Release Date | 2000-01-21 |
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Runtime | 104 minutes |
Genres | Drama |
Stars | Ian Holm, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Sarah Hyland, Hallee Hirsh |
Directors | Stanley Tucci, Howard A. Rodman, Maryse Alberti, Suzy Elmiger, Evan Lurie |
Around 1940, New Yorker staff writer Joe Mitchell meets Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village character who cadges meals, drinks, and contributions to the Joe Gould Fund and who is writing a voluminous Oral History of the World, a record of 20,000 conversations he's overheard. Mitchell is fascinated with this Harvard grad and writes a 1942 piece about him, "Professor Seagull," bringing Gould some celebrity and an invitation to join the Greenwich Village Ravens, a poetry club he's often crashed. Gould's touchy, querulous personality and his frequent dropping in on Mitchell for hours of chat lead to a breakup, but the two Joes stay in touch until Gould's death and Mitchell's unveiling of the secret.