Adaptation.

Spike Jonze - Director
Susan Orlean - Author
Charlie Kaufman - Screenwriter

Nicolas Cage - Charlie Kaufman/Donald Kaufman
Meryl Streep - Susan Orlean
Chris Cooper * - John LaRoche
Cara Seymour - Amelia Kavan
Brian Cox - Robert McKee
Tilda Swinton - Valerie Thomas
Ron Livingston - Marty Bowen
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Caroline Cunningham
* Academy Award Winner - Best Supporting Actor for Adaptation

Nicolas Cage is terrific as twins Charlie and Donald Kaufman

Adaptation gives us two entertaining tales to follow: the story and the storyteller each get equal attention in this wonderful, unique film. If this sounds strange, that's because it is. Adaptation is the story of Charlie Kaufman, who has been charged with adapting The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean into a movie. He very much wants to stay true to his source material and not make a typical hollywood movie. He doesn't want car chases or sex scenes or people overcoming obstacles to learn a profound lesson in the end because that isn't how life is. "Can't a movie just be about flowers and how amazing they are?" he asks his agent. "....Are they?"is the response. Kaufman looks thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know. I think so."

Charlie is finding his source material difficult to translate into film format. His twin brother Donald takes up screenwriting as hobby and, much to Charlie's horror, finds success in writing a formulaic murder mystery chock full of hollywood cliche. Donald (who may or may not exist) is Charlie's polar opposite; He's outgoing, simple, happy, he has fun writing and he can meet and mingle with women effortlessly. Donald has the mentality of a puppy dog towards his brother Charlie, who is frustrated by the ease with which Donald lives his life. Life is anything but easy for Charlie. Writing is an exercise in torture as it is for many people. Living, for Charlie Kaufman, is also much the same. His persistent self criticism (I'm sweating. Stop sweating! Oh god, she just looked at my hairline. You brought her here and now you're just sitting there. Say something funny, you idiot!) makes it impossible for him to meet and talk to women. One almost has to wonder what he's afraid of. Any criticism or rejection could hardly be worse than the self inflicted emotion stress he lives with.

John Laroche searches for the elusive ghost orchid

The other half of the story deals with Kaufman's screenplay, The Orchid Thief. It tells of John Laroche, who has liberated the rare ghost orchid from the Takahatchee State Preserve in Florida. Laroche is a fascinating character. He is a greasy, dishevelled man who is missing his top front teeth. He is an intelligent, crude man with a confidence that borders on arrogance. Orchids, Orlean learns, are not his first obsession. He has had similar serious hobbies that he has embraced and then discarded, like a bee going from flower to flower. Susan Orlean wrote a book about Laroche and his obsession with the rare flower. Orlean, a dispassionate, esteemed New York author is fascinated by the fervor with which Laroche lives his life.

Charlie becomes increasingly neurotic as his deadline for the screenplay draws near. He comes to believe that the only thing he's an expert on, the only thing he's qualified to write about is his own fear and self-loathing. Eventually he writes himself into his own screenplay. Still not satisfied, he (in an act of desperation) asks his brother Donald to take a look at it for him and to help him finish it. The story takes a rather abrupt and fascinating turn before the end.

This photo of Charlie and Susan Orlean sums up Charlie's relationship with most women.

The first films I saw Nicolas Cage in were Con Air and The Rock. I originally thought of Cage as an action guy and disregarded him as such. After seeing him in Adaptation and Matchstick Men I have gained a newfound respect for the man's work. He is remarkable in the dual role of Charlie and Donald Kaufman. Chris Cooper (nearly unrecognizable here) is equally brilliant in the role of Laroche, the charismatic, toothless redneck. Meryl Streep was also nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Susan Orlean, a woman who writes about life and passion but seems afraid to live. Adaptation is brilliant and original. I wholly reccomend this film to anyone who wants to experience something brilliant and unique. Everyone except for Jimbob should see it.

Adaptation earns 4 wombats out of 4

Napoleon Dynamite

Jared Hess - Writer/Director
Jerusha Hess - Writer
Jon Heder - Napoleon Dynamite
Jon Gries - Uncle Rico
Aaron Ruell - Kip Dynamite
Efren Ramirez - Pedro Sanchez
Diedrich Bader - Rex
Tina Majorino - Deb
Haylie Duff - Summer Wheatley

Kip (aspiring Cage Fighter) practices his technique against his brother Napoleon.


Every once in a while, a special movie comes along that changes our lives. It makes us question our values, makes us feel alive and for a couple of hours in the dark theatre, the world outside is lost to us. Sometimes a film shows us characters so sorry and pathetic that we gaze up to the heavens and say a thank you for our own genetic makeup. Napoleon Dynamite does the latter.

Napoleon and his brother Kip live with their grandmother in Preston, Idaho. The film never alludes to the wherabouts of their parents, not that it really matters for the story. Things are shaken up when grandma has to go to the hospital and Uncle Rico has to stay at the house to watch them for a few days. Who's gonna feed Tina?? During this time a new student named Pedro joins Napoleon at school. Pedro decides to run for student president, but he'll need Napoleon to unleash his secret weapon to defeat the oh-so popular Summer Wheatley! Will Pedro win? Will uncle Rico drive Napoleon crazy? Who is Kip's chat room girlfriend? And what is Napoleon's secret weapon??? A thick plot, indeed.

Napoleon Dynamite is unlike anything I have ever seen. About 20 minutes into the movie, I began to realize that the film had no real plot whatsoever and that it wasn't going to. I didn't mind so much. Usually in films where the characters are rock stupid, the audience is provided with the Straight Guy, the normal one to whom the audience relates. You'll find no such thing here. The small town of Preston, Idaho where the story takes place might as well be on another plane of existence. Everything in the movie looks like it was bought at a thrift shop. The movie is completely, one hundred percent populated with characters that most people would refer to as "losers." There's not really any conflict, no drama, no jokes, no action. Just losers. For those of you who know him, I would compare the title character Napoleon Dynamite to a young man named Eric Cheeseburger. Eric does have more energy and enthusiasm though.




Napoleon Dynamite and Eric Cheeseburger: Two peas in a pod.



Everyone, at some point, has gone to school with someone like Napoleon Dynamite. He sketches magical animals and warriors. He tells obvious bullshit stories ("There's a buttload of gangs at this school. A few of them wanted me to join 'cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.") For his current events report, he talks about scientists placing explosives in Loch Ness and local wizards casting a protective spell to defend our friend below the sea. Uncle Rico reminds me of Al Bundy, only not funny or entertaining. Al Bundy once scored four touchdowns in a single football game in high school. Of course, he's a shoe salesman now but that doesn't matter.

What it boils down to is that the film entertained me. I get a kick out of watching Napoleon and listening to him talk. Many people will not. This film is a one trick pony, and the credits rolled just as it was wearing out its welcome. This movie will not appeal to the masses I think, and I'd only reccomend it to a select audience.

Napoleon Dynamite scores 3 Cheeseburgers out of 4




Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Michael Gondry - Director
Charlie Kaufman - Screenwriter
Jim Carrey - Joel Barish
Kate Winslet - Clementine Kruczynski
Elijah Wood - Patrick
Mark Ruffalo - Stan
Kirsten Dunst - Mary
Tom Wilkinson - Dr Howard Mierzwiak

Joel and Clementine share an important moment in Joel's psyche

Charlie Kaufman definitely has a distinctive style all his own. Like Tim Burton's work, you can look at a film and say "That's definitely Charlie Kaufman." He has brought us a couple of gems in "Adaptation." and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." His films are, for lack of a better word, quirky. They toy with reality, making the viewer question in which fragmented reality, or in whose mind, is the action on screen taking place?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a love story of sorts. Or rather, it is a story about love. It seems that there is a medical process in which one can remove all traces of a person from their memory. This process, combined with a little housecleaning of sentimental objects, effectively removes the person from the subject's life entirely. Early in the film we find that Joel's girlfriend Clementine has had him erased from her life. Depressed, angry, and confused Joel decides to have the process done and remove Clementine from his mind. When he asks the doctor about risks of brain damage, Dr Mierzwiak tells him "Well, technically the process is brain damage."

Joel takes some pills and goes to sleep after which the surgeons (a couple of irresponsible kids played by Wood and Ruffalo) arrive, hook a computer up to Joel's brain and begin sifting through his memories. Most of the film takes place in Joel's subconscious as he relives memories about Clementine and slowly realizes that he wants to keep those memories. Some of those memories may be painful, but they help make up who he is. He begins trying to hide away memories of his former love as the team is working to delete those experiences from his brain.

It became clear to me at some point that Joel and Clementine were better off without each other. They are polar opposites, with Joel being the quiet, embarrassed, nice guy (reminiscient of Charlie in Adaptation.) and Clementine as the outspoken, hair-dying, party girl who finds herself simultaneously attracted to and repelled by Joel's sweetness. They have some lovely, beautiful memories but they also have some nasty, terrible fights and misunderstandings. That's why they love is blind I guess. But love can overcome some pretty awful happenings, and whether Joel and Clementine belong together isn't for me to say.

Jim Carrey has proven himself, to me, to be a top-flight actor. He was terrific in Man on the Moon and The Truman Show, and his performance here is as good as any in his career. We'll see if this nets him an Oscar nomination as it should. The performances are good here, particularly from Wilkinson and Winslet. The only thing really wrong with the film is that it's billed as a comedy. I'd like someone to point out the funny parts to me, because I didn't see any. I'd classify this film as a drama, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes very sad and always very odd. It is also brilliant and very much worth spending a couple of hours and a few dollars on.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind earns 3 wombats out of 4

Taking Lives

DJ Caruso - Director
Angelina Jolie - Illeana Scott
Ethan Hawke - Costa
Keifer Sutherland - Hart
Olivier Martinez - Paquette
Jena Rowlands - Mrs Asher

Ethan Hawke and Angelina Jolie in Taking Lives

Taking Lives revolves around a serial killer who steals the identity of his victims. He's taking lives - get it? The story plays out in very typical hollywood crime/serial killer drama fashion. There is a killer on the loose and the local police call in an FBI expert profiler (Jolie) to crack the case. Agent Scott is quiet, withdrawn, eccentric and brings a haunted past with her. Olivier Martinez plays Paquette, the cop on the force who is distrustful of the new cop and is offended by her presence. Ethan Hawke plays the one witness who can help bring it all together. Keifer Sutherland lurks in the shadows, looking sinister and making us think "There he is! That's the bad guy!" The film has the standard plot twists we've come to expect in these movies; one of them I expected, the second I did not...the second also struck me as somewhat unbelievable.

Taking Lives is not a bad film. It isn't a good film either, it is simply there. It did not disappoint me nor did it exceed my expectations. It is, in every way, a standard good cop vs bad guy kind of movie. Early in the film, we are introduced to Illeana Case, the FBI Agent whose job it is to skulk about the crime scenes, acting oddly and spewing out deductions like a slightly more attractive version of Sherlock Holmes - without the cocaine addiction, that is. Unfortunately she is not given a Dr Watson to work with. It might've made her more interesting. A couple of nights after the crime in question another murder occurs, this time with a witness (Hawke). This man is obviously shaken by what he has seen and concerned about his own safety, and perhaps it is this vulnerability that makes Illeana attracted to him.

Everyone plays their roles adequately. Ethan Hawke's performance stands out as a cut above the others, at least for the first hour or so of the movie. Jolie pretty much goes through the motions, as does the rest of the cast. The plot works so long as you don't inspect it too deeply. Viewers who want to be satisfied will be satisfied. Viewers who want to find fault with it will be able to do so. A flashback scene in particular irked me. It showed us that the one scene a little while back didn't happen exactly the way you saw it at the time. It's an example of things happening a certain way because the story needs them to, because if they're honest with the audience we'll start to see through the plot too soon. He didn't get out of the COCK-A-DOODY CAR!!! (remember Kathy Bates in Misery?)

As I've said, Taking Lives isn't really a bad film on its own merits. It's just that it's been done, and done better, many times before. Even hardcore fans of crime dramas will probably only be irritated by the shortcomings and the standard formula found here. The only people I could really reccomend this movie to are those have seen very few movies in this genre. And they should wait for it to come on HBO.

Taking Lives earns 1.5 wombats out of 4



Mean Girls

Mark Waters - Director
Rosalind Wiseman - Author

Tina Fey - Screenplay writer/ Ms Norbury
Lindsay Lohan - Cady Heron
Rachel McAdams - Regina George
Lacey Chabert - Gretchen Weiners
Amanda Seyfried - Karen Smith
Lizzy Caplan - Janis Ian
Daniel Franzese - Damian
Jonathan Bennett - Aaron Samuels
Tim Meadows - Mr Duvall


The self proclaimed rulers of their High School: The Plastics.



Mean Girls is a movie that most people will be able to relate to in some way. Most everyone who's attended high school has had to deal with cliques. High school cliques and how women in particular treat each other cruelly make up the meat of the story here. Generally when two guys don't like each other, they punch each other in the face. When women don't like each other, they will gossip, lie, and and act subversively to destroy the image of their enemy. Mean Girls takes place in this environment. I was reminded of a truism uttered by Ralphie in the movie A Christmas Story: "In school, you were either a bully, a little toadie or one of nameless rabble of victims." That is the often the case in reality, and it is certainly the case with Mean Girls.

The movie opens with Cady's first day of school. Cady is sixteen years old and has been home schooled until this point. Oh yeah, and she's also lived in Africa until now since her parents are zoologists. Cady is a fish out of water, both regarding school and american culture. Cady is quickly befriended by a couple of outcasts named Janis and Damian. They point out the cliques within the school, and the hierarchy which is led by The Plastics: the prettiest, most popular girls in school, led by Regina George whom Janis claims to be the embodiment of all that is evil in the world.

Regina, of course, notices Cady and brings her into her world of trends, makeup and snobbery. This is a thinly masked attempt at bringing Cady under her control; after all, the pretty new girl from out of town poses a threat to the status quo. Janis, who has a personal beef with Regina, convinces Cady to sort of work undercover within the Plastics as kind of a joke which eventually turns into a plan to ruin Regina's life. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne said " No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." This is The Moral of The Story.

Mean Girls rises above the average teen comedy movie. The screenplay, written by SNL regular Tina Fey, is genuinely funny without being degrading. The cast gives a fine performance, particularly Lohan who brings an earnestness and charisma to the screen. I generally dread watching "teen movies," so I was pleasantly surprised to get to see one that didn't require me to check my brain at the door. Mean Girls is a fine and dandy way to kill a couple of hours.

Mean Girls earns 3 wombats out of 4