The Player (1992)
Directed by Robert Altman
Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a Hollywood studio executive blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected months earlier. The problem for Griffin is that he has cast off and badly abused so many writers that he cannot remember whom specifically is out to get him. Robert Altman’s satiric look inside Hollywood’s studio system perfectly captures the malaise of life as a screenwriter. That Altman and writer Michael Tolkin (who wrote the novel the film is based on) manage to center the story on a studio executive and yet still focus on the trials and tribulations of writer neglect, is to be applauded, especially since the writer is ultimately peripheral to the story.

In A Lonely Place (1950)
Directed by Nicholas Ray
It is not surprising that audiences overlook this often-underrated Humphrey Bogart gem since its release in 1950. Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a struggling Hollywood screenwriter who becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation after a woman turns up dead in his apartment the morning after spending the night with him. What sets In a Lonely Place apart from most film noir, and from other Bogart films, is the dichotomy of Steele’s character. At once a manic-depressive and a lovable romantic, Bogart never allows the audience to get comfortable with Steele, which keeps us guessing as whether or not he is a homicidal maniac or an overworked writer.

Barton Fink (1991)
Directed by Joel & Ethan Cohen
The Coen Brothers turn the life of a Hollywood screenwriter into a literal living hell in Barton Fink, a film that was the first to win all three major awards (Palme D’or, Best Director, and Best Actor) at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. John Turturro plays the eponymous playwright who moves out to Hollywood to write populist schlock after his most recent play becomes a Broadway success. Holed up in a mysterious hotel with a severe case of writer’s block, Barton struggles between writing Hollywood fluff and something more intellectual. When not dealing with lecherous Hollywood agents, producers, and alcoholic novelists, Barton turns to his neighbor, Charlie Meadows, played by John Goodman, for inspiration about the “Common Man.” Unfortunately, Charlie may actually turn out to be the personification of all that is evil in the land of dreams and make believe.

Adaptation (2002)
Directed by Spike Jonze

The following was contributed by Cody Stuart

Put simply, Adaptation is the true story about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s struggle to adapt Susan Orlean’s book, The Orchid Thief.
However, the film is anything but simple. Penned by Kaufman - the same brilliantly imaginative writer who was responsible for Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Adapation is an enigmatic film-within-a-book-within-a-film that features Nicholas Cage as Charlie Kaufman. Cage also portrays Kaufman’s fictional brother Donald. Directed by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), the film was nominated for four awards at the 2002 Oscars.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Directed by Billy Wilder

The following was contributed by Cody Stuart

The granddaddy of all screenwriter movies, Sunset Boulevard is classic American film-noir. Released in 1950, and helmed by legendary director Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity, Sabrina), the film follows hack screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) as he is hired by faded silent-film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) to pen the script for her big comeback. In a role that mirrored her own declining career, Swanson gives one of the more memorable performances in screen history, and delivers the now infamous line, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” The film, which received 11 nominations at the 1950 Academy Awards, was recently ranked 16th in the American Film Institute’s top 100 films of all time.