The memoirs of game-show creator-host Chuck Barris (the man responsible for
i The Newlywed Game
i0 and
i The Gong Show
i0 ) are the inspiration for this sneaky biopic, which not only covers Barris's television career, but also his exploits--unsubstantiated, but also not disproved--as a government assassin. As Barris, Sam Rockwell gives a gutsy, manic-depressive, warts-and-all performance, depicting how Barris cheated repeatedly on his longtime girlfriend Penny (Drew Barrymore), was recruited into the CIA by a stone-faced agent (George Clooney, who also makes a stylish directorial debut), created some of the most popular yet reviled TV shows of the 1970s and '80s, and had a torrid affair with a mysterious, beautiful operative (Julia Roberts). For a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman (
i Being John Malkovich
i0 ,
i Adaptation
i0 ),
i Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
i0 is pretty straightforward, letting Barris's fevered brain speak for itself. The result manages to be lurid, comic, and oddly philosophical.
i --Bret Fetzer