Wedged between The Departed (#13) and Requiem For a Dream (#15), you'll find Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in the IMDB's Best 2000s titles, according to ratings given by users. The Dark Knight clocks in at #1. (Personally, I also like seeing Memento in there at #5 and Donnie Darko at #35.)

For the record, The Maize 2: Forever Yours, Dead at the Box Office and Yyyreek!!! Kosmiczna nominacja are the least popular. Perhaps the titles have something to do with it.

Thanks to Tim B!

Roger Ebert must have Charlie on the brain, because aside from naming Synecdoche, New York the best film of the decade, his latest "Great Movie" entry is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Visiting an old people's home, I walked down a corridor on the floor given over to advanced Alzheimer's parents. Some seemed anxious. Some were angry. Some simply sat there. Knowing nothing of what was happening in their minds, I wondered if the anxious and angry ones had some notion of who they were and that something was wrong. I was reminded of the passive ones while watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Wiped free of memory, they exist always in the moment, which they accept because it is everything. (Source)

Thanks, Laurel!

He's written at length, more than once, about his love for Synecdoche, New York, so it's probably not a big surprise that Roger Ebert has named it the Best Film of the Decade. (And he writes about it at length again.)

"Synecdoche, New York" is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not finished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane. (Source)

The Hurt Locker, Monster, Juno and Me and You and Everyone We Know round out his top 5.

How 'bout you folks? Got a top 5 of the decade? Or top 10? And shouldn't December 2010 be the end of the decade...?

Thanks to Rich and Laurel for the link.

Didn't see this one coming, but kudos to Charlie.

Why are two people known mainly as writers sharing the top slot on this list of the decade's most important directors?

They're here because they spent the decade working within the same entertainment industry that otherwise prizes reassuring clichés and flashy stupidity, and produced work that was more compelling and unified than the work of all but a handful of full-time movie directors. They're here because their visions kicked down the doors of the audience's and the industry's preconceptions and showed them what's possible. They're here because their insights into human nature (not coincidentally the title of one of Kaufman's scripts) are so sharp and evocative that when we want to remember what it meant to be alive in the aughts, we'll only need to watch an episode of "The Sopranos" or a movie written by Kaufman and it will all come flooding back. (Source)

But if you really want a great TV drama that doesn't peter out halfway through, I highly, highly recommend The Wire and The Shield.

Big thanks to Tim S. for the news! And Happy New Year, folks. I owe emails to a few people - I've been slacking off over X-Mas. (Actually I've been slacking off over 2009, but don't tell anyone.)

Our Aussie correspondent (ie. me) has just discovered that Synecdoche, New York was released here on DVD in October. It's going for $13.95 over at Atlantic DVD (plus $1.75 shipping). It's also on sale at Target. And while I'm here, I recommend the price comparison site DVD Plaza. (And, if you're a reader, Book Depository, who tend to be much cheaper than anywhere.)

The New York Times has a long profile of Nancy Meyers, writer/director/producer of films such as What Women Want and Something's Gotta Give. It's an interesting read, if you want to compare Charlie's film-making philosophies with those of someone who's strictly - and proudly - mainstream. Also, her movies have grossed about sixty squillion dollars. (Approximately fifty-nine-point-nine-nine squillion more than Charlie's. *sigh*)

The more I talked to Meyers the more I realize that she prefers for her movies — for life itself — to have a rosy, unconflicted presentation. My sense is that whatever warts exist, she airbrushes out, the better to come away with a happy ending. (Her friends warn her off films that are too bleak. “People are always protective of me when they give me movies to see,” she said. “They think I’m going to break.”) At worst, her films can give off an air of tidy unreality — and it is this unexamined aspect, I think, this failure to even hint at darkness, that most fuels critical ire. Richard Schickel condemns Meyers with faint praise, hinting that she and the studios have struck a devil’s pact of sorts. “Clearly there is an audience for sweet little middle-class romances of the kind she makes, and it pleases the studios to indulge a woman, whom they would not trust with more vigorous projects. It’s as if they’re trying to say: ‘Hey, we’re not sexists. We make Nancy Meyers movies.’ ” (Source)

Thanks to Dave for the link!

What's our favourite Meryl Streepified journalist been up to the last few years? Glad you asked. In the Weddings/Celebrations "State of the Unions" section of the New York Times website, they've run a feature on Susan Orlean. Adaptation gets a mention and there're a few paragraphs about what's gone on since then:

She was already a big deal in the literary world when, in 2002, her book “The Orchid Thief” was made into a movie called “Adaptation” by the director Spike Jonze, who cast Meryl Streep as a fantasy version of Ms. Orlean. After the release, the real Ms. Orlean spent a lot of time explaining that, unlike her onscreen doppelgänger, she was not a drug addict and didn’t sleep with her sources. Ms. Streep was nominated for an Academy Award and flew Ms. Orlean and Mr. Gillespie by private jet with her to the ceremony.

“ ‘Adaptation’ was a very big deal,” Ms. Orlean said. “Your publicness changes in a huge way when you have any connection to a movie. We experienced that together, six months of pretty high, fun drama.” (Source)

Thanks to Dave for the heads up.

My Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/etc. gift to you guys: a pair of video clips, from a session Charlie participated in this year at the Vancouver Film & TV Forum (Sept. 28 - October 3), as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Big thanks to Fran for sending these along. (If not for Fran, you guys would be getting... well... no gifts from me. NOTHING, I TELL YOU.)

Anyone else having problems viewing that? For some reason, my browser doesn't want to display it. Will investigate shortly. (If you're having dramas, too, head on over here.) 2nd clip's behind the cut.

More from Salon's "Best of the Decade," in the shape of Synecdoche, New York. FilmBrain blogger Andrew Grant says:

It was around the 30-minute mark in "Synecdoche, New York" that I realized I was watching a film that seemed tailor-made for me. Much more than mere self-identification with its lead character, here was a film for which I knew objectivity would be impossible, for each scene hit me on a gut level, or deeper. A midlife crisis story situated at the intersection of art and real life, Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut ventures deep into the psychological, examining and showing the "life of the mind" (and its consequences) in a way that no film ever quite managed to, while at the same time grappling with the big issues -- life, love, aging and death. Yet it's a film very much about the here-and-now, and in decades it will be studied in the same way we dissect 1950s melodramas, seeking subtext that reveals more about the era. "Synecdoche, New York" is a perfect snapshot of where our heads were at in these early years of the 21st century. (Source)

Thanks to Tim for the Salon links!

Eternal Sunshine is the second of Charlie's flicks to get a write-up in Salon's "Best of the Decade" feature. Says Nicole Holofcener (writer and director of "Friends With Money," "Lovely & Amazing," "Walking and Talking" and the forthcoming "Please Give."):

I have been thinking about movies, and while it's hard to pick a favorite or a best, or whatever, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" keeps coming up. It captured something so tragic and beautiful about relationships, something that can't even be verbally articulated -- but it was articulated -- through all of the different elements of the film. The first time I saw it, I couldn't get up. I was reduced to a puddle. It affected me in a way that got inside. (Source)

That's the whole article, but it's worth visiting Salon to see what else they've got going on over there.

Salon have brought in some guests to write about their favourite films of the '00s and Charlie gets several mentions.

Here's the start of a piece on Adaptation, by Scott Z. Burns (writer of The Informant! and The Bourne Ultimatum):

I have decided to use my memory to answer this and not the Internet -- my memory can't be trusted with where my keys and wallet are, so it may fail me here as well. But if memory is supposed to keep track of what things mean and how much, then mine says go with "Adaptation" from 2002. I remember sitting in the dark being both moved and jealous of what Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze accomplished -- I wanted to give up writing because it seemed like they had taken everything I had ever wanted to say and said it better, funnier and faster. (Source)

If you're like me, slightly below world peace and gigantic pizzas you've probably been wanting Synecdoche inspired clothing, wallpapers and interweb jigsaw puzzles. WANT NO MORE, Carl comes to our rescue with a link to this Japanese website. (Hit "Enter" and hover your cursor over Caden's head for the menu.) Various goodies shall be revealed, such as a link to apparel like this:

Is this legal? I don't know. I am not Judge Judy. But it's certainly legal to click on it and go "Oh, nice!"

8 years ago today, BeingCharlieKaufman.com hit the internet, and the world HASN'T BEEN THE SAME SINCE.

8 frickin' years.

I was supposed to be bored of this after three or four months.

In 8 years we've (by which I mean I've) received tons of cool emails from tons of cool people (and multitudes of mediocre emails from below-average people), emails from crazy people, made friends with some of the folks at Sony and other groups or individuals connected in some way to the life and/or work of Charlie K (and I'll bet he's SO HAPPY ABOUT THAT), been hacked (actually, my web host was hacked -- BCK became a bit of collateral damage -- we're at a different host these days), featured in magaziens and newspapers here and there, and none of it would be possible without you guys. I LOVES YOU GUYS. Except you, with the red hair and the wonky eye.

The down side of launching a site near the end of December: everybody's off doing end-of-year things, so hardly anyone notices when BCK's anniversary rolls around. (Actually, we didn't hit search engines until about February '02. Maybe that's our anniversary?)

But I'll stick a short thank-you here anyway, to anyone and everyone who's ever contributed to the site, or who's visited and found some use for the stuff they've discovered here. On the About the Site page, if you're bored, you'll find a more extensive list of thank-yous.

It's December, and the end of the decade - depending on who you ask - so people are coming out with various Best Of lists. The A.V. Club have published their Best Films of the 00s list and *flourish of trumpets* Charlie gets a look in.

Adaptation sits comfortably at #46.

You might also want to check out one of the numbers in the top five. I'm not saying which number. Or what film.

Thanks to Jon for the heads up!