The Popkorn Junkie :: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

      Like “A Beautiful Mind”, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” is a story about a person having delusions of involvement with the CIA. “Confessions” never really tells us for sure, but trust me --- they were delusions. John Nash, the central figure in “A Beautiful Mind” was an award winning economic mathematician. The semi-fictional autobiography “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” describes the adventures of TV producer Chuck Barris who created such TV shows as “The Newlywed Game”(husbands and wives ask one another embarrassing questions), “The Dating Game” (strangers ask one another embarrassing questions and then win dates) and “The Gong Show” (people with no talent try to entertain an audience while being embarrassed by celebrities). The film has us believe that most of Barris’ mental problems were due to the criticism of his work, and his feelings of having wasted his life. He is portrayed as a very well read person, but Barris seems simpleminded in general, both in this film and my recollections of him on TV. The shows he created, though entertaining curiosities, were also very simple and much criticized for lowering the standards of US TV. It can probably be argued that many of today’s game shows, and trash TV are direct descendants of Barris’ work.

      Confessions also reminds me a bit of “Auto-Focus”, the depressing story of Bob Crane, the star of the TV show Hogan’s Heroes. Much of “Confessions” shows Barris looking like the Unibomber camped out in a filthy hotel room. So, even though I expected a comedy, the movie gets into a lot of depressing moments in Barris’ life. It had some comic moments, but I don’t think I would call it a comedy.

      I like Sam Rockwell in general, and he did a good job playing Barris and imitating all his quirky movements. George Clooney directed the film and played Barris’ CIA handler. He did well in both roles except for the pacing of the film which was snaillike. Drew Barrymore played Barris’ real life free love, love interest, while Julia Roberts played his mysterious CIA girlfriend.

      I must confess, it is a so-so 2 hour movie that would have been good if it were 1 hour.

-- Pappy ( 2 pops out of 4 pops )

Talk about this film with other Popkorn Junkies

Other Junkie's opinions.....

Mike ( 2 out of 4 pops )

This is a pretty strange film. There was lots for me to like but lots for me to dislike as well. Sam Rockwell does a really good job here playing the troubled TV game show producer/host Chuck Barris. And George Cooney manages to make a very artistic film with lots of interesting camera shots and some neat cinematography. Although, I have a sneaky suspicion that Soderberg, who was producer of this film, had a large helping hand in the directing area. However, too much of the film resulted in much boredom and left the audience with a "who cares" feeling after watching it. The most glaring weakness of this film was the enormous amount of screen time spent showing the spy stuff which of course was nothing more than a figment of Barris's imagination. Yeah right, we are suppose to believe that the CIA is going to scout out this shy, scared-of-his-own-shadow wimp and hire him as a hired assassin. The problem with the film is that it took this seriously instead of as a delusion in his mind. And again, there was just way too much of this ridiculous spy stuff to make the film that interesting. Clooney definitely shows some directing talent here and hopefully his next film will be a much better written and interesting one.

James ( 3 out of 4 pops )

A weekend ago, I learned that not only can Denzel Washington act, he can also direct. Well, this weekend, I learned the same thing about George Clooney...or did I? Do you want to know more? This is the fourth feature film that Charlie Kaufman has written-- the most notable being "Being John Malkovich", or at least that's my favorite. Confessions doesn't come close to "Being John Malkovich". The most glaring problem I saw is in the beginning. There's an extreme close up shot (two actually) where we only see the top half of Chuck Barris' (Sam Rockwell) face. Now, this would be fine, if there was something good to look at on the top of screen, but there wasn't. I don't understand the logic behind that shot. I don't want to see a blank wall/ceiling, when I could be seeing the leading actor's entire face! After I saw that, I knew that this film was going to have to really do something for me to walk away liking it. It did. Finally we see a great Julia Roberts performance, aka a performance in which she doesn't scream/cry obnoxiously. And she even pulled off a good death sequence. George Clooney pops in and out every once in a while to say hello and whatnot, but it's Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore (Penny) that really shine. I've never been a real big fan of Barrymore, but I'd have to say that this is one of her best films, and Rockwell? He's gonna be huge. The movie isn't too predictable and it's not too unpredictable. We are constantly saying to ourselves, was Barris really working as a CIA agent when he was producing those tv shows, or was he just a total schizo? Perhaps this is the same impression people got after reading the book, who knows. What I do know, is that I was entertained. It was an absolute joy to be able to see Drew Barrymore shine, and oh yeah, the very talented Maggie Gyllenhaal is in this too! There's also some brief (emphasis on brief) celebrity cameos, and those appearances are rather amusing. There's some sexual innuendo's and a fair share of nudity, some violence-- not too graphic, but there's not much cussing, so don't rule out taking the kids to see this. So did I find out if George Clooney can direct? Yes, but not as well as Denzel.

Billy Ray ( 2 1/2 out of 4 pops )

This might be one of the most unusual films I have seen in a while, and that is a pretty bold statement when you consider how freaky "Femme Fatale" was. Here are the three things I liked most about this film: (1) Sam Rockwell. I have been a big fan of his since he was Wild Bill in "The Green Mile". He is a phenomenal actor; (2) Drew Barrymore. She is so underrated and she is soooo good in this picture; (3) Rutger Hauer. It's about damn time Rutger Hauer got back into making mainstream motion pictures. It warms my heart to see a veteran actor come back after years of crappy, B-movies that went straight to video (with the exception of "Surviving the Same"--I kind of liked that flick). All-in-all, this wasn't half bad, though it really didn't keep my guessing too much. I had already read Barris' autobiography and was firm in my belief that he was NOT a CIA hitman. This is a nice fantasy with some good performances, and not a bad debut for Clooney as director, but it still wasn't everything most critics are cracking it up to be.