Yesterday evening I saw the latest movie written by Charlie Kaufmann, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, tenuously based on the life and times of game show producer Chuck Barris. It's a blast!

In the late 1970s, I was an intern in New York for W. R. Grace & Co. I helped during budget preparation season crunching numbers. We were working twelve, fourteen hours a day; the company paid for a hotel room for me and two of my coworkers (Glen and Guy) who would otherwise be commuting an additional two hours a day from Long Island. At the end of the evening, Glen's favorite way to unwind was to watch The Gong Show, created and hosted by Chuck Barris. I was revolted. Nowadays, most of the crap on network TV makes Barris look highbrow.

The movie is visually exciting, and in that respect it has lot in common with Being John Malkovich, though the films have different directors (George Clooney and Spike Jonze, respectively).

Second only to The Hours among good movies that I've seen in the past few months.

posted: 9:30:39 PM