Having recently bid a fond adieu to the post-DVD-release critical interest resurgence for Synecdoche, New York, it seems a ripe enough time for us to forget this dauntingly nebulous film until, say, maybe someone like Criterion comes along in 20 years and revives it via whatever the popular media might be at that point (movies ... read more »
Dec 082008
Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York is not one of those films (e.g., Baz Luhrman’s Australia) that lurches toward the audience with its metaphorical arms wide open, shouting “Love me!” On the contrary, Synecdoche seems perversely designed to turn off mainstream audiences – like a person who wants to be accepted warts and all, and if ... read more »
Oct 292008
How to describe the films of Charlie Kaufman . . . Ingmar Bergman with laughs? Close, but that makes Kaufman sound too much like Woody Allen, a useful comparison maybe, but one that deemphasizes an essential aspect of Kaufman, his fascination with time and memory. And Kaufman is far more tied to Surrealism/Theater of the ... read more »
Jul 172006
In 1997, Charlie Kaufman wrote a screenplay adaptation of A Scanner Darkly that was never produced. You can read it here. Surprisingly, Kaufman’s version follows Philip K. Dick’s novel as closely as Linklater’s does, with few of the Kaufmanesque digressions that anyone who seen Adaptation might expect. Kaufman’s version has more profanity, and more references ... read more »
