. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 06/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Al Pacino is Ivan, the the author of his own life or is he? As a struggling playwright Ivan Travalian tries to get movie actress Alice Detroit (Dyan Cannon) to star in his new Broadway show, his personal life spins out of control Bored with their marriage, Ivan's wife, Gloria (Tuesday Weld), leaves him -- but she leaves him with not only their son but her children from previous marriages. As Ivan attempts to rewrite the second act of his play to his own satisfaction, he finds himself in the unfamiliar position of being a single parent Pacino plays the part well, I actually really like the kid actors too because they're almost on the same wavelength, and the film plays almost like a stage play in itself But it's not drab or sluggish like most of its kind We can't treat the people in our lives like characters in a play, there's stage drama and there's real-life drama, someone has to be the author of their own messy lives It's a subdued and often exceedingly deliberate drama that nevertheless remains quite watchable thanks to Pacino's commitment It's clear that there are no easy answers And thankfully, writer Israel Horovitz doesn't fake any; he lets us savor his hero's difficulty, at the same time taking a sharp, funny and satiric look at the Broadway and New York literary crowds Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review steve d Its cute but it isn't among Al Pacino's best. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Arthur Hiller was the king of feel-good cheese, and Author! Author! is so textbook that it might as well have been called Arthur! Arthur! The ending says it all... it's a rave review! Cue the corny music. I give it one star because Pacino delivers a brave performance and there's some decent child acting. How ironic, though, that a film called "Author! Author!" has such a horrendous screenplay! Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Sandwiched between the controversial Cruising and the controversial Scarface lies this Al Pacino vehicle that finds him as a dysfunctional play write, juggling a dead marriage, a house full of kids, and a fully backed play perpetually looking for its 3rd act. AP stars as Ivan Travalian, the atypical New York writer who comes home one day to find that his wife (TW) has left, leaving kids from various marriages throughout the house. Hilarity ensues as Ivan struggles to maintain a household, a career, and figure out whether or not he still loves his wife or the star of his play (DC). Author! Author! feels like a sitcom. I mean it really feels like a sitcom to the point that you'll be in hysterics at the title theme song. Pure Friday night on ABC drivel that doesn't really go anywhere, just spinning around in circles. The only thing that progresses in this film is the play. Everyone is in the same place as they were in the film, with Pacino epiphany being unheralded and lacking everything. Tuesday Weld plays her role as sympathetic to start, then you just don't care about the selfish.... Dyan Cannon is the rebound and pretty much disappears when her part of the story is over, which is sadly the best part of the film. If they could have dove into their relationship and how another adult deals with the offspring of another it would have made this film much more interesting. But it abandons that idea half way into it. Did AP lose his way after the greatness of his 70's films? It's hard to say, but AA is an unexcited, dull adventure into divorce Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Author! Author! (1982) ?? After his wife leaves him, Pacino is forced to take care of 10 or so rugrats while trying to write a play. Ill-conceived film wavers uncomfortably between realism and as a farce. We also never find out anything about the play Pacino is writing. A mess. Available on Netflix. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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