Agantuk's Desk – Explore, Implore, Reverberate

Best Sellers, a film about a cranky old author who finds hope in a new publisher. Sounds familiar? The Michael Caine Aubrey Plaza starrer film looks even more familiar when you see the trailer. But despite the slow paced stereotypical old school story it isn’t the same. This odd duo starts on book tour road trip to publicize a book that can save the a dying publishing house run by a young girl, Lucy Stanbridge who inherited it from her famous editor father

This is a story that connects the 2 odd characters who have a common ground of desolation. The difference is one cares, the other doesn’t. The author simply wants to be left alone with his grief and pessimism while the young publisher seeks to stand out in the world. Together, they go out to find a middle ground. The film echoes many of the ethos of Caine’s recent movies but it stands out in spelling out the hope and redemption factor.

It’s indeed is a bittersweet heartwarming film which uses footage from Caine’s old Parkinson’s interview to establish the character of Harris Shaw. In many ways it would remind you of “Mr Morgan’s Last Love”, “Is Anybody There”, “Last Orders” and “Educating Rita”.

It’s too painful to watch at some points but hopeful at others. It’s somewhat like the student-teacher tale in Educating Rita where the student ends up teaching more to the teacher. Here too, the author ends up teaching more to the publisher.

In the end she gains everything to lose everything while he loses everything to gain everything.
In the end it’s all about redeeming yourself. Burning 40 years of your work might not redeem your burning soul but moments of truth and courage can.

“Be brave. Be truthful” it says. I would say watch it with care and give it time to decay.
Lina Roessler once again has done what she does best with her storytelling. I have been interested of her storytelling since I watched her short film, Mustard Seeds. As a directorial debut Best Sellers is quite good. It is dedicated to her father and watching this certainly reminded of mine. This might not be her best but it’s certainly good.

The music is by Paul Leonard-Morgan who does a good job in connecting the two odd persons who won’t even be in same room if they had their way but now have to go on road trip together.

There are some important subtle messages of how social media amplifies things and often makes or breaks a situation but never fully understands it. The cruel world of the publishing industry isn’t that much prominent here. It serves us a background for the personal story. It’s more of a tale of in-betweens which shows how misfit ‘Best Sellers’ are and that simply isn’t the end of your life. Caine’s character Harris Shaw had one such Best Seller in his life, the reality of which he understands later as he gives up his career for personal reasons. The film only has that much semblance with industry

The two leads are aptly suited for each other in their respective characters. Michael Caine as usual does his part in bringing reality and depth in his character like does for all other unlikeable characters that he played over the decades. The stares are different than his ‘Get Carter’ or other angry young man stares rather these are mellow stares of annoyance which spells distinterest and world bitter.

Aubrey Plaza plays the part in keeping Caine in humour while dealing with many of his idiosyncracies.

The second part is better than rest as you go more into the depth. The first part is the reason why it’s labelled as a comedy and pitched that way in the trailer but the treasure lies at the end.

Watch it with care and time in hand. Watching this film was like watching Michael Caine’s past 10 years of life – both in terms of films and interviews. In many places he uses the same words as he did in real life. Except certain circumstances and stories, the beliefs and convictions are similar