For Kenneth Lonergan, an ambivalent moment in the sun
NEW YORK — The filmmaker and playwright Kenneth Lonergan, a self-described “ultra-naturalist” whose eloquently empathic stories tremble with the richness of daily life, began his writing career, surprisingly, awash in science fiction.
He was (and still is) a die-hard Trekkie. He has seen “2001: A Space Odyssey” more than 50 times, he estimates. One of his early plays (unproduced so far) is about two spacemen spinning through the universe for years after their ship was disintegrated.