James L. Brooks
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Connections, in both directions
A "Broadcast News"-type saga of life behind the camera on a struggling national morning news show based in Manhattan, "Morning Glory" starts beautifully and, though it doesn't quite go the distance, it certainly has the credentials to do so.
Not that it was striving to be "Broadcast News," but "Morning Glory" comes a lot closer in its sensibility to "That Girl."
This behind-the-scenes story about a failing television station doesn't have the depth of "Network" or "Broadcast News," but it doesn't need to in order to be entertaining, lighthearted and often surprising.
Written by Aline Brosh McKenna (“The Devil Wears Prada,”) and directed by Roger Mitchell (“Notting Hill”), this innocuous, formulaic romantic comedy combines elements of the sit-com “WKRP in Cincinnati” with “Working Girl,” “Broadcast News” and other commentaries on the sad state of television today, presenting a series of contrived obstacles that idealistic Becky must overcome.
“Morning Glory” is basically “Broadcast News” flipped on its head.
In order to fuel its phony, mostly unfunny narrative, " Morning Glory " advertises itself as a sharp comedy -- recycled body parts courtesy of " Broadcast News " -- about the death of hard news in an over-mediated environment that seeks only to amuse the masses to death.
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
influenced by Broadcast News (1987), Terms of Endearment (1983), As Good as It Gets (1997)
She sent it off to iconic producer James L. Brooks ( Terms of Endearment , Broadcast News , Jerry Maguire ) and hoped it get really, really lucky.
Craig working alongside producer James L. Brooks feels like a marvel: the man responsible for Terms of Endearment and Broadcast News brings a gravitas often lacking from teen fare (at least, lacking since the days of John Hughes), and Craig brings a fresh and singular perspective.
The Edge of Seventeen contains some frustrating elements, like its nondescript visual aesthetic (excluding Carla Hetland’s costume design and William Arnold’s production design, both of which are superb) and an overly sentimental prologue that recalls a similarly unnecessary one in Broadcast News, directed by The Edge of Seventeen producer James L. Brooks.
This is the man who directed such films as Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets, produced Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything and Jerry McGuire and created or produced TV classics including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi and The Simpsons .
As a filmmaker himself, Brooks has made movies like “Broadcast News” and “Terms of Endearment” that perfectly balance comedy and drama, big laughs and emotional honesty.
It’s reminiscent of James L. Brooks, the man behind “Broadcast News” and “Terms of Endearment,” who writes flawed characters with love and understanding.
Since it takes place largely on a live television show, it recalls both "Network" and "Broadcast News."
Roberts’ and Clooney’s easy interplay is enjoyable to watch – though their earpiece interactions aren’t a patch on Holly Hunter’s handling of William Hurt in James L. Brooks’ far sharper news satire Broadcast News.
In short, it's a mixture of the recent (and fabulous) dramedy "The Big Short" with Dustin Hoffman's terrific 1970s thriller "Dog Day Afternoon" by way of "Broadcast News."
When the film swerves from updating Dog Day Afternoon and Network and becomes Broadcast News with a gun to its head, the shift registers as part of a bait and switch.
The friction that bristles between the journalist's pragmatism and the superhero's guilelessness is matched by the electricity that sparks between the two actors playing them; Corenswet is never stronger than when his Kal-El cracks at the seams, while Brosnahan channels the same whip-smart, love-drunk brilliance that Holly Hunter brought to “Broadcast News,” but here in a role that requires her to act like she's dating Albert Brooks and William Hurt all at once.
That will no doubt remind Americans of concerns the movie “Broadcast News” raised 34 years earlier, although in that case, “the devil” was a far more compelling character.
It’s David Lynch doing Broadcast News (1987) all wrapped up in a Hollywood studio’s glossy ‘women’s picture’ sentiment (throw in a tinge of social commentary with a noir underbelly).
We first meet Lisa sitting in her car in the parking lot outside work, getting in a good, early morning weep before her long day begins, an introduction that instantly recalls the compressed crying fits of Holly Hunter’s Jane Craig in Broadcast News .
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Directed by George Clooney
influenced by Broadcast News (1987)
Themes
Essentially an homage to crusading newscaster pioneer Edward R. Murrow, the film pines for a yesteryear when truth seeking and candor triumphantly ruled the television air waves—themes more subtly and humorously explored in Paddy Chevsky's Network and James L. Brooks' Broadcast News.
A real Broadcast News influence, for example, would have led Lucy to end up with neither John nor Harry, but leaving in the back of a taxi cab.
One wishes she’d leaned more Nora Ephron than Broadcast News.
When it had its premiere at Sundance, Christine was immediately compared to Nightcrawler and, especially, Broadcast News: Hall’s Christine Chubbuck, like Holly Hunter’s Jane Craig, is the smartest person in the room and a bundle of insecurities.
When he talks movingly of the death of a former brilliant pupil, we are reminded of the scene from Broadcast News in which William Hurt’s careerist news reporter is conveniently caught crying on camera.
Enough Said (2013)
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
influenced by Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997)
Though she is often compared to Woody Allen, more likely models would seem to be two directors named Brooks: James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets) for his menschy comedies of flawed people seeking to connect, and Albert Brooks for his wry social satires.
Though she is often compared to Woody Allen, more likely models would seem to be two directors named Brooks: James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets) for his menschy comedies of flawed people seeking to connect, and Albert Brooks for his wry social satires.
Take Broadcast News , mix it with The Devil Wears Prada , and throw it into the bustling world of late night television, and you’ve got Late Night , the delightful and timely new comedy from first-time feature director Nisha Ganatra and screenwriter Mindy Kaling.
More a strongly femme Broadcast News and less The Devil Wears Prada , new comedy Late Night offers a look at the challenges of working on a comedy talk show while female, and to hilarious effect.
Writer Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network” and writer-director James L. Brooks’ “Broadcast News” are two ingenious assaults that might come to mind.
But both scenes are really just trumped-up versions of William Hurt’s post-produced crocodile tears in “Broadcast News,” and anything but shocking at a time when we’ve come to expect professional framing and lighting from even an ISIS beheading video.
But truthfully, it isn’t saying anything about the relationship between the media and society — and the toxic and symbiotic voyeurism that fuels it — that hadn’t been said already, decades earlier, in eerily prescient films from “Ace in the Hole” (1951) to “Network” (1976) to “Broadcast News” (1987).
What Gilroy and Gyllenhaal are up to here is a kind of amped-up Broadcast News meets Network meets Bringing Out the Dead for the TMZ and reality show era.
What was once prophetic in movies like Network and Broadcast News is now commonplace.
Intimately concerned with the embarrassment and difficulty of constant repositioning and mutual readjustments and with all the ethical issues that arise from this activity--the same sort of issues that abound in the films of Leo McCarey (such as My Son John and An Affair to Remember) and Vincente Minnelli (such as The Cobweb and The Band Wagon)--these interactions are the mother lode that all of Brooks's features have been searching for.
Intimately concerned with the embarrassment and difficulty of constant repositioning and mutual readjustments and with all the ethical issues that arise from this activity--the same sort of issues that abound in the films of Leo McCarey (such as My Son John and An Affair to Remember) and Vincente Minnelli (such as The Cobweb and The Band Wagon)--these interactions are the mother lode that all of Brooks's features have been searching for.
In last month’s Empire , Judd Apatow said that he increasingly wants to hit the tone of the films that shaped him — most notably the work of Hal Ashby ( Being There , Harold And Maude ) and James L. Brooks ( Terms Of Endearment , Broadcast News ).
Hawn, in theory at least, is supposed to be playing one of those cranky maternal comic nightmares, like Shirley MacLaine in “Terms of Endearment” or “Postcards from the Edge” or — to tie it to the franchise era of Mother’s-Day-weekend-as-marketing concept — Jane Fonda in “Monster-in-Law.”
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Directed by Adam McKay
influenced by Broadcast News (1987)
Themes
Those are easy targets to skewer, but not unlike “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Murphy Brown” or “Broadcast News,” the movie is broad and harmless, mining more truth from its subject than some in the biz will want to admit.
Like Network and Broadcast News, the film turns a satirical eye towards the behind-the-scenes goings-on at a station.
Male chauvenisum at the onset of the sexual revolution is an easy target and the glibness of handsome faces delivering the daily events goes back to Broadcast News.
A quarter of a century after "Terms of Endearment," she's old enough to play the formidable mother now, instead of the difficult daughter, and her parent here is a complicated and dangerous character, so utterly closed off and controlled that when her anger comes, it's an explosion.
Along the way, we slowly gather insights into the characters - the fraught relationship between Kym and her father (Bill Irwin), and, especially, Kym and her mother (Debra Winger, who's retained a thing or two about withholding moms from "Terms of Endearment").
Intimately concerned with the embarrassment and difficulty of constant repositioning and mutual readjustments and with all the ethical issues that arise from this activity--the same sort of issues that abound in the films of Leo McCarey (such as My Son John and An Affair to Remember) and Vincente Minnelli (such as The Cobweb and The Band Wagon)--these interactions are the mother lode that all of Brooks's features have been searching for.