Joseph Mitchell wrote"Human interest"pieces for the New Yorker magazine back in the 1930s...It was his interest in"Professor Seagull"aka Joe Gould,that led,long years later,to this film..Gould,either a con-man or a madman(and possibly both)claimed to be writing"an oral history of the world",a mammoth work alledgedly based upon conversations and observations of those Gould encountered on his travels around New York City..That ,perhaps,his manuscript might not be anything at all like Gould claimed,apparently did not dawn on Mitchell when he was writing his two New Yorker articles about him,and Gould,for his part,liked the attention the articles gave him which,in the end,contributed to Mitchell's estrangement from him..

This film,directed by and starring Stanley Tucci is a true gem.