Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind marks a stylish and daring foray into direction. Whilst the film is undoubtedly crisp, its strength is also ultimately its downfall - this film is both a black comedy and a thriller but the two don't sit together well and the comedy ultimately undermines the thriller elements. Despite this, the acting is generally of a high quality - Julia Roberts and George Clooney both equally convincing in their roles, Julia in particular being made to look much more sexy and daring than in Ocean's 11. However, it is Sam Rockwell as Chuck Barris who really steals the show. His performance ultimately makes the film what it is and you really believe in his troubled "genius" and root for him on his missions.
Confessions..., is however, a somewhat difficult film to engage with fully. You may think you've seen Drew Barrymore's performance before and you'd be right (think back to "The Wedding Singer" with Adam Sandler). However, more noticeably, the action is broken up by comments from Barris' real-life contempories just when you want the story to unfold further. In my opinion, these should have been left to the end as a fitting testament to the man who may or may not have worked for the CIA, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether Barris' did or didn't because Rockwell makes you want to believe that the story is true.
I thought I already rated this. I liked it, the writing is good, but could've been much more. Clooney's direction is good but conservative, he's improved in subsequent projects.
You can recognize a Charlie Kaufman screenplay from the opening five minutes.
The originality of the biography beats all expectations.
The direction is good, and so is the acting.
Not a classic, but a very good film nonetheless.
Clooney's helming debut is everything you want out of a dark biopic. Rockwell runs the gamut of emotions while still holding our interest in his mystery.
i wouldnt say it was anything special and anything really worth shouting about but it was a good movie none the less and i think sam rockwell is really an under-rated actor
Sam Rockwell was mildy entertaining, but that really is the only good thing going for this film. I was shocked to see this film was only 109 minutes long, as it seemed as though it had been on for hours. It hasn?t quite made the ?awful? list and I would consider it ?watchable? if it hadn?t been so drawn out.
It's terribly intriguing! I love how George Clooney talks about the tv world, and this film is in someway like a special episode of Alias with Julia Roberts as guest star!! :-)
George Clooney's calling is as a director, don;t get me wrong i think he has done some great movies - ie Out Of Sight - but you can see as a director he has a good eye. The story is a humerous and sad tale of Chuck Barris and his possibly fictional possibly truthful life as an undercover spy. Sam Rockwell worksthe role really well and Drew Barrymore & George Clooney offer good support, Julia Roberts however is not cast particularly wel land doesnt suit.
George Clooney sorprendió con su debut en la dirección, al llevar a la pantalla Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, la adaptación que hizo Charlie Kauffman del libro escrito por Chuck Barris, productor de televisión. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind es un libro autobiográfico de Barris, y Clooney pretende quitar el oscuro velo detrás de la misteriosa doble vida del productor. Mucho se ha especulado que Barris perteneció a la CIA y que llevó a cabo varias misiones secretas, que involucraban el asesinato de varios personajes ligados al comunismo. Clooney también actúa en el filme, como el misterioso Jim Byrd, un agente de la CIA que se encarga de entrenar a Barris en el oscuro arte del asesinato. La película es un trabajo notable, en el que George Clooney demuestra un pleno dominio de la narración, manteniendo intacto el interés en la historia del creador de programas como *El Juego de la Citas o The Gong Show. Gracias a un estilo de falso documental, varios personajes que conocieron a Barris en sus andanzas por los estudios de la ABC, describen sus experiencias en entrevistas, recurriendo a colores encendidos en la dirección fotográfica de Newton Thomas Sigel. Incluso, el verdadero Barris aparece para cerrar el filme con algunas declaraciones de primera mano. El tono de comedia se combina de maravilla con el diseño de producción colorido de aquellos programas, todo con una ambientación magnífica, y de paso Clooney rinde un pequeño homenaje a su fallecida tía, la cantante de jazz Rose Mary Clooney, quien ofreció varias sesiones musicales en la ABC durante aquella época. Más en http://pantallanueve.blogspot.com
This film is pretty good, although quite different from most of Kaufman's work. Not a big fan of the directing style, but huge fan of kaufman, so I like it.
Sam Rockwell i s very good but as a director Clooney fails to make gold of the brilliant originality of a Kaufman screenplay, more snooze then creativity.
Fantastic cast helped this average story become good. Clooney as the director as well as a minor role was awesome. Sam Rockwell is one of the most underrated actors going around and Drew Barrymore was very good in this....who would of thought she could act!
Some of the greatest one shots and one of my favorite pieces of dialogue ever. This movie began my obsesion with the underrated actor that is Sam Rockwell.
kind of have mixed feeling about whether or not I actually enjoyed watching this film. I can't quite work out if I liked it or not..
I do know that it was very slow starting. In fact I almost didn't end up watching the whole thing. But I think it was when George Clooney came on and the whole CIA thing started that it got a bit more interesting. I mean, a bit more interesting.
So basically it follows the life of Chuck Barris, creator of TV shows. It actually had some funny parts, not laugh out loud but just some that made me smile and enjoyed the movie for a while. Some parts though were just dull and boring ..and confusing.
It was excellent directing though by George Clooney, and also fantastic acting by him. Sam Rockwell was brilliant though, I hadn't seen any other films with him so it was strange but he did an amazing job. Drew Barrymore was okay, I hadn't really seen her with a role like that before, it just didn't really suit her for some reason.. Oh and Julia Roberts who I hate wasn't any better than I expected.
There are probably lots of people out there who loved this movie, some like me might have found it a bit confusing. It was okay, worth watching, but just not exactly my type of movie. Still, I'm not stopping anyone from seeing this, go watch it for yourself and see if you like it.
This film was very original in many ways. Strong story. Well Acted. Good Transitions and cinemetography on a small budget. I'm a Clooney fan, so that makes it even more fun for me. The Commentary was also very good.
I kind of have mixed feeling about whether or not I actually enjoyed watching this film. I can't quite work out if I liked it or not..
I do know that it was very slow starting. In fact I almost didn't end up watching the whole thing. But I think it was when George Clooney came on and the whole CIA thing started that it got a bit more interesting. I mean, a bit more interesting.
So basically it follows the life of Chuck Barris, creator of TV shows. It actually had some funny parts, not laugh out loud but just some that made me smile and enjoyed the movie for a while. Some parts though were just dull and boring ..and confusing.
It was excellent directing though by George Clooney, and also fantastic acting by him. Sam Rockwell was brilliant though, I hadn't seen any other films with him so it was strange but he did an amazing job. Drew Barrymore was okay, I hadn't really seen her with a role like that before, it just didn't really suit her for some reason.. Oh and Julia Roberts who I hate wasn't any better than I expected.
There are probably lots of people out there who loved this movie, some like me might have found it a bit confusing. It was okay, worth watching, but just not exactly my type of movie. Still, I'm not stopping anyone from seeing this, go watch it for yourself and see if you like it.
Clooney`s directorial debut is strong. With an excellent screenplay written by Charlie Kaufman and good performances of Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Clooney, "Confessions..." is surprisingly entertaining.
I imagine Chuck Barris sat down to write his autobiography and realised that it would be the same as 99% of every other autobiographies ever written. Really f***ing boring. So he decided to throw in some stuff about spies and assassins to spice it up a bit. This adaptation therefore is part biography, part romance, part thriller and part comedy but is a serious case of jack of all trades and master of none. The spy scenes come across as a kind of unfunny version of Austin Powers, the romance doesn't work because he is such an unsympathetic twat (even Drew Barrymore comes across as whiny and annoying) and it just isn't very funny. It's a shame because if Clooney had concentrated on just one aspect it could've been much better; the scenes involving himself and Rutger Hauer are great. Unfortunately as it is, more often than not I was just plain bored because Rockwell is so unlikeable I didn't care WHAT happened to him. A disappointment considering the talent involved.
Hands down, one of the best movies ever made. And without a single doubt in my mind, the strongest, most beautiful, most amazing and mindblowing performance by a male actor in Film History. Sam Rockwell is simply a great ACTOR.
clooneys directorial debut, and showing his potential, a great style of in camera set moves, makes this a great and interesting watch, and in sam rockwell, a great part,
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