C.S. Lewis, a world-renowned writer and professor, leads a passionless life until he meets spirited poet Joy Gresham.
This drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of "Factotum" author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, CA trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Along the way, he fends off the distractions offered by women, drinking and gambling.
What happens when a person decides that life is merely a state of mind? If you're Betty, a small-town waitress and soap opera fan from Fair Oaks, Kansas, you refuse to believe that you can't be with the love of your life just because he doesn't really exist. After all, life is no excuse for not living. Traumatized by a savage event, Betty enters into a fugue state that allows -- even encourages -- her to keep functioning... in a kind of alternate reality.
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
After a hugely successful debut novel, Stewart Paylor is supposed to be delivering chapters of his new book. Unbeknownst to everyone around him, including Cynthia, his literary agent/girlfriend, Stewart has writer’s block and has not written a word. His life goes even further astray when he returns home from a vacation to find a homeless mother, Cassandra, and her two children, 12-year old Jake and 9-year old Vera have been squatting in his house, with nowhere to go.
A young woman struggles to move on with her life after the death of her husband, an acclaimed folk singer, when a brash New York writer forces her to confront her loss and the ambiguous circumstances of his death.
A mysterious woman wanders the streets of Manhattan in a confused state. Finding herself inexplicably drawn to a group of teenagers she embarks on an adventure with them through the cityscape and into the unknown. As the night progresses, she approaches something intangible on the journey back to herself.
Takizawa Bakin, a popular Edo period author, begins to recount a story he is planning in front of his friend, the artist Katsushika Hokusai. The story is about eight warriors who, each carrying a jewel, gather together as if guided by fate and embark on a harsh journey to fight the curse of the Satomi family. Hokusai is drawn into the story that Bakin is telling, and visits Bakin on various occasions to hear the rest of the story, and a strange relationship between the two begins. The serialization becomes Bakin's life's work, with the idea of "rewarding good and punishing evil in a world where evil is rampant," but after 28 years, as the story finally approaches its climax, Bakin begins to lose his sight. With the completion of the story in doubt, he receives an unexpected proposal from his daughter-in-law. Will the story ever be completed?
A desperate young writer is lured on a wild ride through the desert by a mysterious woman in this darkly comic take on the all-American road trip. Along the way they cross paths with a hapless mobster, a 6 foot transvestite and a lovesick housewife, all on the way to their celebrity TV shrink in Las Vegas... Things quickly spiral out of control into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game... a writer's frantic search for inspiration becomes intertwined with a motley crew of quirky characters seeking love and adventure at any cost.
Tom and Janet have been happily married for years. But a visit from a mysterious stranger leads to a dead body, a lot of questions, and a tense couples' trip with friends who may not actually be friends at all.
While looking for new tenants for his seaside villa, surrounded by a big garden, Andrea Ricoli, a 50-years old architect, meets Rossana, a newly 40-years old, anaesthesiologist at the local hospital, and married to Riccardo, ten years younger than her: he's an aspiring writer, temporarily employed as a salesman at a local shoe store. During an eventful New Year's Eve, Andrea introduces Riccardo to a Maghreb restaurant owner - who is interested in restoring an attic apartment - and his lovely sister Hikma. Months go by. Andrea discovers that Hikma is pregnant with Riccardo's child, while she's struggling with her old-fashioned, fundamentalist brother's mentality. He offers to help the couple and let them stay with him in his villa. Teaching him how to care for his garden, the young Hikma reminds Andrea of his wife Sofia, who passed away right there four years earlier, in unclear circumstances...
William Thatcher, a knight's peasant apprentice, gets a chance at glory when the knight dies suddenly mid-tournament. Posing as a knight himself, William won't stop until he's crowned tournament champion—assuming matters of the heart don't get in the way.
Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
Penelope Keeling, a sixty-four-year-old daughter of a famous artist, reflects on her life, and the fate and choices that defined it, when she arrives in the Mediterranean to stay with her headstrong daughter. Shifting through time, and falling into place like the pieces of a jigsaw, the truth of Penelope's rich, heartbreaking and surprising life unfolds.
A couple of angels, O'Reilly and Jackson, are sent to Earth to make sure that their next supervised love-connection succeeds. They follow Celine, a spoiled rich girl who has just accidentally shot a suitor and, due to a misunderstanding, is kidnapped by janitor Robert. Although Celine quickly frees herself, she stays with Robert for thrills. O'Reilly and Jackson pursue, hoping to unite the prospective lovers.
A henpecked housewife ekes out a meager existence, surrounded by a host of colorful characters: her ungrateful husband, her delinquent sons, her headstrong mother-in-law, and her sex worker neighbor, among others.
A cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher.
A famed mystery writer and her doctor ex-lover solve her daughter-in-law's murder.
Steve Merrick is an out of work writer who stays home and plays house husband while his wife goes to work for her former fiancé and Merrick's publisher who is still carrying a torch for her.