To see a miserable writer’s life on screen, try ‘Finding Joy’

With the succcess of Judd Apatow’s movies, one stample of romantic comedies has become the loser adult guy who finds love. Once, that guy was a 40-year-old virgin working in an electronics store. Another time, he was a slacker on a bong water-stained couch. In the hands of other writers, he has changed -- he’s become, of all things, a writer.

The new film “Finding Joy,” which opened in limited release last week, features a writer who is such a failure that he has to move in with his parents.

I’ve seen only the trailer, but his writerly disappointments seem all too familiar. He’s broke. He writes in cramped, dark spaces. He gets published in hardcover -- hooray! But then reads to a vast landscape of empty chairs, with just two listeners -- one of whom, of course, is not there to see him.

And then it’s off to the old room with the wacky parents, played by Barry Bostwick and Lainie Kazan. The writer, Kyle, is played by Josh Cook; he does somewhat resemble Steve Carell, star of many an Apatow project.

It’s pretty cool that writers are appearing on screen. Next: to make them just a teeny bit more successful. They don’t have to be superheroes or anything, but it would be great if a writer in the movies could pay the rent.

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