28/08/13
26/07/13
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was George Clooney’s directorial début and goes about presenting the claims of Chuck Barris, a TV producer/presenter who supposedly worked for the CIA as a hitman during the 60’s and 70’s. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and Sam Rockwell continually proves himself to be one of my favourite actors, he plays these mentally unstable yet entirely likeable characters so well.
The whole film flirts between so many different genres but doesn’t ever feel disjointed, the genuine romantic elements slot in nicely beside the cheesy spy homages and the noir-esque hotel room voice overs. It rarely takes itself too seriously and wouldn’t have worked if it did as there are so many moments that take you out of the film, like the cameos from Clooney’s buddies, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, as gameshow contestants. The cover that Barris uses to carry out his assassinations overseas is to take the dating gameshow winners on “exotic” trips to West Germany and Helsinki in the dead of winter, which plays out on screen just as hilariously as it sounds.
Clooney proves to be an inventive director making a lot of interesting choices, especially with the use of colour throughout the movie, picking out vibrant pinks and yellows amid the greys of communist europe, and also the soundtrack which helps in letting you know which genre the film is currently behaving as. Whether or not there is any truth in what Barris claims about being a CIA operative is irrelevant but the fact it’s written by Charlie Kaufman shows that his take on events may be slightly exaggerated.
The film does so well in exploring the motives of a man who kills when he has no financial need to do so as the creator of successful television shows, his handler played by George Clooney himself frames it as Barris being an “assassination enthusiast”. Although my quick trip to IMDB’s trivia section says that the CIA denies any knowledge of Barris’s supposed work with them, although they would say that wouldn’t they.
7.2 out of 10. I would certainly give this one a watch, especially if you want to see copious amounts of Sam Rockwell’s arse on screen.
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