Writer Harry Block draws inspiration from people he knows, and from events that happened to him, sometimes causing these people to become alienated from him as a result.
Larry Donner, an author with a cruel ex-wife, teaches a writing workshop in which one of his students, Owen, is fed up with his domineering mother. When Owen watches a Hitchcock classic that seems to mirror his own life, he decides to put the movie's plot into action and offers to kill Larry's ex-wife, if Larry promises to murder his mom. Before Larry gets a chance to react to the plan, it seems that Owen has already set things in motion.
Maria is a student at the university of Essen, Germany, living and working in a gray, unpleasant, and anonymous environment. While she has little problem finding someone for a one night stand, she rebuffs her lovers in such a rude way that they actually don't know what's going on. But what seems to be a negative attitude at first glance is in fact much worse: Maria is suffering from borderline syndrome, a serious psychotic disease that makes her fail to develop a continuous, reliable personality, from her own perspective as well as from the perspective of those she meets. Then one day, she bumps into Jan, a student who falls in love with her without delay. He's awaiting a hard time when he has to learn how hard it is to stay loyal and faithful to a person who, in her own words, "has a different world inside of her head" and who feels that "there is something inside of me that eats me up."
Emma approaches adulthood, she tries to live an ordinary life and keep up to her late mothers expectations. However her anxiety weighs over her, stopping her from enjoying the last few youthful years.
A black police detective must solve a strange case of a kidnapped boy and deal with a big racial protest.
Past her prime and afflicted with a severe case of writer's block, a veteran songwriter finds new inspiration in a bird that takes up residence outside her home.
At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.
Hard-drinking novelist Zach Hutton spirals out of control after his wife and mistress both leave him. Alone and crippled by a bad case of writer's block, Zach slips in and out of casual relationships and one-night stands, while his drinking becomes more and more severe. With the help of a bartender and his therapist, Zach confronts his demons — women and alcohol.
It's 1974. Earth is about to be obliterated by a massive asteroid. Adi (Jonnie Hurn) and his young hippy wife Ange (Chloe Farnworth), haunted by memories of the death of their child a few years earlier, journey to the idyllic rural setting where he was conceived,
Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman, Orlean's book, become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the others'.
Nathan, an author with writer's block, goes out to meet his good friend Francis in town. As the day unfolds, the pair stumble into various scenarios inspired by their favourite films.
Readers across the world are in love with author Sally Carmichael's series of romance novels that chronicle the epic love story between a human girl and a merman. But no one knows that Sally Carmichael is really Simon Hayes, a bitter, serious novelist - and Simon would like to keep it that way. When he is forced to meet a movie star about the movie adaptation, his life of anonymity starts to crumble.
Dr. Jenny Isaksson is a psychiatrist whose temporary position at a mental hospital offers only modest responsibilities. With her husband out of the country for a seminar and her daughter at camp, Jenny moves in with her grandparents, expecting a relaxing few months. But it isn't long before unpleasant memories of her childhood, the sudden appearance of strange apparitions, and a near-rape push this otherwise stable woman to the very edge of sanity.
Five friends travel to a secluded island for a purifying week-long water fast. With no food and electricity, a long forgotten hate surfaces.
A Holocaust survivor moves to Israel and experiences difficulty adjusting to life.
A screenwriter is plagued by nightmares as he writes a script about a family that was slaughtered years before. Soon, the grisly murders he's writing about start to actually happen.
A young director intent on making "the greatest color crime movie ever" can't seem to finish his script--he has a beginning and an end, but he can't quite figure out the middle. The daughter of his landlord, excited to have a real "movie person" living nearby, tries to help by putting him in touch with a man who wants to collaborate on a script--the strange "Dr. Jolly"
All filmed from the warped perspective of a doll, Black Daruma is a dark-humoured psychological horror film about an unemployed man who buys a Japanese 'luck doll' to improve his fortunes, only for his life to unravel in disturbing ways.
Writer Alex Sheldon must finish his novel within a month. If he doesn't, he won't get paid. And, if that happens, angry Mafia types to whom he owes money will come looking for him. In order to expedite things, Alex hires typist Emma Dinsmore and begins dictating his novel. The book is about a doomed love affair between a character similar to Alex and a character named Polina Delacroix. But, as Alex falls for Emma, his work takes a different turn.
It sounds like a budding writer's dream: a bestselling first novel, a luxurious house in Malibu, and a trophy wife... But it all unravels when writer's block and a failed marriage send Richard McMurray out into the streets.