Everything is Copy: Nora Ephron Scripted and Unscripted (2015)

“I now believe that what my mother meant was this: When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you. But when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it’s you’re a laugh, so you become a hero rather than the victim of the joke. I think that’s what she meant. On the other hand, she may merely have meant everything is copy.” – Nora Ephron

Number of Times Seen – 1 (15 Aug 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary about the life of Nora Ephton as seen through her son and some of her closest friends.

 Take on it – I came across this documentary by accident after reading a quote about the movie Heartburn (1986) which I recently watched and reviewed.

I was immediately interested in seeing this because I have been a fan of Nora Ephron’s work on When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).

This film really gives us an idea as to who this remarkable woman was both ion front of and behind the camera.

The fact that this film was made by her son gives us so much access to people and information about her life that would be harder to come by without family approval.

Many of the interviewees are acquainted with the director, so they are more candid and up front when discussing Ephron’s professional life, quirks, successes, failures and even her private life.

She was a screenwriter who was able to bring so much to the romantic comedy medium and we are truly at a loss that she is no longer with us, but she definitely was able to leave a HUGE mark on the world she left behind.

Bottom Line – Great documentary that really gives us an insiders view of the life of a talented and popular journalist/screenwriter/director.  The fact that the Director is Ephron’s son gives us even  more access into the personal side of her life on both a private and professional level.  Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – In a March 2016 interview in Collider, Jacob Bernstein said that the most challenging aspect of this movie’s production was the protracted negotiation with his own father, Carl Bernstein, about his appearance in the film. In the movie itself, Jacob Bernstein also says that his parents’ divorce stretched on for years and was a great deal more complicated than most divorces in part because of his father’s insistence on negotiating on the content of another movie, the film adaptation of Nora Ephron’s roman a clef account of their breakup, Heartburn. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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