“I wrote you.”
Join Ian & Liam for our 312th episode as we step into the strange, tender, and quietly unsettling world of Ruby Sparks (2012) — a film about creativity, control, fantasy, and what happens when the person you imagine refuses to stay that way. Typewriters ready. Boundaries optional.
This week we discuss:
- The central conceit — what happens when your idealised version of someone becomes real, and whether the film earns the right to ask that question.
- Paul Dano’s performance — wounded, awkward, gifted, and quietly terrifying. Is Calvin a romantic lead… or a cautionary tale?
- Zoe Kazan’s Ruby — luminous, frustrating, independent, and increasingly human. How does the film balance charm with agency?
- The ethics of authorship (first level) — when creativity crosses into control, and when love turns into manipulation.
- The ethics of authorship (second level)- What about the ethics of Zoe Kazan's screenplay and performance opposite her actual romantic partner in Paul Dano
- Our own Ruby Sparks asks whether the film understands its own power dynamics — or if it occasionally romanticises behaviour it should interrogate harder.
- The meta-text — a film written by its female lead about being written by a man. How much does that context change everything?
- We talk about fantasy vs. reality in relationships — and how dangerous it is to fall in love with someone who exists only on your terms.
- Is Calvin a hard lead to sympathise with on any level? Does his status as financially successful cause him to be less easy to support?
- There are… hypotheticals discussed — moments that feel uncomfortably specific, strangely timed, or oddly familiar, without ever being about anything in particular. Pure coincidence, obviously.
- We talk about whether this is strictly a male-female perspective or if it's something innately more comprehensively human than that
- The tonal shift — rom-com whimsy giving way to something much darker. Does the film stick the landing?
- The ending — hopeful, troubling, cyclical? What does the final image actually suggest? Ian presents what he thinks is the author's intent
- And finally, whether Ruby Sparks is the Best Film Ever — or one of the most quietly confronting relationship films of the 2010s.
Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE
We are extremely thankful to our following Patrons for their most generous support:
- Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM
- Hermes Auslander
- James DeGuzman
- Synthia
- Shai Bergerfroind
- Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most
- Andy Dickson
- Chris Pedersen
- Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)
- Randal Silva
- Nate The Great
- Rev Bruce
- Cheezy (with a fish on a bike)
- Richard
- Ryan Kuketz
- Dirk Diggler
- Stew from the Stew World Order podcast
- NorfolkDomus
- John Humphrey's Right Foot
- Timmy Tim Tim
- Aashrey
- Paul Komoroski
Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.
Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor
Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/
