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Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Miramax Films


8.5

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 15 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Good Night, and Good Luck

MPAA RATING: R for language, sexual content and violence

Starring Sam Rockwell, Linda Tomassone, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Rutger Hauer, Fred Savage, and Matt Damon

Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. This is the story of the double life of legendary showman Chuck Barris -- television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. (Miramax)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Charlie Kaufman Chuck Barris (book)
DIRECTED BY:	George Clooney
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 9, 2003 Video: September 9, 2003 Theatrical: December 31, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	113 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Special Achievement in Filmmaking Award (Clooney) and Best Screenwriter (tie), 2002 National Board of Review

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Variety Robert Koehler

A powerful and creative film.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a funny, strange, sad and wonderful picture, packed with delightful performances by Hollywood stars and made by a director with a startling facility for the form and an expansive cinematic imagination.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A fascinating, frequently hilarious meditation on delusion, self-loathing and personal salesmanship

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A darkly enjoyable roller-coaster ride -- Clooney and Kaufman deftly interweave the macabre with lightheartedness.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A head-clearing, mind-blowing blast from the past - one of the year's best.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Screenwriter Kaufman is in fine meta-fettle here, even if he's still losing control of his material toward the end, and while it's too soon to tell whether Clooney has the stuff of a great director, he certainly knows who to hire.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

As for myself, I think he made it all up and never killed anybody. Having been involved in a weekly television show myself, I know for a melancholy fact that there is just not enough time between tapings to fly off to Helsinki and kill for my government.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The fascination of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the sharp, funny, unreasonably compelling adaptation of Barris' autobiography, is the way it soft-shoes past our skepticism.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Confessions keeps its cards close, and Kaufman is perfectly capable of starving his screenplay to save it, and perfectly happy with being misunderstood.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A picture that is surely one of the oddest ever made.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Reflects the sensibilities of its director, whose comedic performances in particular have indicated a game spirit and droll sense of humor.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A perversely enjoyable entry in that new genre, the biopic of the tawdry TV personality.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Clooney fashions a style all his own: visceral, vital and churning with off-the-wall ideas. That's what makes you want to see Clooney direct again. You can feel his joy in it.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Clooney shows strong filmmaking imagination in his directorial debut, but the movie's driving force is Charlie Kaufman's screenplay, a genre-bending romp that blurs all boundaries between the factual and the fantastical.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

This fairy-tale quality gives director Clooney, who's making his debut behind the camera, his stylistic clue. He's in perfect sync with writer Kaufman; they treat even the most "serious" scenes like Monty Python routines.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

All about the wacky borderlands where reality and invention intersect. But there are no safe demarcations -- no demilitarized zone, no Berlin Wall -- to cue us to which side we're operating in, or that Barris is operating in.

USA Today Claudia Puig

May not be a straightforward bio, nor does it offer much in the way of Barris' motivations, but the film is an oddly fascinating depiction of an architect of pop culture.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An attractive, charming film that has fun with its period settings, its goofy plot and its off-kilter performances.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A moody picture that's filled from start to finish with camera tricks, unexpected angles and innovative flourishes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Even though he's strikingly played by Rockwell, Barris comes off as such a distasteful character and the silliness is so unrelenting that the movie wears you out. Long before it's over, you feel yourself reaching for that gong clapper.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A great, bizarre, and ultimately very, very unique film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It's nice to see Clooney choosing something offbeat (as opposed to "safe") for his first outing behind the camera. If he continues to develop, he has the potential to become a good director -- he's just not there yet.

LA Weekly John Powers

Ultimately just another celebrity bio-pic, and far less trenchant than, say, the more conventional "Auto Focus." For all their whirring ingenuity, Kaufman's scripts require a director who will tether his cleverness to reality.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Sam Rockwell plays Barris with a hipster’s shimmy that’s creepily effective -- The problem with making a movie about a hollow man is that, when things start to get heavy, you’re stuck with nothingness at the core.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The finished film afflicted my own mind with an unwilling suspension of belief. I couldn't connect with it on any level, despite Sam Rockwell's terrific performance as an emotional desperado who wants only to be loved.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A good piece of work more often than not, and this is one of the few times an actor turned director has chosen to subvert the feel-good genre for his maiden voyage.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Clooney badly botches the spy plot by casting himself as Barris's agency contact... and a truly awful Julia Roberts as Barris's Mata Hari lover (she's soundly upstaged by Drew Barrymore as his devoted girlfriend). Yet the mounting delirium drives home Kaufman's basic point: that a shadow government rules by bread and circuses.

Slate David Edelstein

I suppose it's too much to expect Pirandellian stature from the madness of Chuck Barris -- but that's about the only thing that would have made this mixed-up ego trip work.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's tremendously clever, but ultimately pointless.

Film Threat Darrin Keene

The ingredients were there for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to become a cult classic, but the resulting film is a tedious Hollywood yawner.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

You won't believe the story director George Clooney and his goofball TV host are trying to sell. Really.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

For the story of a man who made his mark on pop culture by being a likable buffoon, the irritatingly arch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind takes itself way too seriously.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

George Clooney's first effort behind the camera was doubtless more stimulating to direct than it will be for audiences to watch.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

tony b. gave it a9:
Theres just something about this movie that i love. Just the way everything was put together like the scene when he goes crazy and they start playing the song if i had a hammer i cant get that scene out of my head. very creative movie great acting great writting and i love the music.

natalie e. gave it a10:
This is the best film I have seen in a long time. George Clooney’s use of creating scenes within the camera is fantastically refreshing.

Chan B. gave it a 10:
This movie is excellent...It was very intresting to find out about everything chuck barris did...I was glued to the screen.

Mark C. gave it a 9:
For some reason, I was entertained by this movie. Can't put a finger on it though. Must be that it's delightfully absurd.

[Anonymous] gave it a 9:
Not what I was expecting, but very good. Some scenes were very funny.

Chris W. gave it a 7:
It's a good movie, just short of great. Sam Rockwell is excellent, in what may very well be his one chance at a leading role. Drew Barrymore is fine, though regardless of the decade, she comes across as the same person, not someone who's made it through the sixties to the eighties. Julia Roberts is miscast. What you'll remember most are the striking visuals (some work, some don't) and the fact that George Clooney, of all people, actually made a movie this experimental, through a major studio, and got it released. That alone is impressive.

NJ B gave it an 8:
Ironic use of music montage made it for me. Sam Rockwell was great to watch too.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind Miramax Films

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Miramax Films