• The new Charlie Kaufman movie “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is not exactly a “comedy comedy” it’s more of a “cerebral, introspective puzzle with a few comic setpieces” and Charlie Kaufman isn’t exactly “funny” he’s more of an “absurdist.” Still, the writer/director has a singular voice and finds humor in places others even look. That was certainly the case for his movie released last week (I’m thinking of the gag with the dog who can’t stop shaking himself dry every time he appears onscreen). This week, he did the COVID equivalent of a press junket in the form of a Zoom Q and A for Netflix (the whole thing was subtitled live; technology is so amazing sometimes it’s terrifying). It was free and I signed up on Eventbrite to see if I would get to have my questions I submitted anonymously answered (my questions were: Will you ever work with Spike Jonze again? What’s your favorite project of yours that never got made? Are you going to make your feature length musical with Jack Black and Steve Carell anytime soon?) and they didn’t choose any of mine.
This is a quick hit list of what took place in the brief 51-minute interview (they cut it short by nine minutes out of nowhere): Kaufman was interviewed by Tony Gilroy, the “Michael Clayton” and “Bourne” director. Gilroy shared that he bought Kaufman’s new novel “Antkind” at the bookstore and when he went in to purchase it, the cashier smirked, “Oh, the Kaufman?” meaning Charlie had become a one-name entity. Later, Kaufman shared that he never got to see the movie with an audience other than friends or family because of the pandemic; he also noted that he found the book the movie is based upon on Amazon. his agent didn’t send it to him. He wanted to get something small, genre-y financed. He was drawn to the dreaminess of the book. Authors, Kaufman is scouring Amazon. Good to know. He did also say, “When I adapt, I have to make it mine or I can’t do it.” So, if he does choose your book, the adaptation is going through the Charlie Kaufman grinder.
Other interesting tidbits included that he was in his high school theater program’s production of “Play It Again Sam,” he had a small speaking part in “Oklahoma,” and a story about how the author, Iain Reid, has a sister married to the President of Iceland and he got to stay at their place while writing. The whole thing was interrupted by Tony Gilroy who went on many tangents and kinda made the thing about himself. In fact, when they switched from the moderating to an audience Q and A, Gilroy was barely paying attention, clearly looking at his phone (another moderator also put herself on camera by accident for a second and scrambled to turn herself off which was very funny). In the Q and A section, Charlie said that for this movie he was trying to achieve the feeling of “thoughts coming and going inside your head” (that’s exactly how it felt), this film had no storyboards due to time constraints, he doesn’t read philosophy really, almost all of the snow in the film were visual effects shots and finally you could tell he hated some of the questions like who his influences are and why he rarely has female protagonists but answered them reluctantly and a bit defensively. I hope someday his discomfort in this interview becomes for his next screenplay.
• This week, I turned in a single profile for my site on the prolific comic and vet James Mac. Mac has quite a life story (the dude joined the military at 17, made a home in countries all over the world and after all is said and done, does comedy. Telling jokes really is the holy grail) and was incredibly easy to write about. He literally has war stories ready to go. My favorite passage from the piece about him is the following:
“At the crack of dawn, Mac ran into a ‘vampire deer’ (more formally known as the Chinese water deer) which is not your typical deer. The way James tells it, ‘Imagine turning a corner in minimal daylight and you see a deer staring at you with long fangs like a sabertooth tiger. It definitely will leave an impression.’
Still, not as bad as most midtown audiences.”
If you want to read the whole piece, it’s linked in the comments, my friend.
• At the outset of quarantine, I told myself I wouldn’t watch any TV, just FILMS like the world’s most annoying pretentious guy. Well, that’s over. I’ve gone down the TV rabbit hole treating myself to episodes after work like I earned it or something. Here’s a quick snapshot of the two TV shows I am totally up to date on as well as two movies I saw this week. After that, we’re out. You’ll be free to go back to the scroll of pithier, funnier statuses. But for now, here goes:
“Corporate” (2018-2020): This might be a top-five all-time favorite show for me now. When it came out, it was easy to write this off as a takeoff on “The Office” or “Workaholics” by solely looking at the marketing materials but this half hour sitcom is neither of those. “The Office” and “Workaholics” are more about office foibles and human decency while “Corporate” is one of the most cynical, calculating representations of what office life in the 2010s is really like. I was hooked mid-pilot when a well-meaning character showed others where all the cake in the office was. I literally used to do that hiding the good ice cream in the office in freezers.
The show, created by its stars Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman, work at the fictional conglomerate Hampton Deville as junior executives in training in their early 30s. It’s a dead end job and Jake accepts this fate (some of his greatest nihilist quotes are: “Once you’re past Saturday, the weekend is over. Sunday is for remembering Monday,” “I keep my job so I can afford a one-bedroom rather than follow my dreams and live in a studio apartment” and “live life in vacation mode” while buying Combos at a gas station) while Matt still tries to make more of himself taking on additional tasks like creating a powerpoint when no one else volunteers because he’s “really good at Powerpoints” and taking a vacation forced upon him by coworkers who tell him he’s “going to LOVE it.” The best jokes in this show didn’t feel just like jokes. They felt like they shifted my whole point of view or said something I always wanted to say but didn’t know how to express.
That’s not to say the show isn’t uneven; there are a few clunkers in the second and third seasons (the first season is unimpeachable; seriously watch Season 1 Episode 5 about the “fun company retreat”) but 21 or 22 of the 26 episodes are masterpieces. Standouts include the making fun of everyone talking about an episode of “must see TV” a la “Game of Thrones” in the office (their bonding with the security guard about the show is a wonderful touch), the “Remember Day” episode where the company monetizes 9/11 by turning it into a meaningless holiday, the coming into work on Labor Day episode and so many others. Plus, you have Aparna at her best as the head of HR who is happy to share any all company secrets, Adam Lustick is the next great American character actor you don’t know and Lance Reddick of “Lost” and “The Wire” is perfect as the company’s CEO, Christian Deville (that’s right, Christian Devil). Also, Andy Richter’s cameo in Season Two nearly made me cry laughing. This is the most criminally underseen show on TV and the height of satire in 2020. So worth your time if only for the line about bagels in the office, “We literally do whatever they want for scraps of bread.” (Streaming on Comedy Central).
“Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (2017- ): The comedy that wins all the important comedy awards. I saw the first season way back when it was released in 2017 and buzzy as hell. It’s fun and certainly captured the fizzy excitement of what it’s like to begin a career as a performer. Yes, the complaints lobbed at the show that no one kills all the time especially when you start (true) and that the material isn’t really that great (also true) are well-founded but it had a certain kind of charm that first season. It was exciting to see Maisel discover her voice almost immediately (still looking for my voice, folks if anyone sees it). The second and third seasons aren’t quite as exciting, but they are pleasant, middle of the road, comfort food television. Season two takes place largely at the Catskills, full of peppy dance sequences, Jewish jokes (the best one of all is the Catholic shiksa that married into the family is more observant than the reform family she married into) and is centered around ol’ Midge Maisel pursuing a new relationship with Zachary Levi after her near-divorce. It’s fine. Her manager, Suzy, played with gruff detachment by Alex Borstein (you know, from “Mad TV” and “Family Guy”) follows her upstate to keep tabs on her and they begin touring. There are fun episodes about art collecting, late night telethons similar to what Jerry Lewis did for years and the episode where Maisel’s father (Tony Shalhoub!) sees her perform comedy unbeknownst to her. It’s all fine but not nearly as electric as Season One.
Season three digs deeper into Suzy’s past (She has a gambling addiction! She doesn’t get along with Maisel anymore! She manages Jane Lynch’s sell out character who is Maisel’s rival!) and Midge goes on tour with closeted Shy Baldwin (I guessed he was based on Sam Cooke but he may be totally fictional) while reigniting old romances and her ex starts a club in Chinatown. There are midding cameos from big names like Jason Alexander and Wanda Sykes that left me cold (Sterling K. Brown was pretty damn good though). A Lenny Bruce surrogate is a regular on the show and it feels like an odd, ill-fitting tribute to him. He’s funny, sure, but it feels weirdly inauthentic writing him into this historical fiction. My biggest issue with the show is one of my greatest failings as a writer; scenes often “tell” instead of “show.” For example, instead of showing Jason Alexander’s character’s groundbreaking play, they just talk about how it’s groundbreaking. Man, I can do that! Write something groundbreaking and then get back to me. Still, the show is a damn hour instead of 30 minutes which is a major achievement for a comedy. Don’t get me wrong, I like the show. I want to love it (Streaming on Amazon).
“Super Dark Times” (2017): My Christmas happens three times a year. I’m talking film festival season. Everyone hates January, sure, but I love it. January to me means a ton of reviews of new films premiering at Sundance. May is Cannes. September is TIFF. And way back in 2017, I recall reading positive advance praises for this 90s based comedy on a few choice sites (I frequent Vulture, AVClub, The Ringer, Slashfilm and sometimes Roger Ebert’s still functional site for movie news) and had this on my radar forever. Then, I spotted it while mindlessly scrolling Netflix. It sat on my queue forever. I wanted to see it but Anna doesn’t like horror films. So, I watched this in pieces if I woke up before her or stayed up later. It’s a perfect film and shocking that it’s someone’s freaking directorial debut. To catch you up to speed, the story is simple- high school pals in upstate NY pal around after school, play video games, share lived in naturalistic dialogue that I would argue is as strong as “Superbad” and things move at a nice comedic pace until a wild left turn takes place at the end of the first act. That HARD left turn is toward the titular super dark times. We’ll leave it vague here once again for surprise factor reasons. Anyhow, this is a perfect update to Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” told through the lens of aimless teenagers that have never really had anything to worry about before. I’m not going to spoil a thing. I will say this movie did teach me an important lesson about screenwriting though (that will be obvious to everyone). Not every conflict needs to be resolved right away. Escalate. No need to solve things right away (this is a byproduct of my tendency to be a people pleaser). Let things get ugly. That’s how you build tension and keep eyes glued on the screen. FOR GREAT NOSTALGIA, LEGIT SCARES, NATURALISTIC DIALOGUE AND A FANTASTIC ELECTRONIC SCORE, YOU CAN’T DO BETTER THAN THIS (Streaming on Netflix).
“Mulan” (1998): As a kid, the fam saw pretty much every Disney movie in theaters and then purchased the VHS which sat on a shelf next to our TV. I must have seen “Oliver and Company” 25 times. However, I never saw “Mulan.” This was blasphemy to my wife Anna Paone who insisted we watch. Right off the bat, I was surprised how specific and intellectual the exposition of the story is; I had to have Anna explain exactly what the conflict with the Huns was. Once the tale kicks into high gear with the classic Disney gender bending genre trope, it felt like a classic crowd pleaser. I recognized quite a few songs (had no idea that Stevie Wonder and 98 Degrees collaborated on a track here) and enjoyed the kinetic fight scenes with what felt like a moving camera as it swooped down mountains on armies rushing in. Loved that Disney continued its trend of casting a quick witted comic icon with Eddie Murphy like they had done with Gottfried and Robin Williams in the past but I will admit his Mushu character felt a bit more tacked on for laughs here than integral to the story like Iago and Genie in “Aladdin” or even Timon and Pumba in “Lion King” were. Also, there’s a totally out of place rap at the end. I WISH I SAW THIS AS A KID (Streaming on Disney +).
This week, I have a mostly free schedule. I kinda love the writing every night schedule. It’s a bit lonelier than the days of doing stand up all the time (I am with Anna but focused on trying to write as much as I can every day), every but also kind of exciting. Feels good to finally get to projects that had been rattling around in my head for years.
Umm, my apologies for another grab at self promotion but you read this far, so let’s do. If you want a little self promotion for yourself or a project of yours, I would love to write A Profile About You. Seriously, hit me up.
Don’t be shy.
01.) James Mac Profile https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/james-mac-is-literally-a-comedy-veteran-a3bd4a8149c0
