1984 - SONGWRITER, entertaining showbiz drama with a country western background

Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson are a couple of singer/composers in this very entertaining comedy/drama.  Kristofferson is a love em and leave em guy bedding one groupie after another.  Willie Nelson is a performer and songwriter trying to reunite with his first wife. Nelson's also trying to get out of a contract he had signed with a promoter some years earlier who now owns the rights to his songs.

Into this mix comes Leslie Ann Warren as a recording artist Nelson is promoting while ghostwriting songs for her.  Warren is also mixed up with a shady character played by everyone's favorite scary actor Rip Torn.  With the exception of Warren and Melinda Dillion playing Nelson's ex-wife, all of these male singer/actors are amusingly playing thinly disguised versions of themselves.

 

The film has a nice laid back feel to it from director Alan Rudolph.  Rudolph was a protege of Robert Altman and uses the same approach to working with actors that Altman did, a naturalistic kind of improvisational method. 

 

This film is highly entertaining, Nelson was not a trained actor but he was a very natural performer in front of the camera.  He was close friends with Kris Kristofferson and they play off each other very well.  The songs in the film were mostly written by Kristofferson.

The film was written by Bud Shrake, the running time is 94 minutes.