Since taking us into Markovic’s brain in "Become John Markovic", twins Nicholas Cage were created in "Adapted Screenplay", which is presented in "Warmth with Light" After cleaning the memory, there are very few screenwriters in the world that can match Charlie Kaufman's height. So he tried to make a new challenge. Not only did he write the screenplay but also directed what may be the most daring film "New York Synonymy" since 2000. While taking us into the largest theater in film history, he discussed it in the most ironic but true way. human nature. Then he suddenly disappeared from the eyes of fans, just as he was afraid that he could not surpass his 2008 work, completely disappeared.
At least I am afraid that he will not be able to surpass this 2008 work, because it has directly become the best film in my mind since 2000 (the other two are Paul Thomas Anderson’s "The Blood Is Coming" and the Coen Brothers’ "Old Nowhere"), even among the best in history in my mind. Many people complain that the story-free structure of "New York Synonymy" leaves the audience inaccessible, but no one will deny its uniqueness, and I think it is the greatest movie since 2000. Because as a screenwriter, Kaufman always has the means to discuss with the audience the deepest problems of humanity in the way closest to the heart, life and death, love and hate, fleeting opportunities, the meaning of life...
Director Duke Johnson/Charlie Kaufman
Although he is destined to be remembered as the most original writing giant in the long river of movies, Kaufman's height is less than 1.65 meters, so when he learned that his latest work "Aberrations" uses not real actors, but a When a doll is 30 cm tall, everything looks so reasonable. Maybe he just got tired of the movie screens that everyone was used to, and decided to challenge the stop motion animation; or maybe he felt that the control over the actors in the past works was not enough, so this time he used dolls at his mercy.
Or maybe he just wants to subvert his own masterpiece, because "Abnormal" and "New York Synonymy" are in many senses two opposite works. The scene of "New York Syndrome" is a theater covering New York City, and most of "Aberration" is confined to a hotel room in Cincinnati. "Synonyms of New York" tells the protagonist's life of sorrow and joy, while "Aberration" only describes a day in the protagonist's ordinary life. The "New York Synonymy" discusses all the deep and philosophical issues in human life, while "Aberrations" may only express the dirty side of everyone's heart. But they are all stamped with Kaufman's brand, because no matter how far their backgrounds are, Kaufman can hit the audience's heart in the way closest to real life.
The most authentic human nature, this is a question that Kaufman is discussing every time.
"Aberrations" is about a day in the tour of customer service expert Michael Stone (voiced by David Shuris, Professor Lupin in Harry Potter). On this boring and ordinary day in Cincinnati, the people he met included the tuberculosis driver, including his ex-girlfriend who could not be forgotten for a long time, including the boring service staff of luxury hotels, including the hotel manager who loved him, including coming from afar. The audience listening to his speech. The scenes composed of dolls are real and detailed and impeccable. For example, the meter on the taxi is really moving all the way, for example, the protagonist’s fat belly is really drooping, for example, the decoration in the hotel room is exactly the same as in reality. What's interesting is that compared with these extremely precise dolls, the seams on everyone's face are deliberately not covered during post-production. Kaufman said this was a decision the production team decided from the beginning because they didn't want to obscure the fact that the characters that the audience saw were just dolls.
Then Kaufman gave us the first and most important joke in the whole movie, that is, all these people have the same voice. Not only these people, but also the protagonist’s son and even his wife. Everyone except the protagonist in the film is voiced by actor Tom Nonan, who often collaborates with Kaufman, and he only makes subtle voice adjustments based on the gender of the character. But the audience will soon notice that everyone's voice is the same throughout the movie. The chattering voices of passers-by filled the whole movie, which was annoying. As for the creative intention of the director's choice, in addition to the obvious mechanical repetition and tediousness of life, it is estimated that different people will have different opinions.
And one of the views, of course, is to highlight the protagonist's own problems. The customer service expert told everyone during the lecture that everyone is different, everyone has their own background, and everyone has their own pains. However, in his world, everyone else's face and voice are the same. Kaufman always likes to play word games with the audience, and he especially likes to study word games on various mental illnesses. The protagonist of the "New York Synonymy" is called Cotard, which corresponds to Cotard's delusion, a mental illness that patients think they are dead, so one of the important themes of the whole movie is life and death. In "Disorder", the hotel where the protagonist stays is called Fregoli, and the counterpart is Fregoli's delusion, a mental illness in which the patient believes that everyone around him is played by the same person. Kaufman hopes to tell the audience that the protagonist has a big problem in a joke, because he is an arrogant person, because he thinks that the protagonist in the world is only himself, and everyone else is boring and boring; He felt that everyone else had problems, but he didn't realize that he was actually the biggest problem. But who has never thought of it? In modern society, we are even told repeatedly that we are of course the protagonist in our world, and of course others can only be supporting actors. So isn't this the most common thought? The film does not answer this question head-on, but cleverly presents the most extreme side of the world in front of everyone, leaving it to the audience to make their own decisions. And I just think this world is too scary.
In the actor's world, the only voice that can be distinguished from ordinary people comes from his fan, Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Lee, a godlike voice). And her appearance rescued the actor who was about to tear his face and was on the verge of collapse, allowing him to see a different existence. But after the warmth, after the warmth that was more real than any real-life movie, and even embarrassingly real, the actor could not help but pick Lisa's fault again, and Lisa's voice, her facial makeup, also Inevitably gradually become like everyone else. But isn’t this the most common love story in ordinary life? I long to meet the most special person every day, but in the end I end a relationship with my partner. This not only happens in the world of dolls, but also our daily experience.
This is our life. This group of dolls under the full control of Kaufman, like a mirror, illuminates our absurd and real life to us. He did not comment, because he understood that this is just the norm in everyone's life, so he gave the right to understand back to the audience. In fact, the audience's different understandings and experiences of the same plot of a movie are precisely the hallmarks of a great movie. Maybe you will be sad for the final separation of the hero and the heroine, because you have just finished complaining about your lover and seem to see your ugly self. Or maybe you are accustomed to it, because you understand that the scene before you is so real, because you have personally experienced such pain. It is also possible that you are completely unmoved, because in your world this way of sharing your opinions with your lover is the most reasonable. In the eyes of a thousand different people, there must be a thousand different understandings of Kaufman's story, because these stories are naked and honest projections of our own lives.
The climax of this Kaufman mirror is also the biggest "mystery" in "Aberrations". Of course, the audience's doubts about whether Lisa really exists after the film is over. If you are an optimistic person, or someone who feels helpless for the male protagonist’s thoughts, or someone who feels regretful when he picks up a prick, you may hope that Lisa is real, because you will hope that no matter how much the male protagonist is What an abnormality, what a defect, there is always a person who might save him and make him change. And if you are a pessimistic person, if you are a cynical person, or if you are just trying to put the puzzle pieces together, you may conclude that Lisa is not real, she is just the sex doll, because the movie has Too many foreshadowings point to this conclusion. However, at this point, I feel that merely categorizing the views of the audience into these two categories is originally a disrespect for the film. Kaufman has created these wonderful worlds in order to allow people with different experiences to understand the same thing according to their own personal feelings, and to better reflect on what kind of person they are. This is the embodiment of human nature. In the end, I found that the most human movie of 2015 did not even have a real person.
At least I think Lisa is real, or it's just that I would rather believe Lisa is real. But it suddenly occurred to me that the protagonist's name was Stone (Stone), and I shuddered. Because the stone has no emotion, because the stone is cold. Go to your Kaufman, I've been out of order.
Remember when film critics used to exaggerately said "this is a unique thing you have never seen before"?
Let me tell you: This is really something unique you have never seen before.
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