Best Sellers Parent Guide

Lucy Stanbridge (Aubrey Plaza) is in trouble. The publishing house she took over from her father is in disarray, with no successful books on shelves and nothing in the pipeline. As competitors circle with offers of buyouts, Lucy is running out of options to save her father’s legacy. So when she finds an old contract with the infamously uncooperative and reclusive Harris Shaw (Michael Caine), she leaps on the opportunity – whatever the cost. Technically, Shaw’s old contract with Stanbridge Publishing means he owes them another book, and he has just finished a manuscript – which, according to the contract, Lucy is not allowed to edit. Even with a book in hand, getting Shaw to cooperate on a publicity tour is going to be far harder than anything Lucy has tried to do before.

Unfortunately, I think the best part of this film is the cast. Aubrey Plaza, Michael Caine, and Ellen Wong are clearly putting in some serious work to try and keep this film afloat. Caine, of course, is no stranger to playing gruff old geezers, but the older he gets, the better he is at pulling it off. And Plaza’s manic energy is a good balance to Caine’s stubbornness, with Ellen Wong rounding off the edges with some nervous enthusiasm.

This film is not yet rated, but it’s definitely geared towards an adult audience. The primary concern for parents here will be with the surfeit of profanity, primarily on the part of Michael Caine’s character. Over the course of the film he develops a catchphrase synonymous with bovine excrement, and it is delivered by excited fans and the author himself repeatedly throughout the film – and that accounts for only a portion of the hundred-plus profanities in the movie. Of course, being a depressed writer, he’s also a raging alcoholic, although that is shown to have some serious consequences.

This is not an easy review to write. Best Sellers has a great deal of potential, both in the cast and the writing, but something just feels…off. The worst part is, I’m not sure what went wrong – and I’m a movie critic, which makes me feel like I’m definitely missing something. But when the credits started rolling, the movie was still lacking some of the heart it needed to get off the ground. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still plenty entertaining, but I kept getting the nagging sensation that the filmmakers could have done something differently that would have made the whole thing pop. But what do I know about writing, anyway? I’m not even an alcoholic.