Film

You Can't Go Home Again

Name: You Can't Go Home Again
Genre: Drama, TV Movie
Released: 1979
Cast: Lee Grant, Chris Sarandon, Hurd Hatfield, Tammy Grimes, Christopher Murney

Biopic

A 1979 TV adaptation of Thomas Wolfe's novel about a young writer clawing his way through 1920s New York literary society, sustained by ambition, a married woman's love, and a brilliant editor's faith. It's a period drama about artistic hunger and the cost of chasing genius—intimate, literary, and melancholic.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love novels-into-television-movies that take a big, wandering, talky literary portrait seriously, and you are happy to sit with a writer's appetite for life, love and self-regard.

Skip it if you want a tight, modern pace or a clear dramatic engine; this is a leisurely, dialogue-heavy 1979 TV production that lingers on conversation and period mood more than on plot momentum.

What it asks of you: About a hundred minutes of unhurried attention, with long scenes of talk in apartments and offices, and a tone that stays mostly reflective rather than urgent.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Marrying Kind1952

A tender, unsentimental look at marriage across a decade, told in flashbacks with real wit and pathos. Ray and Judy Holden feel like actual people, not movie characters. Aldo Ray and Judy Holland are extraordinary.

But Black and white, slower paced than modern dramas, and the emotional beats land quietly rather than loudly. Some may find it old-fashioned.

The Barchester Chronicles1982

A jewel-box adaptation of Trollope's novels about ambition, love, and moral compromise in a small cathedral town. Beautifully acted, gorgeously shot, with the same literary sensibility and period texture as Wolfe.

But Six hours across two episodes—it demands time and patience. Also genuinely restrained; if you need constant plot movement, you'll fidget.

The Remains of the Day1993

Anthony Hopkins as a butler recalling a lifetime of suppressed feeling and impossible love. It's about what ambition costs you personally, and whether success was worth the price. Devastating and quiet.

But Nothing much happens plot-wise. It's all internal emotion and regret, which is either the whole point or entirely boring depending on your mood.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from You Can't Go Home Again

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Humoresque1947

The identical plot structure: a poor, gifted young man, a married woman patron who loves him, professional success that ruins the relationship, and the question of whether genius justifies cruelty.

A Jewish violinist from the Bronx pursued by a wealthy married woman; she mentors and loves him as he rises to concert stardom. It's the same exact story as Wolfe's—ambition, infidelity, artistic mentorship—but transplanted to music and film noir shadow. Joan Crawford is magnificent.

But The racial and class dynamics are dated and sometimes uncomfortable. The film is also genuinely melodramatic in ways that can read as camp if you're not in the right mood.

A Handful of Dust1988

Evelyn Waugh's dark comedy about a marriage destroyed by infidelity and social aspiration. Tony Andrews and Kristin Scott Thomas are painfully good. It understands the brutality under period elegance.

But Acidly cynical about human nature and relationships. If you want characters you like, this will disappoint you; they're all complicit in their own ruin.

The Forsyte Saga1967

Multi-generational saga of family, love, and the English upper class across decades. It sprawls and broods with exactly the kind of literary ambition and romantic entanglement Wolfe trafficked in. Endlessly watchable.

But The original production is very long (fourteen episodes) and very 1960s in its pacing. Modern audiences often need breaks between episodes to recover.

Vanity Fair1998

A four-part adaptation of Thackeray's novel about Becky Sharp clawing her way upward through society on wit and ruthlessness. Period, romance, ambition, and a protagonist willing to sacrifice everything for success. Sepia-toned and gripping.

But Becky is not likable, and neither is anyone else really. If you need to sympathize with your characters, the cynicism will exhaust you.

I Remember Mama1948

Barbara Bel Geddes recalls her Norwegian immigrant childhood in San Francisco with warmth and specificity. It's sentimental without being saccharine, and it captures the texture of ordinary life with real grace and observation.

But Deeply nostalgic and gentle. If you're after drama with stakes and conflict, this is too quiet and too loving for its own subjects.

The Citadel1938

A young doctor's ambition draws him away from genuine vocation into society medicine. Spencer Tracy grapples with compromise, success, and the person he wanted to be versus the one he's become. Based on A. J. Cronin.

But British social drama from the '30s—very earnest, sometimes melodramatic, and the medical ethics are obviously dated. It can feel like a sermon.

Mank2020

Both follow a talented young man in thrall to his own ambition, sustained by powerful mentors and lovers, ultimately ruined by the gap between his gifts and his character.

A screenwriter in 1930s Hollywood chases ambition, brilliance, and a great work while destroying everyone close to him and drinking himself toward oblivion. Black and white, baroque, literary. The same hunger and the same decay.

But Very long, very talky, very much about writing and politics you may not care about. Some view it as self-important; the form sometimes overwhelms the story.

The Earrings of Madame de...1953

Both are about the way romantic love—real, beautiful, impossible—corrodes marriage, ambition, and ultimately the soul. Both end in loss that feels inevitable and tragic.

A pair of earrings circulates through 1880s European high society, a symbol of desire, infidelity, and the way love destroys the lives it touches. Gorgeous, unsentimental, about passion and its costs. Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer are exquisite.

But In French with subtitles. Also glacially paced and entirely focused on emotional nuance rather than plot. The 'plot' is literally about earrings changing hands.