One of my New Year's resolutions: rewatch Charlie Kaufman films. I just don't like his movies, but film nuts seem to like him, so I'll give him another go. He wrote this adaptation of the autobiography of the host of "The Gong Show" and "The Dating Game." The host claims in his spare time he was a government assassin. He seems nuts. The film does a nice job of portraying Chuck Barris's character as someone who was probably, for all intents and purposes, totally schizo, but without it coming across as comic or condescending.
The film's decent, but not really Kaufman-esque, which I don't mind. My Wikipedia research indicates Kaufman is upset because George Clooney (who directed) edited the script and didn't consult with Kaufman. You know what, Charlie? Suck it up. You're not that great a writer, and there's nothing wrong with a director trying to make the incoherent coherent. One can only imagine the pretentious fantasy world Kaufman envisioned, or the fourth-wall-ish ideas he had for this gem of a film idea. Even though I'm not the biggest Clooney-as-director fan ("Michael Clayton" blew like the wind), I will say this is probably better than what Kaufman had in mind.
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