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Charlie Kaufman has always been an anomaly.
Kaufmans waning Hollywood fortune probably has a lot to do with how anomalous his work is, too.
Just look at the films he wrote for Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and George Clooney.
Every one of them feels like a portal into his mind.
9.Human Nature(2001)
9.
The one howler of Charlie Kaufmans career.
(Newsflash: Were all animals, baby.)
All told, its a failed experiment from two of cinemas most inventive mad scientists.
8.Confessions of a Dangerous Mind(2002)
8.
7.Orion and the Dark(2024)
7.
Whats stranger than the arrival of an animated Netflix family film written by Charlie Kaufman?
How about the fact that said film is both safe for all agesandinstantly identifiable as a Charlie Kaufman script?
6.Anomalisa(2015)
6.
5.Im Thinking of Ending Things(2020)
5.
4.Being John Malkovich(1999)
4.
Would Kaufmans metaphysical slapstick work so well without the guiding hand of its interpreter, music-video hotshot Spike Jonze?
3.Synecdoche, New York(2008)
3.
2.Adaptation(2002)
2.
There was probably no simple way to make a movie out of a nonfiction book about flowers.
Just dont try this at home, screenwriters.
It takes a thinker of Kaufmans magnitude to make self-indulgence so uproarious.
1.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind(2004)
1.
Its a premise so clever and resonant, almost anyone could get a good movie out of it.
Most of Kaufmans movies can blow your mind.
This one shatters your heart, too.