Nora Ephron via Melbourne International Film Festival.
How does a son pay tribute to his mother? Particularly when much of her life was played out in the essays and books she wrote – as well as the fictional films she loosely fashioned from everything else she observed. If you’re journalist Jacob Bernstein and the article-typing, movie-making matriarch in question is Nora Ephron, you take heed of the advice she offered frequently and fervently, as passed down from her own screenwriter mother: everything is copy.
The biographical effort that takes its title from Ephron’s favourite mantra does indeed adhere to those instructions, turning the minutiae of her existence into an endearing documentary. And if that sounds standard and sentimental on one hand, and somewhat opportunistic on the other, that’s because such an approach is meant to. Here, however, the film’s candor apes its subject. Whether writing about her sexual fantasies or finding the spark for some of the most iconic romantic comedies of the past three decades in her assorted antics, Ephron surged forward with confidence and didn’t shy away from using reality as stimulus for greater literary, cinematic and personal adventures to come.
Accordingly, Everything Is Copy pieces together the events of her childhood, her formative years spent writing for publications such as the New York Post and Esquire, and everything that followed – turning heartbreak at the hands of her second husband Carl Bernstein into a novel that became the Mike Nichols-directed movie Heartburn, her subsequent jump into the helmer’s chair herself, and her decision to keep the illness that ended her life private among them. The portrait of Ephron that results proves the sum of many things. Her personality, pieces, features, perspectives, and experiences intertwine with the recollections of people she knew and influenced to provide a chronicle of a distinctive woman, mother, confidante, guide, scribe and filmmaker.
With such a wealth of material and sources to draw upon – and that’s before the insertion of to-camera readings of a selection of Ephron’s essays by Lena Dunham, Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon and more – it is far from surprising that archival footage and reflective discussions comprise the bulk of the documentary. Snippets from her film efforts help flesh out her tale, while her friends, family, and colleagues become interviewees to fill in the gaps around clips of her own chatter. The former includes This Is My Life, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and Julie & Julie, and explores the parallels between Ephron’s on- and off-screen endeavours. The latter allows the likes of Meryl Streep, Rob Reiner, Rosie O’Donnell, Barbara Walters and more to unpack their own thoughts and feelings about a woman who was considered an agony aunt and a mentor to many.
And yet, as adoring as his debut movie seems on paper, Bernstein teams with co-director Nick Hooker, cinematographer Bradford Young (Selma), and editor Bob Eisenhardt (Meru) to give his kindly compilation the warm but never too glossy sheen it needs, and the energetic yet never rushed pace as well. His feature resides in the space between those extremes, though not through caution, complacency, or careful curation. Instead, affection and insight combine as Everything is Copy does more than present an ode to its central figure. Interrogating her impact and legacy, her off-spouted phrase, and the choice to use her words as a filmmaking tool; the documentary becomes as layered, thoughtful, and multifaceted as its inspiration.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Directors: Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker
USA, 2015, 89 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
28 July – 14 August 2016
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