5 Awesome Movies About Books
Sure, you could celebrate the fact that March is National Reading Month by reading something – but you’re not Goddamn Albert Einstein. Instead, watch one of these movies about books.
The Princess Bride
For children of the ’80s, it’s one of the most beloved movie lines of all time: “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” The quintessential fairy tale comes to life after an old man (Peter Falk) brings a mysterious book to read aloud to his grandson (Fred Savage), who is home sick. Fun fact: Inigo Montoya is played by Mandy Patinkin, who now plays Saul Berenson on Homeland. And yes, you have aged that much, too.
Adaptation
Nic Cage channels eccentric real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in this amusingly bizarre dramedy, which centers on Kaufman’s efforts to adapt Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief into a screenplay. Like most of Kaufman’s films (see: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich), the storyline is complicated, absurd, and ultimately perfect.
The NeverEnding Story
Nope, the NeverEnding Story is not just a way to describe every story your girlfriend has ever told you – it’s the 1984 movie about a young boy who discovers a mythical world of adventure after stumbling upon a curious book of the same name. Spoiler Alert: It does, in fact, end. Eventually.
Book of Eli
In a post-apocalyptic world where outlaws reign supreme and trouble lurks behind every abandoned storefront, Denzel Washington must preserve the only known copy of a treasured book that may be the key to rebuilding civil society. But keeping it – and himself – safe won’t be easy. Luckily, Mila Kunis is there to help.
Stranger Than Fiction
If you suddenly became aware that every minute of your life was being narrated by the writer who created you, it would probably make for the world’s worst movie: “John brushed his teeth, then Googled ‘boobs’ for two hours before sitting down in the shower in the fetal position with a bottle of whiskey.” So it’s a good thing for everyone that when it happens in Stranger Than Fiction, the subject is Will Ferrell, and not you.
Photos by Photo: 20th Century-Fox / Everett Collection
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