019 Adaptation by Spike Jonze

Breaking the genre mold, Spike Jonze brings us a "meta-movie" with Adaptation released in 2002, a "sort-of" autobiographic film about screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's struggles with adapting the nearly unadaptable book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean to film. Matt and Mark explore Charlie's inexhaustible supply of self-doubt and social anxiety, and in trying to answer the questions the film offers up, circle the existential dilemma of passion with a bit of clinical dispassion, but not without irony. Adaptation stars a brilliant Nicolas Cage as the Kaufman twins Charlie and Donald, with an Oscar winning performance by Chris Cooper. The film also stars Meryl Streep, Brian Cox, and Tilda Swinton with walk-ons by John Cusack, Katherine Keener, and John Malkovich. Enjoy!

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