FIELD OF STREAMS heads back to English Class with these top streaming literary adaptations
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Well, summer’s gone and the kids are now back in school, which for them means a fulfilled life of homework and tests. Doubtless many movie fans will surely know a high school or college youngster having to face the pain of another semester starting and the actual thinking they’ll have to do as a result. It’s hard not to feel for those brave souls heading back into the classroom and facing the assigned reading they’ll have to soak up in an effort to squeeze out a book report or two for English class. In honor of those assignments on the horizon (and the film versions some students will probably substitute for actually reading the novels), here are five excellent books made into five excellent movies worth recommending to the young minds in your life.
5. STARDUST (Netflix)
The most whimsical novel Neil Gaiman ever wrote came to the screen in one of the most perfect to book to film translations ever. Future Kick-Ass and Kingsmen helmer Matthew Vaughn tackled his first major studio assignment with Gaiman’s tale of a young man named Tristian (Charlie Cox) who enters a magical kingdom in order to retrieve a fallen star (Claire Danes) before other questionable characters (namely a witch played by Michelle Pfeiffer) can get to her. Vaughn’s adaptation (produced by Gaiman himself) strays from the novel considerably, but opens it up, providing almost an alternate version which is every bit as charming as the source material. Stardust is equal parts fantasy, comedy, action and romance while Cox, Danes, and (especially) Pfeiffer all delve headfirst into their fairy tale characters. The score is lush, the production design is wondrous and the overall feeling Stardust leaves audiences with is pure, unadulterated enchantment.
4. FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC (Shudder)
The novel that made author V.C. Andrews a literary sensation among high schoolers was this scandalous tale which kicked off an epic family saga. Following the death of their father, four children (including Kristy Swanson and Jeb Stuart Adams) travel with their mother (Victoria Tennant) to live with their strict grandmother (Louise Fletcher) in a large creepy manor where they are promptly locked away in an attic. Since this film version of Flowers in the Attic was made in the ‘80s, plenty of the book’s more racy elements were deleted, including the infamous rape scene. Still, the dark horror of Andrews’s story remains. The idea of children being locked away in a secluded part of a large manor and are forced to endure constant torment from their grandmother (an EXCELLENT Fletcher) is so nightmarishly sadistic, while the film’s finale is appropriately gothic and operatic. While original director Wes Craven’s script was rejected for its violence and the recent Lifetime mini-series proved a more faithful adaptation, this version of Flowers in the Attic remains the ultimate in many book lovers eyes.
3. IN SECRET (Prime)
Although Emile Zola’s novel Therese Raquin has been adapted MANY times for television, it wasn’t until 2014 when a feature version of this dark tale finally reached cinema screens. Retitled In Secret, the film tells the story of a young woman named Therese (Elizabeth Olsen) who out of necessity has recently married the sickly Camille (Tom Felton) and is adjusting to life with him and his mother (Jessica Lange). When Camille’s childhood friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac) comes to stay for a while, he awakens a passion within Therese which leads to dangerous consequences. If much of In Secret’s plot turns seem dark, they at least happen in beautiful fashion with a production design that mirrors a moving Renoir painting, making it a period piece that’s both stunning and macabre. While the film may come off as seemingly straightforward, In Secret triumphs in its exploration of passion and guilt, building up the great human tension both emotions are capable of. The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Lange as the haunting presence who is always watching.
2. BEING THERE (FilmStruck)
One of the most ethereal and life affirming novels ever written became a director’s masterpiece when it came to the screen. No one but Harold and Maude and Shampoo director Hal Ashby could have brought to the screen Jerzy Kosinski’s novel about a mentally challenged man mistakenly known as Chauncey Gardener (Peter Sellers) who bewitches all of Washington society (including a politician’s wife played by superbly Shirley MacLaine) with his simplistic takes on life. Much like its source material, Being There, the movie, feels like it belongs on its own plane of existence. Few cinematic experiences can come close to the feeling of magic and introspection which radiate from the strength of Kosinski’s screenplay adaptation, Ashby’s interpretation and Seller’s delicate, sensitive performance. While Being There is a funny film chock full of plenty of laughs, it’s the universal lessons it imparts of recognizing not just the value of the everyday, but the beauty within it as well, which makes it one of the most important pieces of late-’70s American cinema.
- AMERICAN PSYCHO (Hulu)
When Bret Easton Ellis’s most notorious work was released in 1991, it caused SUCH a frenzy, that many were glad when critics and Hollywood had declared the controversial novel unfilmable. Cut to 2000 and enter in Mary Harron’s adaptation of Ellis’s novel, the tale of a New York stock broker named Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) who can’t help but turn into a homicidal maniac on occasion. Ellis’s book served as a such a document of the yuppie ‘80s, with Patrick illustrated as the ultimate symbol. More construct than character, American Psycho’s protagonist is shallow, self-entitled and ultimately non-existent as tries hard to embody and all representations of the era he belongs to. While Patrick’s killing sprees are handled in perfect horror movie fashion, Harron nails the black comedy of Patrick’s everyday life and how ridiculously important it is to him. Part slasher film, part social satire, American Psycho remains one of the first great films of that 2000s for not only containing Bale’s most tour-de-force work, but also for so deftly and stylishly sending up one of the most telling decades in history.
There are countless services to explore and plenty of literary adaptations on all of them. Which ones did we miss that you would suggest to us? And, as always, if you’ve got thoughts on titles we’re missing out on or new services to check out, leave a comment below or email us.
Till next week, stream on, stream away.
