Adaptation (2002) - Cage Gets Meta - Show Me The Meaning! LIVE! 

I actually really like this film. I think Donald's message near the end of "You are what you love, not what loves you." works either way your read the movie; you could read it as an example of a typical hollywood 3rd act revelation and a moment of transcendence, but I think it's also Charlie realising that he wants to put a moral message in the film for the audience to take away, rather than something that's just witty and high concept.

40:35 Narrative reflects a passage of time, which is why it's so essential.

Please please PLEASE do F For Fake!!!

I began watching this video on my phone. Wanted to switch listening on laptop and it was impossible to find. Like it didn't exist. Had to spend a couple of minutes to swith accounts review history to play it. Thought you should know. Keep it up guys!

Right now, I'm listening to all the works of HP Lovecraft. He's an acquired taste bc not all his work it's created equal. However The Color Out of Space is really great. I can totally see Cage going mental as a farmer getting cap by a shimmer. You can read the story online but my favorite narration is from HorrorBabble.

Wow.. I haven't seen this in a while but I don't remember anything about his brother being in his imagination. I guess I'll have to watch it again...

Charlie vs. Donald Naturalism vs. Romanticism Determinism vs. Free will Naturalists strive to depict the world as it really is and deny human volition, while Romanticists strive to show you the world according to the artists own value judgments. How things might be and ought to be. Here's a little of what Ayn Rand had to say on the subject of naturalism: "The Naturalists object that a plot is an artificial contrivance, because in “real life” events do not fall into a logical pattern. That claim depends on the observer’s viewpoint, in the literal sense of the word “viewpoint.” A nearsighted man standing two feet away from the wall of a house and staring at it, would declare that the map of the city’s streets is an artificial, invented contrivance. That is not what an airplane pilot would say, flying two thousand feet above the city. The events of men’s lives follow the logic of men’s premises and values-as one can observe if one looks past the range of the immediate moment, past the trivial irrelevancies, repetitions and routines of daily living, and sees the essentials, the turning points, the direction of a man’s life."

Do Barton Fink, that movie is such a hidden gem. Hell do Coen month!

is there some analogy to be made about the alligator literally representing the films lizard brained brazen third act? great podcast, i haven't actually seen the movie but i did study it momentarily in college and this was entertaining none the less, also i absolutely buy that donald isn't real and i expect if you asked kaufman to clarify he would probably just tell you "he's a movie character"

Oh my, that anticipated Prisoners nick cage movie turned out to be so bad )

To Ryan and Jared's discussion on the reality of things in the film. There is no answer which is very important, but I definitely watch this as a film that lacks a proper diegesis. I don't believe I'm watching something I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief of, I'm watching a representation of a writer's thought process. I view it similar to how I watch Lynch's films.

To Austin's point about Kaufman being a collaborator, according to himself he is not. When asked about his previous work he always seems unsatisfied with them because of how they stray from his vision. Personally I'm a massive fan of all the films that people attribute to him (he's worked on many others but not all originated from him) but I do have trouble recommending Anomalisa and Synecdoche New York to people unless they've seen the other three first. Pure Kaufman is like scotch you've got to ease into it with some whiskey blends before you can appreciate it.

Doesn't the fact that they go out of their way to pretend Donald Kaufman is a real person ultimately prove that we aren't supposed to look at the film as real, or at least as only half real? We know Donald Kaufman isn't actually a real person. We aren't watching an actual movie made by an actual person, we're watching a half real, half pretend movie made by a pretend person and a real person

You guys should do Pontypool

Ads every 5 minutes is the work of satan

my favorite movie!!!

Get Ryan some way to sound at least okay.

It's interesting, I really like Adaptation but of his main films it's one of my least favourites mainly because it feels like he gave up. Like, watching it I get the sense that the real Kaufman probably started off wanting to do exactly what the character version of him does, make a movie that doesn't conform to the classic structure and just exists in a more fluid way. That's a cool idea, but the film and the character don't do that, they ultimately obey the structure and ultimately by doing so end up proving his initial thesis correct because the end of the movie doesn't feel real at all and betrays everything about the world of the movie that lead up to it. This is interesting in and of itself and makes for a very fascinating movie that acts as a twisted meta statement by Kaufman of "See, did that feel like real life?! Didn't think so", but it's kind of disappointing the same way that rebellion films like Snowpiercer can be where I'm left thinking, "Okay, I get your point and you prove it well, but what does actual rebellion look like?" I wanna see a true to life film that manages to be engaging and structureless, or a rebellion succeed in a way that doesn't inevitably feed back into the system it was rebelling against. Show me something truly new.

thank god for this series... if he/she/it exists, I guess