CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND
July 23 or 24 2010, DVD, home living room, from Netflix
Yeah, I don't remember when I watched this and I don't feel like combing back through my Facebook wall posts to determine for sure. You don't care, do you? Of course not.
It doesn't even matter, really. CONFESSIONS is as good as I'd heard and almost as brilliant as I'd hoped. I went into it ignorant of the fact that this marks George Clooney's directorial debut, and he does a damn fine job, even if he is guilty of "kitchen-sink" filmmaking where he practically trips over himself to pack in as many homages and allusions of famous filmmakers' tropes - everyone from Hitchcock and Kubrick to Wes Anderson and David O. Russell get their turn at bat. That's OK; Clooney's still learning, and it's not that easy to direct and act in the same picture. He's got too much of an ego to allow himself to hide completely in the fringes, Polanski-style, but fortunately he's not given to portentious importance, à la a certain M. Night who shall remain surnameless. Instead, Clooney's role is lesser, but not minor - the spook who recruits the ambitious, impulsive, brilliant, cuckoo Chuck Barris to the FBI or CIA or whatever the hell spy/assassin organization it is.
Because it's all fiction, y'see? Oh, no. Wait. Metaphor. Satire? Something. Chuck Barris's life is presented in a fictionalized biography heavily larded with truth. He did fall for a warm, daffy, vivacious hippie chick (ably performed by Drew Barrymore); he did create some of the most successful and batshit crazy game shows of all time; he did fuck around a lot; he was a nutcase who felt like his life was careening out of control at least 90% of the time. Nobody could have played this role but the incomparable Sam Rockwell, who was just so born to do it. He's just good, and he makes the unhinged, chauvanistic, delusional Barris relatable, loveable, even enviable.
There's so much additional star power in it, too, thanks to the fact that George Clooney is a swell guy, and everyone was willing to work for scale to play generally small roles or cameos - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, James Urbaniak, and amazingly, Julia Roberts in the only role I've ever seen her in where I didn't want to kick her in the face. For that alone, CONFESSIONS is a remarkable movie. It's also a hell of a lot of fun, especially for 60s and 70s enthusiasts, lovers of television history, and visions of violent delusions like myself. Clooney's still a better actor than a director, but give him time and he might make us all proud.
July 23 or 24 2010, DVD, home living room, from Netflix
Yeah, I don't remember when I watched this and I don't feel like combing back through my Facebook wall posts to determine for sure. You don't care, do you? Of course not.
It doesn't even matter, really. CONFESSIONS is as good as I'd heard and almost as brilliant as I'd hoped. I went into it ignorant of the fact that this marks George Clooney's directorial debut, and he does a damn fine job, even if he is guilty of "kitchen-sink" filmmaking where he practically trips over himself to pack in as many homages and allusions of famous filmmakers' tropes - everyone from Hitchcock and Kubrick to Wes Anderson and David O. Russell get their turn at bat. That's OK; Clooney's still learning, and it's not that easy to direct and act in the same picture. He's got too much of an ego to allow himself to hide completely in the fringes, Polanski-style, but fortunately he's not given to portentious importance, à la a certain M. Night who shall remain surnameless. Instead, Clooney's role is lesser, but not minor - the spook who recruits the ambitious, impulsive, brilliant, cuckoo Chuck Barris to the FBI or CIA or whatever the hell spy/assassin organization it is.
Because it's all fiction, y'see? Oh, no. Wait. Metaphor. Satire? Something. Chuck Barris's life is presented in a fictionalized biography heavily larded with truth. He did fall for a warm, daffy, vivacious hippie chick (ably performed by Drew Barrymore); he did create some of the most successful and batshit crazy game shows of all time; he did fuck around a lot; he was a nutcase who felt like his life was careening out of control at least 90% of the time. Nobody could have played this role but the incomparable Sam Rockwell, who was just so born to do it. He's just good, and he makes the unhinged, chauvanistic, delusional Barris relatable, loveable, even enviable.
There's so much additional star power in it, too, thanks to the fact that George Clooney is a swell guy, and everyone was willing to work for scale to play generally small roles or cameos - Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad Pitt, James Urbaniak, and amazingly, Julia Roberts in the only role I've ever seen her in where I didn't want to kick her in the face. For that alone, CONFESSIONS is a remarkable movie. It's also a hell of a lot of fun, especially for 60s and 70s enthusiasts, lovers of television history, and visions of violent delusions like myself. Clooney's still a better actor than a director, but give him time and he might make us all proud.