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Author! Author!

Author! Author!

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 1982

A broadway playwright is burning the candle at both ends. He is dealing with pressure from a production nearing premiere, a wife who is leaving him, and 5 children 4 of which belong to her.

Movie details

Author! Author!

“Anyone can be a father. But not every father deserves a standing ovation.”

1982 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 50m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.2 / 10

5.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

50 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

42 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A broadway playwright is burning the candle at both ends. He is dealing with pressure from a production nearing premiere, a wife who is leaving him, and 5 children 4 of which belong to her.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Author! Author!?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Arthur Hiller

Written by

Israel Horovitz

Al Pacino

Al Pacino

Ivan Travalian

Dyan Cannon

Dyan Cannon

Alica Detroit

Tuesday Weld

Tuesday Weld

Gloria Travalian

Bob Dishy

Bob Dishy

Morris Finestein

Bob Elliott

Bob Elliott

Patrick Dicker

Ray Goulding

Ray Goulding

Jackie Dicker

Eric Gurry

Eric Gurry

Igor

Court is in session

Put Author! Author! on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.