Curtis Hanson, who died in September 2016 at the age of 71, was one of the great modern day studio craftsmen.

Though best known perhaps for L.A. Confidential, Hanson made some of the great underappreciated films of the last thirty years, including The Bedroom Window, The River Wild, 8 Mile and In Her Shoes. But his 2000 Michael Chabon adaptation Wonder Boys was his masterpiece. Often overlooked thanks to its botched release(s), it’s a sharp, incisive picture, featuring top-tier performances from a cast that includes Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand and a pre-Marvel Robert Downey Jr., as well as Bob Dylan’s Oscar-winning song “Things Have Changed”.

Douglas stars as Grady Tripp, a novelist teaching creative writing at a university while undergoing a series of crises including divorce, adultery and a severe case of writer’s block. Eschewing the strand of self-pity that’s so common to boomer-male-in-crisis movies, Wonder Boys opts for a more comical, acidic touch. Playing almost like a screwball comedy in a different tonal register, it has a distinctly literary feel, with a novelistic sensibility and a strain of fatalism which toes the line between the serene and the nihilistic. With a droll, witty script by Steve Kloves and cinematography by Dante Spiotti which basks in gorgeous autumnal hues, it’s time audiences rediscovered the majesty of this bittersweet gem.

We were delighted to present this gorgeous film in 35mm, and in tribute to the late Mr. Hanson, 25% of the box office from the screening was be donated to Alzheimer’s Research UK.

You can view a pdf of the programme booklet for this event here.