Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: George Clooney

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is so good it makes me want to re-evaluate George Clooney as a director. Part of that must be Charlie Kaufman's screenplay. But considering Clooney made so many changes to the script that Kaufman essentially disowned it, I think it needs to be first and foremost considered as Clooney's film. And what a film it is: boldly embracing artificiality and cinematic plasticity, at times the film feels like Clooney's take on Frank Tashlin. The moving sets which could jump between time periods, POV's, and continents with just the pan of a camera were marvelous. I loved how Clooney tacitly accepted the most insane parts of Chuck Barris' story without flinching. That was the kind of thing that Werner Herzog would have done: embrace the fiction, embrace the myth. The Hollywood stunt casting--particularly Matt Damon and Brad Pitt as hapless contestants on The Dating Game--was a nice touch, too.

8/10