Guest Artist Movie Storyline. Director Timothy Busfield’s intergenerational drama stars Jeff Daniels (the film’s scriptwriter), Thomas Macias and Richard McWilliams. A disillusioned Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright travels to a small Michigan town, where he encounters a young aspiring playwright who idolizes him. His world-weary cynicism about his artistic career is challenged by the latter’s youthful enthusiasm and optimism.
Guest Artist is a 2019 American drama film directed by Timothy Busfield and starring Jeff Daniels. It is based on Daniels’ play of the same name. Supporting cast ere Thomas Macias, Richard McWilliams. Erika Slezak, McKara Bechler, Dan Johnson, Lynch R. Travis, Ruth Crawford, Michael A. Alden and Aidan Fogarty.
Jeff Daniels adapted his stage play centered on the perils of hero worship and stars in the two-hander as a burned-out alcoholic playwright. Small-scale, no-frills and lo-fi, Guest Artist feels like a homegrown project mounted by a couple of talented guys from Michigan. Those guys happen to be Timothy Busfield, who directs, and Jeff Daniels, who scripted and stars. Daniels’ effortlessly commanding performance as a blocked and bitter writer is the chief draw in the not particularly taut two-hander. Though its running time is brief and a lot of the writing is sharp, the tug-of-war between a onetime literary lion and his wide-eyed No. 1 fan lacks the necessary tension to make the drama’s outcome matter.
Jeff Daniels adapted his own play, which was originally staged at the Purple Rose Theater Company that he founded in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan, where most of the film was shot. He brings a strong ear for language to his exploration of jaded experience in collision with openhearted innocence. But it’s a collision we’ve seen many times before, and though Busfield’s eye for scene-setting locations helps to open up the story, the feature never manages to shake off its obvious stage roots or a certain fusty, formulaic structure. Having premiered at Santa Barbara before booking a berth at the Beloit festival in Wisconsin, this not-quite-ready-for-theatrical Guest will continue to find warm welcomes at local festivals.
Guest Artist (2020)
Directed by: Timothy Busfield
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Thomas Macias, Richard McWilliams. Erika Slezak, McKara Bechler, Dan Johnson, Lynch R. Travis, Ruth Crawford, Michael A. Alden, Aidan Fogarty
Screenplay by: Jeff Daniels
Production Design by: Greg Brautigan
Cinematography by: Wilson Coates Busfield
Film Editing by: Alyssa Loveall
Set Decoration by: Marcia Grace, Tami Houle
Makeup Department: Shannon Bakeman
Music by: Ben Daniels
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Indican Pictures
Release Date: February 9, 2019 (Santa Barbara), July 10, 2020 (United States)
Visits: 38
