Best Sellers (2021)
(On Cable TV, March 2022) I do like me some Aubrey Plaza, and she has a good role in Best Sellers, working opposite Michael Caine as he plays a crusty old recluse author, and she portrays a young editor trying to keep her father’s publishing house afloat. Now, a considerable amount of indulgence is required to appreciate the film if you know anything about the publishing industry: its fairytale portrait of the way publishing houses work is only as ludicrous as its portrayal of how promotional tours are handled. But the advantage of reducing a publishing house to two employees and a handful of authors ensures that the story can be told, and so suspension of disbelief is essential, as our protagonist desperately places her best on a single author and constantly holds his hand through a tour of the Northeastern United States. Plaza is up to her usual cute-and-quirky standards, but also gets the chance to emote a bit more than usual. Meanwhile, Caine makes a great recluse author (with some visual assistance from old interview footage and a photo of his long-time spouse). The relationship that develops between the two is credible despite the unlikeliness of the premise, and the film is good for a few scenes having fun with modern media virality, authors indulging in physical violence and obscene acts, as well as the uncertain future for publishing house in what’s constantly threatening to become a post-literate society. I particularly liked the “editing” scene (through page-ripping), and how the ending ties a few things together. I’m a cheap and forgiving audience for movies about authors (and publishers) but even then, some props go to Ellen Wong as the long-suffering assistant to our protagonist, and the largely French-Canadian crew that shepherded the film through its Montréal-based production. The conclusion reminded me that we won’t have that many other movies featuring Caine (he’s 88 years old!) and we may as well appreciate every single one we get.
