Went to see Confessions of a Dangerous Mind last night.
I really can’t say if I like it or not, it is a well crafted film and George Clooney seems to have proven that he can direct more than competently, there are some amazing use of single cut shots. Such as a sequence where Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell) enters the scene three times, all at different time periods, to show his progression through jobs at the TV company. There are also some masterful scenes and the screenplay does scream of Kaufmans hand (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). There is a very provocative scene with Chuck’s mother and in the subject matter is seriously interesting and amusing. But throughout the film I was never sure how to treat it, is it a thriller, comedy, drama… It contains so many elements of both and the subject would suggest a thriller, but then there are the interviews with the real people, and the really funny comedy moments that litter the film. I just don’t know how to treat this film it just didn’t quite sit right.
However that said I have to say that I can recommend the film.
24 News is pissing me off at the moment, it’s amazing how it can reduce the Iraq conflict into pure entertainment, and it’s sickening that they can actively show the bombing live, and have a happy voice over telling the viewer what they are viewing. Bring back the days when if something important happened there would be a newsflash on most channels. The most sickening thing I saw was an advert for sky news that actively used the war to sell their channel, it just smacked of insensitivity.
This is war, it is a crime, it should not be entertainment.
