Can one life story have two authors?
Being Flynn is the new dramatic feature from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy). Adapted from Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City, the movie explores bonds both unbreakable and fragile between parent and child.
Nick Flynn (portrayed in the film by Paul Dano of Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood) is a young writer seeking to define himself. He misses his late mother, Jody (four-time Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore), and her loving nature. But his father, Jonathan, is not even a memory, as Nick has not seen the man in 18 years.
Jonathan Flynn (two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) has long defined himself as a great writer, “a master storyteller.” After abandoning his wife and child, Jonathan scrapes through life on his own terms, and ends up serving time inprison for cashing forged checks. After prison, he drives a cab for a number of years, but with his drinking and eccentricities now accelerating, he loses his job. Despite the occasional grandiose letter to his son, he has remained absent from Nick’s life.
Suddenly facing eviction from his apartment, Jonathan impulsively reaches out to Nick and the two come face-to-face. Theolder man is eloquent and formidable; overwhelmed, Nick nonetheless prepares to integrate his father into his own life. But, as quickly as he materialized, Jonathan flits away again.
Moving on, Nick takes a job at a homeless shelter, where he learns from Captain (Wes Studi) and Joy (Lili Taylor) how to relate to the guests who arrive night after night. Seeing the homeless – some permanently, some temporarily so – and hearing their stories, Nick finds purpose in his own life and work. He also sustains a romance with a co-worker, Denise (Olivia Thirlby). Then one night, Jonathan arrives, seeking a bed, and Nick’s senses of self and compassion falter. To give the two of them a shot at a real future, Nick will have to decide whom to seek redemption for first.
Evocatively told, ruefully funny, and moving in its depiction of the ties that bind, Being Flynn tells a story that reveals universal truths.
A Focus Features presentation of a Depth of Field/Corduroy Films/Tribeca production. A Paul Weitz Film. Robert De Niro,Paul Dano. Being Flynn. Olivia Thirlby, Lili Taylor, Wes Studi, and Julianne Moore. Casting by Joseph Middleton, CSA. Costume Designer, Aude Bronson-Howard. Music Supervisor, Linda Cohen. Music by Badly Drawn Boy. Edited by Joan Sobel, ACE. Production Designer, Sarah Knowles. Director of Photography, Declan Quinn, ASC. Executive Producers, Jane Rosenthal, Meghan Lyvers, Kerry Kohansky, Caroline Baron, Nick Flynn. Produced by Paul Weitz, Andrew Miano, Michael Costigan. Based on the memoir Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn. Written for the Screen and Directed by Paul Weitz. A Focus Features Release.
Directed by Paul Weitz
Cast: Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano, Julianne Moore, Olivia Thirlby, Lily Taylor, Wes Studi
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