Review of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) by Cesar R — 16 Feb 2008

I watched this for a second time today and I liked it better the second viewing. I would prefer that Chuck Barris' journey up the TV company ladder be cut out since it wasn't very well done, but this movie really goes deeper into paranoia and intrigue in the last 1/2 hr or so of the movie.

Of course, I don't believe that the CIA would actively hire a person, much less a semi-successful TV producer at the time he was recruited, even if he did "fit the profile." I would more tend to believe if he really was a violent person on the inside, he might apply for such a job, but an agent basically tapping him on the shoulder and saying "you want to be a CIA agent".

..come on. Now if this was all a paranoid delusion, then that's different. The only thing I guess I might complain about in regards to Charlie Kauffman's screenplay is that it lacked the self-deprecating humor that "Adaptation" and "Being John Malkovich" both had.

It was, however, sort of interesting seeing the real Chuck Barris at the end looking sort of anxious and sort of lost, as if he really was traumatized by something in real life, whatever that "real" life was.