Hey folks, Harry here... Now I've been rabid beyond words to see ADAPTATION since I first read the brilliant script of Charlie Kaufman... Then the second I heard Spike Jonze was going to do it, I began dry humping fireplugs in anticipation.... Now that I hear, "The Nic Cage from Raising Arizona, Moonstruck and Valley Girl." OHMYGOD.... BURSSSSST! Must See Movie! Through the roof excitement! BEING JOHN MALKOVICH is like a taste test for new friends... "I loved it" = Cool. "I liked it" = Not a 'tard. "I didn't like it!" = 'Tard. "I hated it" = future Soylent Green. That's right green slabs of edible cardboard. Yup. The most tasteless manufactured allegedly human extract ever created. Of course, ummmm... That's like just my opinion. Hehehehe... Here's two more reviews....
Adaptation Review
Hey Harry, Mean Mr. Mustard here in Hollywood and I just back from a test screening of Spike Jonze latest film, Adaptation. The screening was the Archlight cinemas (behind the cinerama Dome) and from what we were told, this is the first test screening of Adaptation. It was projected on video from what look liked a cut that came right off the Avid.
Let me start off by saying that if you thought that Being John Malkovich was a head-trip, just wait. Wait to you see what Spike and his writer, Charlie Kaufman have come up with to fuck with our minds this time around.
I will try to explain the plot as best as I can, but PLEASE, keep in mind that this is a film that has to be seen to get, and to be believed, and no plot summery would ever do it justice, but I will try.
Plot # 1 Screen writer Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage…yes…no joke) hot off the success of Being John Malkovich has been hired by a studio exec (Tilda Swinton) to write an Adaptation of The nonfiction novel, The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep), but our dude Charlie has writers block, and it doesn't help that Charlie's twin brother Donald has come to town.
Plot # 2 Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) 3 years earlier is doing a series of stories in South Florida for The New Yorker Magazine about an Orchid plant dealer, John Laroche (Chris Copper, best remembered from American Beauty) that will later become the basis for her book, The Orchid Thief.
Plot # 3 Charlie Kaufman's twin brother, Donald Kaufman (yes, Cage again) has just come into town to follow his brother's footsteps in becoming a screenwriter and decides to crash with Charlie wile he is in town. Donald is writing a "Major studio serial killer thriller film" and has been taking screenwriting seminars with a screenwriting guru (Brian Cox, best remembered as the headmaster in Rushmore) who believes in the narrative rules of a screenplay (which Jonze and Kaufman are subtly breaking from under our nose). Oh yes, and Donald is dating Caroline who was Catherine Keener's make-up artist on the Malkovich set. And did I mention that Caroline is played by Catherine Keener!
Like I said, no plot summery, sentences, or paragraphs will do this film justice. It has to be seen. It has to be experienced. This film is a head-trip, a mind fuck. It is also very funny, probably the best comedy that will come out this year. It also becomes something deeper, and surprisingly touching at the conclusion. THIS FILM WAS FUCKING BRILLIANT, ON ALL LEVELS.
Script
Charlie Kaufman is a genius. The script is totally out there and totally original. The script has some truly great lines. Brilliant lines. Brilliant Dialog. Every now and then, a line from a film becomes part of pop culture. Sometimes it's a cheesy line like "Here's looking at you kid", or "I'm the King Of The World" that's with us because it's so cheesy. Other times, it's a line like…"I am serious, and stop calling me Shirley" from Airplane or more recently "…and this one time at band camp…" from American Pie that stays with us because you never, ever in a million years saw the punch line coming. Well there is a line like that in Adaptation that the greatly underrated Ron Livingston (Swingers, Office Space) has, and it is a line that guaranties the film will have an R rating, and it brought the house down. I am still cracking up just thinking about it. This line will soon be part of our popular culture. You'll see!
Acting
Nic Cage is once again the actor we all love, not the movie star in the paycheck of the week. This is the goofy Nic Cage. The Nic Cage from Razing Arizona, Moonstruck and Valley Girl. Nic cage with the worst thinning hair that we have seen on film since Kingpin. A chunky, overweight Nic Cage. Nic, we forgot how funny and goofy you can be. Nic deserves a nomination at next years Oscars, he actually deserves two, one for Donald and one for Charlie but because of bullshit Oscar rules I'm sure that he'll only get one…but he WILL be nominated for best actor…I'll put money on it right now.
Meryl Streep as always is brilliant. Without giving too much away, I will say that she had a very hard part to pull of because her character has an arc that no viewer will see coming. Characters are suppose to start off one way in a good film and have somewhat of a change and end at a different level at the conclusion. Well, Steep has the arc that ends all character arcs from here on out and in a lesser actors shoes, it would have seemed like a gimmick, a stunt, but Streep makes it work and makes Susan's transition totally believable.
Chris Cooper has nailed down the white trash/hillbilly shtick perfectly. This is what David Spade only wished he could have pulled off with Joe Dirt. Coopers Laroche, with his front teeth missing, cigarette dangling, and southern accent is at first so repulsive, but later, from some dang reason, we sympathies with his character. And did I mention that Cooper is barely recognizable! That is a true sign of a great actor. And like Cage and Keener, he plays another smaller role and has scenes opposite himself. His Laroche may be a bit to grotesque for Oscar voters to take seriously, but he deserves a nomination for supporting Actor.
Katherine Keener is a great sport and is very charming in her duel but small roles. I wish that Jonze would have extended and played out the scene with Donald, Charlie, Caroline, and Katherine. That shot got a great laugh from the audience.
Ron Livingston has a very small role as a studio executive but he is so fucking funny and once again, he has the best line in the whole film. This guy is funny, has star power, and commands the screen, even in a small part. Why can't Hollywood find the right vehicle for him. I seriously believe that he could play the same type of parts as Tom Hanks or even Brendan Fraser if someone would give him the right part. Keep your eye on this guy!
Direction
This film will put Jonze on the A list of Directors. Will this film gross 100 million at the box office? NO, it's to quirky and a bit to insider for the mass public to fully appreciate, but it will make a killing at art theaters and college towns. And I would LOVE to see what Jonze could bring to a big budget studio film. Here is an idea Universal…have Jonze direct The Cat In The Hat or Curious George. Anyway, the direction is so original in Adaptation, and he deserves credit for bringing back Malkovich (or the Malkoviches), all in the first scene. Like with Malkovich, I won't be surprised if he gets another direction nomination at the Oscars.
Overall, Adaptation was even better then Malkovich. This film is destined to become a cult classic. Every film school should screen this film for the new screenwriting students, every screenwriting student should study the brilliant screenplay, and every drugged out college kid will study this film wile on acid (you'll see). Adaptation will go down as one of the best films of the year and without a question the most original.
Mean Mr. Mustard out!
Next we have a mixed review from Capra Fett who liked, but didn't love, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH...
I returned a couple of hours ago from a screening of Spike Jonze's new film Adaptation. It screened at The Archlight at the Dome on Sunset and Vine in Hollywood. It was a very early print, most likely taken directly from an Avid. The version we saw ran a little over 2 hours so it will probably be cut down. I hate writing reviews so soon after seeing a film, especially one like this where my feelings could change when I wake up in the morning but I thought I'd give it a go. My review is Spoiler laden so I guess it shouldn't be read by those who don't like those kind of things but it's the only way I write.
The film is about a screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman (loosely based on the real Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the movie) played by Nicholas Cage who struggles as he tries to adapt Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep, I doubt based at all on the real Susan Orlean) nonfiction novel The Orchid Thief into a film. Charlie's new film Being John Malkovich is in production and he's a pretty hot property.
Charlie is drawn to Orlean's book because it simply exists. The character's don't change they aren't particularly moved, they just are and he wants to capture this in the screenplay. As he does so, his identical twin brother (also played by Cage) is writing his own screenplay in a highly conventional manner that Charlie finds repulsive.
The films starts with a VO narration of Charlie Kaufman who berates himself for everything. His physical appearance, his work his private life everything. This continues throughout the film. Through a continual series of flashbacks we also get to know Susan Orlean as she investigates the story of Laroche (Chris Cooper) The Orchid Thief whose obsession with Orchids is so high that he risks imprisonment and sometimes death to obtain them. The further she delves into Laroche's life, the more she doubts her own baseless existence. She loves nothing enough to seek it out with such conviction. Meryl Streep gives a startling performance. She's a beautiful woman and Jonze accentuates her best features. Her hair shimmers, her eyes glow but in a way that only a great actress can, she hints that it is all surface, that at any moment we'll all see her for the ugly, boring tart she really is.
Meanwhile, Kaufman's own failing attempts at adapting the book leads him to obsess about Orlean who he only knows from the book she has written and the back the picture of her on the back flap, which he masturbates to in frustration.
Much comic relief comes from twin Donald whose own script seems so bombastic and cliche yet has golden written all over it. Donald tries to get Charlie to visit Susan in hopes that it will drive him to a better conclusion to his script but Charlie is scared to death. They end up tailing Susan to Florida where it is revealed that she is having a torrid love affair with Laroche. Her beauty has vanished. She looks decades older than she did. When Charlie and Donald are found snooping about she orders them to be killed, leading to a bizarre ending complete with an outragous Deus es Machina that has to be seen to be believed.
While I enjoyed the heck out of Adaptation, I don't think that the two plots ever gelled they way they should have. Though Streep rocks, Susan's change never rang true to me and Charlie's plight is not involving enough. The whole films is in knots. Cage plays a real screenwriter, the actual screenwriter of the movie. The book The Orchid Thief really does exist. You can buy it at Barnes and Noble today if you'd like but this film is hardly an Adaptation of it. Susan Orlean is around, though I doubt she's a wanton killer. If Kaufman's idea is that nothing is trully adaptable than he hasn't quite succeeded.
All these things, I'm sure will be lost on the Midwest (pardon the stereotype) where they won't read the credits of the film and probably don't know that Susan Orlean exists. They'll probably enjoy the film in its own right. I think most others will be pretty confused.
Through Donald, Kaufman (the real one) establishes his hatred of cliche yet the film has many of them. Charlie just happens to run into the Producer of the film when he least wants to. Susan just happens to get into an elevator with him. And the film uses what has become the most overused cliche of recent time: The uptight person who usually NEVER gets high, decides to snort Orchid dust and is able to slide form her pain (much to the joy of everyone in the test audience besides me).
The film also seems to try to cover it's bases. I thought more than once of The French Lieutenants Woman, which covers much of the same ground as this film. Having Streep in the film seems like validation. I thought of 8 1/2 more than once while watching the movie, lo and behold it's mentioned in the movie. The Player comes to mind, Donald brings it up when talking about the Snake eats his own tail style of his script. Brian Cox, who gives the best performance in the film as a screenwriter seminar lecturist, warns about using a Deus es Machina and voice over narration, both used in the movie.
Bottom line, the movie is cool. It's fun. I was never bored. The things that annoyed me could make me snicker tomorrow. Of course they could piss me off when the film comes out and people brandy about the words "original and singular" when the movie is neither of these things.
Personally I think The Muse is a better comedy about the struggles of a screenwriter in the midst of his work (Ron Livingston's Agent is a direct crib of Mark Feuerstein in that movie). Barton Fink I feel is a better Dramady about the same thing. Most of the "suprsise it was just a dream" sequences are better done every week on Six Feet Under (in fact a recent episode with Rachel Griffiths struggling to write a novel is practically this whole movie in micro, and done better) But Adaptation is still fun. I especially like how it dramatizes every definition of the very word adaptation. I'm interested to see how this move changes in the months to come. Cage does a decent job, his make-up artist does a better one.
You can call me Capra Fett (is that one taken already?). I'm in my 20's and really really liked Being John Malkovich but didn't love it if that helps show where I'm coming from.
