Agata the Writer (2026) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for references to The War
Take a Drink: for book talk
Take a Drink: whenever anyone gives her writing feedback
Take a Drink: for that painting (and any talk of it)
Do a Shot: for scat
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
Not a lot of billion dollar-grossing leads choose to return fully to independent film, but Mia Wasikowska certainly qualifies. She’s been choosy about her projects as of late, and each feels quite unique. Especially this one.
Agata the Writer follows a Polish-Australian writer who decides to spend a season in Sarajevo in order to write her next novel about the Bosnian War of the 1990s.
A Toast
We begin, fittingly, in writerly voiceover. An aside about Bosnian being close enough to Polish to muddle through feels like a nod to Mia Wasikowska’s heritage, or perhaps even a contribution to the script from her. It’s not hard at all to buy her as a successful writer on the path of her next novel. She has enough time on her hands to explore mountain villages covered in mist, taking in the country’s stark beauty for a touch of inspiration, but she also has some friends about her age she catches up with.
Their rather modern lives are contrasted by the people she seeks to interview about the War as research for the novel. While her friends live as if it never happened at all- even at Wasikowska’s age they would barely have remembered it- these people have some harsh feedback about her book idea- “write about your own messes” and “why does everybody want to make a story about war?”. A later interviewee punctures her bubble even more perhaps- “my experience during the War was that my husband died, my two sons died, I was beaten and raped”. She explains that she’s disgusted to find she’s become a storyteller herself, a performer- knowing when to pause for dramatic effect as she recounts her experiences. She’s well past wanting to do so ever again.
Director and Writer Kuba Dorabialski takes one hell of a conceptual swing in the end, which I loved. I won’t reveal what it is, but it neatly condenses the themes of the film and Wasikowska’s experiences in it in an unexpected yet impactful way.
Beer Two
Despite that language note earlier, practically everybody speaks English, even the little girl she meets in the mountains. It’s almost refreshing when an interviewee later does not.
And while I loved the big swing of the ending, Dorabialski should have lost the jazzy score the final extended scene is overlaid with. It’s distracting and reads like the she was afraid Mia’s performance in it isn’t interesting enough on its own.
Verdict
Agata the Writer is a writer’s tale that’s makes the case that there are far more interesting subjects than yet another war story.
