[DrunkenMoNk]

This movie is the best picture I've seen all year. I haven't seen About Schmidt yet but just about everything else that's been mentioned as oscar worthy doesn't approach this films brilliance.

The movie was written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze (the duo behind Being John Malkovich). It's about, hold on for a second let me take a deep breath... Charlie Kaufman adapting his own attempt at adapting Susan Orlean's book entitled "The Orchid Thief", which was an adaptation of an essay written for the New Yorker about her reporting the story of John Laroche stealing Orchid's from a Florida swamp all into one solitary film. *Whew* that took a quite a bit to get it all out.

The movie takes place during the filming of Being John Malkovich and follows Charlie Kaufman basically fighting through the kinds of problems anyone has when trying to create something original. You hear him lament the industry (sorry Kaufman hates studio lingo) for constant cliche's like sex, violence, or characters facing obstacles that they inevitably overcome in the end etc etc... When given the challenge though of writing a book that's more about dissapointment then anything else, he's at a loss... he doesn't know what to do.

This is all ocurring of course while Kaufman's having a real life, dealing with his problems with women and his mostly introverted lifestyle. Which tends to be the exact opposite of his outgoing brother Donald's lifestyle. Donald gets along well with the ladies, and seems to enjoy everything Charlie can't seem to.

I think I'll stop here before I start summarizing away the entire movie, but let me not go any further without thuroughly commending Nicholas Cage's work on this film. He plays both Charlie and Donald Kaufman yet at no point do you think of them as the same character. They are entirely different, and without question easy to differentiate between without appearing entirely different. Which to me is no easy feat, to have two identical characters and to always KNOW which your looking at regardless is amazing. Also the effects team that put the two together should be commended for effortlessly moving them into the same scenes without as much as a hiccup throughout the film. The twins appear on screen and act together so effortlessly that you have no question that their two entirely different people throughout the film.

This films incredibly smart and funny, and you may even see a bit of yourself in Charlie Kaufman... on the whole though I can't recommend this film enough, especially to anyone that loves to create things. Oh, and no this isn't the Equilibrium go out and watch it cause it's real fun and has cool action scenes kind of recommendation... this is more like go out and watch this NOW cause this is one fucking amazing flick that better have some oscars coming it's way.

[Sumaleth]

The film doesnt open here until the 26th, but I was lucky enough to read the script a few weeks back and it was genuinely brilliant.

The reports I've heard from friends about the film have been VERY opposite. The few that liked it LOVED it, and the ones that didn't like it HATED it.

I'm really looking forward to seeing it anyway, if only because I'm dying to see how they handled filming that script. There were aspects of the script that I wasn't too keen on, but I expect I'll still enjoy it just for it's weirdness. Same reason I liked Being John M.
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