Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Chuck Barris was known as the creator of inconsequential game shows such as "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game", as well as the host of "The Gong Show". In his 1984 titular autobiography, he purported to also be a trained assassin for the CIA, eliminating many of his targets while chaperoning the winning couples of "The Dating Game" while they vacationed in exotic East Berlin. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the wildly outrageous and imaginative directorial debut from George Clooney, in a script that could only have been adapted for the screen by Charlie Kaufman. The underappreciated Sam Rockwell is incredible as Barris, blending moments of humor with scenes of sadness and capturing all of the emotions in between. Drew Barrymore surprisingly has a good role here as Barris' flaky soul mate, and Clooney is in fine form as an operative who recruits Barris. Kaufman's script is engagingly vulgar and bizarre and Clooney handles the direction with such style and panache as both men tap dance the fine line between reality and farce and pull it off swimmingly.