Silverblatt, silver screen: Bookworm goes to the movies

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attachment Fans of KCRW’s Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt will be excited to learn that now they can see him talk about books as well as hear him. Silverblatt plays a bit part in “ Bob’s New Suit, ” a film that opens in the LA area tonight.

The sympathetic role of the “Reader” was written just for Silverblatt by writer/director Alan Howard.

Howard is making his directorial debut at age 69. For the past 15 years, he’s worked with Silverblatt as an associate producer on Bookworm.

“Directing and writing movies is Alan’s lifelong dream and it was a privilege to be near him and to see him realize such a deeply held desire,” said Silverblatt. “Proud to be a part of it.”
The narrator of “Bob’s New Suit” is, well, the suit. There is a trans-gender theme.  I’ll leave it to the film’s promotional materials to tell you the plot, (and I’ll leave it to dedicated Bookworm fans to decide whether this could be a story that would make the cut onto Silverblatt’s show.)

Bob Goodlow is a landscape gardener and handyman. His dad Buster, a patriotic ex-aerospace worker with a secret past, is now unemployed and suffering from congestive heart failure. Bob’s sister Stephanie does the books for her girlfriend Marlena’s hair salon and holds a secret of her own, just bursting to come out. Polly, their mother, helps with the struggling finances by selling antique dolls on Ebay and worries for everyone, as only mothers can. When Bob proposes to his long time love, Jenny, and his “too cool” cousin, George, proposes a get-rich quick scheme, a series of events unfold which changes their lives forever. Radical politics, gender identity, the joy of books, rare orchids, a couple of beers and one lonely Italian suit come together in this deftly interwoven story about love, family, the legacy of the 1960’s and the unexpected.

Intrigued? You can see Silverblatt on and in front of the silver screen Friday night at Arena Cinema, where he’ll also conduct a Q&A with the director at 7:45 pm.

And you can see the trailer here: