Best Sellers

Best Sellers is a great feel-good movie and a fitting ending to a legendary career. The film follows Aubrey Plaza, who is a young struggling publisher. In order to save her company, she seeks outs Michael Caine, a cranky, retired author who is still under contract. Supposedly this is going to be Sr. Michael Caine's final film, and while anything is possible, it certainly feels likes the end of an era. And while this probably won't go down as his greatest movie, he still gives an amazing and emotional performance. Aubrey Plaza, who I feel like you never know what you are going to get from her, also does a fantastic job with what she is given to work with. ITs not a perfect film, but the two main actors have great chemistry, and they really make you care about the characters. I would give it a watch for Michael Caine alone.

Best Sellers won't disappoint much people. There's a captivating story, sometimes sentimental, sometimes funny, and some good actors. For the funny parts it was mostly due to the character of Ellen Wong, for the sentimental parts the difficult relarionship between Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza. Ellen Wong had a smaller part but was funny. Michael Caine (already 88 years old) still has it. Audrey Plaza in a slightly different role that we're normally used of did okay. I can't say I was bored by this movie, on the contrary it's an engaging story easy to follow. Best Sellers isn't a fast paced action movie, it's rather slow, a lot of conversations, but they all add something to the emotional story.

Agency rights are truly a personal perspective and market gamble. When a publishing house releases a book and markets it, it's essentially endorsing the author's values. This mirrors the world of agency rights in the marketplace, where you're betting on the value and impact of a product and how well it aligns with consumers through the supply chain. In the movie, there isn't much emphasis on why Lucy Stanbridge took such a gamble on Harris Shaw or if she was simply left with no choice but to trust the contract her father left behind. However, as depicted in the trailer, it becomes evident that it's only through experiencing the ups and downs together that partners can build trust and have unwavering faith that Harris Shaw can indeed write a good book. The film, in essence, is a light-hearted take on the subject.

Michael Caine makes it all seem so natural and beautiful. And Plaza is like the cherry on top, she's always at her best.

Writers, novel writers certainly, should rise up against their movie cliché. In movies, painters and musicians are presented as sociable, attractive even, characters, but book writers are alcoholic misanthropes whose only company are cats.

This film takes this and similar tropes and applies the movie cliché of incompatible partners/opposites coming to like each other as well as the old man and young woman dichotomy, both of whom are on their uppers, albeit in different ways. Formulas are proven and so we are set on our way.

While the premise is established, the journey, literally, does offer some fresher angles, at least in terms of the publishing business. The blunt speech, calling cant for what it is, the pervasiveness of social media and celebrity, the shallowness of our culture, are done comically and with effect. How the calque curse word took hold is a mystery.

The pacing and editing keep things going well as we move from one plot point to the next and although it's not necessarily new material, the energy does not flag. The photography and locations are striking, somber and moody, wintry light which adds a more realistic edge to the narrative.

But the reason to stay with this story are the performances. Casting can elevate a film even if the other aspects are a little staid and that's what is on show here. Caine and Plaza hold it together as both leads take us through the journey where their antagonism turns to friendship. It's sentimental, just like the movie poster of Caine grinning.

They are supported with a good team of actors too and while the humans did their job admirably, the cat deserves an award for a memorable and nuanced cameo performance; perhaps even Best Supporting Actor would be fitting, if species rules are not still enforced.