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The Great Buck Howard

2008 · 90 min

A gentle, bittersweet comedy about faded glory and quiet persistence, with a warm heart and a few laughs.

Directed by
Sean McGinly
Genres
Comedy
Tagline
Greatness is a state of mind.
Overview
When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.

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Directed by
Sean McGinly
Genres
Comedy
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • warmstrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 2 of 3
  • whimsicalstrength 1 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
easy-watch, 2 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • ambition
  • identity
  • friendship
  • work
  • redemption
Places
  • road trip
  • big city
  • small town
Era
contemporary
Audience
teen
Form
  • ensemble
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence none
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror0
Humour6
Realism7
Romance3
Tension3
Darkness3
Complexity4
Emotional weight5

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Cast

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
comedy
Directed by
Sean McGinly
Written by
Sean McGinly
Starring
John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Ricky Jay, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks, Griffin Dunne, Debra Monk
Music
Blake Neely
Cinematography
Tak Fujimoto
Runtime
90 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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