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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

13:43 / 26.01.03

Just saw this and it was great. It's a bit darker than the commercials make it out to be but it's better for it. I think George Clooney does a great job directing and charlie kaufman is quickly becoming a fave. I just have one question, what do you think, was Chuck Barris in the CIA or wasn't he?

Graeme McMillan

14:39 / 26.01.03

Nope. I think he made the whole thing up.

But the film was fucking amazing - better than Adaptation, IMO - Clooney's direction was a lot of fun, especially the scene where Barris gets back from Mexico and is on the phone to the TV boss, and walks from his apartment to the office and then back...

Matthew Fluxington

17:13 / 26.01.03

The C.I.A. has denied that Barris ever worked for them, for whatever that is worth.

I think it is pretty obvious that Barris was making it all up, and that's part of why the film works and clearly why Charlie Kaufman wrote the adaptation of his book. It's the perfect counterpoint to Adaptation, really. Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind is the story of a man whose life is pretty dull, in which the most notable thing about his life is his gift for hucksterism and giving the people what they want; and so in telling his story he adds in all the exciting things his life was missing to keep people interested. It's all about the disconnect between life as it is lived by most people and how it is portrayed in film, and how most people do not feel that their lives measure up to the fictionalized reality on screen. So, in some ways, it is basically Adaptation with all the meta-commentary and Orchid Thief themes removed.

I don't think Confessions is better than Adaptation at all, but it is a really great movie. It's very funny and exciting, and Clooney is a revelation as a first time director. Sam Rockwell was a great choice to play Barris, and Julia Roberts is surprisingly good in her role. And hey, Maggie Gyllenhaal's in it! She's in all the best films these days. She's like a human stamp of quality!

17:51 / 26.01.03

Maggie Gyllenhaal is the new Parker Posey.

18:34 / 26.01.03

I am in love with Maggie Gyllenhaal's "Raven," from Cecil B. Demented.

But, about Barris and the C.I.A. - someone told me that, in his autobiography, he says the C.I.A. gave him a codename, for internal use and whatnot. And that his official C.I.A. codename was something like "Johnny Slickkiller." Something to that effect. Basically, not the kind of thing I imagine a bunch of CIA Spooks using on internal memos.

12:42 / 27.01.03

The "truth" is beside the point.

Chuck Barris is a much-hated figure, even today: damned as the root cause of the coarsening of mass culture, a burden for which he was surely unprepared—and, as he himself admits, a deeply self-loathing man as well. Being a mass murderer is a validation of all that hate, even an absolution, in a twisted way: You all hate me, eh? You think I'm evil? Well, buddy, you've got no idea how evil I am. You're going to hate me for something as inconsequential as creating the Gong Show—then, chuck you, Farley—I'm going to burn in Hell, all right, but you don't know the half of it...

13:00 / 27.01.03

"Sunny Sixkiller" was Barris's alleged CIA codename.

I was distracted throughout "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," because I'd read the book recently (which I do recommend; it's quite entertaining), and although the movie follows the book closely it's not necessarily faithful - the adaptation, in this case, remains true to the book while not aping it precisely.

For instance ****Mild, nonspecific SPOILERS**** - the demises of Lynch (the Clooney character - was that his name? I don't recall exactly) and Patricia are quite different in the book, Barris is never captured by the KGB, there is much less of the "reflection" on being a killer that Barris exhibits in the movie (for instance, in the book, he never, ever questions why someone needs to be whacked).

These changes kind of jarred me out of the suspension of disbelief required by the movies (Movies in general), and so I didn't enjoy the film as much as I might have. I will say that Clooney did an excellent job of direction - some of the minor performances (rutger Hauer, the KGB schlubb) were quite memorable, and Rockwell was great as Barris. The art direction was great, cinematography impressive though flashy.

I'm sure some kind of meta-analysis of Kaufman's "adaptations" can be made, but I'm not up to it this morning. They're very similar in a way, and a case could probably be made that "Confessions" is a more effective distillation of the idea foregrounded in "Adaptation." Though, as I said, I'm not up for it, and I did enjoy "Adaptation" a whole heck of a lot more than "Confessions."

22:20 / 31.01.03

I think the interpretation that Barris is suffering from a scitzophrenic delusion the whole time is an interesting one. Clooney does a number of things in the film that begin to suggest this, such as the almost supernatural way he tends to appear for Barris, and knows way more about him than even the CIA should have been able to dig up. Clooney's scene at the pool towards the end also seemed fantastical, and his CIA adventures a little too glamourous at times to be believed. But more so is the deterioriation of Barris as the film progresses, the bits about his mother singing happy birthday in a mourning veil and dressing him as his dead twin sister, the early sexual disfunction, and other details you see when he finally cracks. All of these could be seen as cause for a scitziphrenic break. As well, Clooney's comments on just what the profile is tend to suggest further that not only was Barris halluciniating it all, but he may have actually been killing people! Just not as a CIA agent, but as a deranged serial killer who at last begins to figure out the truth of his condition in the end. Especially with dead characters showing up as hallucinatory cameos at the wedding. Double feature with A Beutiful Mind, anyone?

I don't know how much all of that maps back to Barris's actual autobiography, but it seems Clooney's take on it all at least suggests to me that he might well have been crazy, and actually killing people at that.

This is a very black film. Its very screwed up. I liked it a lot.

14:41 / 02.02.03

I fell in love with this movie last night. One of the best pictures I've seen in months. The black humor, the hilarious dialog, the camera shots, the way it all blended together, everything except for the fact that Drew Barrymore's character appeared to have lost a few IQ as the movie progressed. There were all these little throw-in elements that were super creative, and there's no way I could mention even a fraction of them. Wow! I walked out of the theater blown away, my entire faith in cinema renewed. I didn't like Adaptation very much, though I'll admit that it was a good movie. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? I loved it. Wasn't bored even once.

The CIA deal was a sweet exaggeration of what really happened, I fancy. A parable.

20:43 / 03.02.03

George Clooney's CIA character suggests Barris choked his twin sister to death with the umbilical cord - his first murder. In New X-Men, Professor X also tries to strangle his twin sister in utero. I don't see how this could be either source riffing off the other, but if not, do they share some common thread I'm not seeing? It doesn't seem like a very common motif, though I know Stephen King played with the idea of in utero twin-assimilation in The Dark Half.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

01:11 / 04.02.03

"I don't see how this could be either source riffing off the other, but if not, do they share some common thread I'm not seeing?"

It's a fairly common plot point. Xavier kills Cassandra, The guy from the Dark Half absorbed his twin, Barris strangled his sister, john Constantine strangled his twin brother in the womb... I know there are more I just can't seem to recall right now.

It's usually used to portray a supressed duality or a savage survival instinct. Or both.

Brigade du jour

21:33 / 08.04.03

Dude this movie rocks! And that's all I've got to say.

21:39 / 08.04.03

George Clooney is amazing and is a fantastic looking man. Sexy as hell even with a moustache. Good stuff all-round. Glad Sam Rockwell got the lead ahead of Johnny Depp too.

22:09 / 08.04.03

It's very very good. Better than Adaptation? Maybe. It's an interesting companion piece, certainly - Kaufman doing two different adaptations. Funny, dark, and with a wonderful sixites' spy movie score, I liked Confessions a lot. Clooney's direction is surprisingly sharp. And Sam Rockwell rocks, as I have known for a long time.

nedrichards is confused

00:21 / 09.04.03

just have to echo above but add extra plaudits onto the very, very slick cinematography. Washing all the colours back, putting some back in, enhancing them. I haven't seen colour used so well in film since Lord Of The Rings. Lots of fun. And yes Charlie Kaufman is super special.

Brigade du jour

20:31 / 09.04.03

I'm sorry, I haven't got time to read all the comments, so somebody may have mentioned this already. But anyway, here's a cool thing I noticed - the bits where the sets are changed just off-screen without using actual camera techniques, e.g. Chuck on the phone to somebody, and then he walks across his room until the guy he's talking to is in his office in the background like its the next room and the wall's been taken away. Then he walks back and forth again, and somebody has put the wall back, all without a single edit.

At once a theatrical piece of economic filmmaking, and a visualisation of the theme of almost everything in Chuck's life being fake.

Brigade du jour

20:34 / 09.04.03

Shit - just found Smile's comment saying the same thing I just did. Sorry everyone, I'm suitably embarrassed. (quick FHTB, make this post worthwhile, um ...) Oh and Drew Barrymore's really lovely. I've had a crush on her forever, and every time I see a film of hers thinking I've got over it, my heart fills up anew. Sigh ...