Director: Spike Jonze
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.5
Crafty little piece, this one, made all the worse for failing to capitalize on the promise it showed for the first forty minutes, and willingly turning itself into a train-wreck for the sake of a joke. It's a film that's Anti-Hollywood but made with Hollywood money and Hollywood stars, about Hollywood players and behind-the-scenes tension, taking a playful swipe at the hand that feeds it but never doing it convincingly, kicking around the agents and producers (Kaufman's agent's main concern is sodomizing young women). The problem that arises in the final hour is this: does a film that tells you ahead of time it's going to pull a boner and make a sudden shift in plotting and logic make the sudden shift any more bearable? Does someone who tells you he is going to punch you in the face before he clenches his fist make the blow any less surprising or easier to take? It had tremendous potential - and a great performance by Nicolas Cage - but threw it all away.
