Charlie Kaufman’s movies are radical therapy

When Spike Jonze’s oddball fantasy film Being John Malkovich was first launched again in 1999, folks weren’t positive what to make of it. While the movie was well-received, garnering reward for its “endearingly nutty” and “brilliantly inventive” writing, it additionally left viewers confused about what to make of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, on the time recognized solely for his work on TV comedies like The Edge and The Dana Carvey Show.

Since Being John Malkovich’s launch, Kaufman has continued to baffle and impress viewers, as each film he writes or directs is completely different from the final: Adaptation; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Synecdoche, New York; Anomalisa, and his 2020 Netflix nightmare situation I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Fans and critics have tried to pin down Kaufman’s movies utilizing phrases like “surreal” or “meta,” however specializing in the construction reasonably than the content material of his work is the flawed strategy. It’s extra revealing to contemplate the shared theme that ties all Kaufman’s movies collectively, together with his newest, the animated Netflix youngsters’ film Orion and the Dark.

Image: DreamWorks Animation/Netflix

Charlie Kaufman’s protagonists have one essential commonality: their shared psychological well being struggles. Depression, anxiousness, obsessiveness, low shallowness, and different psychological well being points have been key elements in all of Kaufman’s movies, explored by means of protagonists who every have alternative ways of coping. Whether it’s the driving battle (in Anomalisa or I’m Thinking of Ending Things) or only a byproduct of the journeys they bear (in Being John Malkovich or Adaptation), it’s a constant, prominently featured theme in Kaufman’s work. Having psychological well being points is an inescapable destiny for a Kaufman protagonist, and in some unspecified time in the future, they’ll inevitably be pressured to confront these points whether or not they prefer it or not, usually with little success.

At first look, Orion and the Dark’s protagonist doesn’t appear to have quite a bit in frequent with the unhappy, middle-aged white males on the heart of Kaufman’s different movies. But given the movie’s standing as Kaufman’s most child-friendly and approachable movie thus far, it’s stunning how clearly it matches the sample: Orion suffers from crippling anxiousness. He’s afraid of actually all the pieces, particularly the darkish, and that worry dominates his life.

Orion and the Dark isn’t as grim and existentially terrifying as Kaufman’s different movies — it’s primarily based on a kids’s image e book, and geared toward impressionable younger youngsters. But Orion continues to be basically a Charlie Kaufman protagonist. He matches all three of the standards that hyperlink Kaufman’s meta-narrative odysseys.

Image: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

First, the everyday Charlie Kaufman protagonist is insecure and continuously questions their value or place on the earth. Because of those inner limitations, they usually really feel distant from their communities, and unable to attach with anybody. This lack of socialization and safety is without doubt one of the first issues Orion mentions in Orion and the Dark.

Like different Kaufman protagonists, Orion struggles with unresolved romantic emotions. He has a crush on his classmate Sally, however his anxiousness makes it unattainable to take a seat down subsequent to her, a lot much less go on the varsity discipline journey along with her. Even when she instantly asks him to take a seat along with her, he can’t discover the braveness to reply.

Orion shares his loneliness and isolation with Anomalisa protagonist Michael Stone, who’s alienated from the world as a result of, in his view, everybody he meets has the identical face and voice. His situation turns into so overwhelming that he has a breakdown whereas giving a speech at a convention, and he’s unable to acknowledge anybody on the shock occasion his spouse throws him at his home close to the tip of the movie. Similarly, Being John Malkovich protagonist Craig Schwartz and Synecdoche, New York protagonist Caden Cotard each expertise vocal anxiousness after their wives alienate and resent them, and their loneliness leaves them questioning their place as artists and human beings.

Second, Kaufman places his foremost characters in unusual, unsettling circumstances or environments that solely they and a small group of individuals appear to acknowledge. Kaufman’s characters dwell in almost-realistic settings that inevitably characteristic absurd, logic-defying, fantastical components. Those settings underline plot factors or worldbuilding that inevitably drive the protagonists, willingly or by drive, to confront their inner points.

Image: Sony Pictures/Everett Collection

Orion’s worry of the darkish is so excessive that Dark itself makes an attempt to show to the child that he isn’t scary and performs an vital position on the earth. With the assistance of Dark and different Night Entities, Orion confronts certainly one of his largest fears and comes one step nearer to dealing with the others. Kaufman’s different movies have equally traumatic-yet-therapeutic, absurd units, just like the portal into John Malkovich’s thoughts in Being John Malkovich, which leads Craig to the sense of self-confidence and self-worth he lacked for thus lengthy.

The memory-erasing process from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Caden Cotard’s play and creative recreation of Manhattan from Synecdoche, New York, and Lisa Hesselman being the one one who doesn’t have an an identical face and voice from Anomalisa all play comparable roles, forcing or luring the protagonists to confront their flagging sense of adequacy and connection.

Finally, the meta-narrative that each one Kaufman protagonists navigate blur the strains between actuality and fantasy to such an extent that it’s tough for the viewers (and generally, the characters) to discern what’s actual and what isn’t. While his movies’ surreal components generally initially shock his protagonists, they simply fall into these meta-narratives and turn into adjusted to their new “worlds.” Depression and social anxiousness are such dominant features in these characters’ lives that they finally begin warping actuality.

That’s significantly true in Adaptation, as all through the movie, tellingly named protagonist Charlie Kaufman struggles to adapt The Orchid Thief e book in a method that doesn’t depend on Hollywood tropes and clichés. As Charlie’s artistic struggles turn into extra excessive, his anxiousness consumes his psychological well-being, inflicting a collection of surreal confrontations. By the third act, Charlie inserts himself into The Orchid Thief’s story, and the movie turns into all the pieces he initially didn’t need in his script: Hollywood schlock crammed with medication, gun fights, automobile chases, and emotionally manipulative deaths.

Image: Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection

Similarly, Orion and the Dark reveals early within the movie that the principle plot involving Orion and Dark can be a narrative grownup Orion is telling his younger daughter, Hypatia. And when Hypatia turns into unhappy with Orion’s story, she inserts herself into it to assist him repair the errors he made. Orion properly matches into all three standards for a Kaufman character. But there may be one important distinction between him and previous Kaufman protagonists: He will get a simple, uncompromised comfortable ending.

When Kaufman writes a conclusion, he sometimes takes two completely different paths. Path A includes an sad, miserable ending the place the protagonist is left in a worse state than they have been to start with (Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Anomalisa, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things). Path B hints at a sliver of hope for the protagonist, although it’s in the end bittersweet, compromised, and even deadly. (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Synecdoche, New York). Orion and the Dark doesn’t take both of these paths. The movie as a substitute forges a brand new one for Orion, because of Hypatia’s affect.

Hypatia is the optimistic drive Orion must inspire himself to beat his fears. Thanks to his future daughter, Orion overcomes his social anxiousness — an achievement few of Kaufman’s different characters may declare. Orion accepts that worry will at all times be part of his life, however he learns tips on how to cease it from controlling his life and stopping him from indulging within the joys of dwelling.

Only one different character within the Charlie Kaufman canon has an ending as upbeat and hopeful as Orion’s: Charlie Kaufman from Adaptation. By the tip of the movie, Charlie not solely efficiently overcomes his author’s block and finishes his script, he says he’s “filled for the first time with hope,” that he’s refusing to permit his anxiousness and insecurities to snatch his life anymore.

Kaufman himself has mentioned, “There aren’t a lot of happy endings in my movies. I think maybe there aren’t a lot of happy endings in life.” And but he grants two notable exceptions, for a fictionalized model of himself and a baby protagonist.

Perhaps Kaufman sees a little bit of himself in Orion and needs to offer him the identical sense of hope he gave his fictional counterpart from Adaptation. After all, they are each socially awkward characters who are overwhelmed by their fears and insecurities, wrestle with romance, and finally overcome their points after falling right into a meta-narrative involving an outdoor character inserted into the story. Either method, each movies present that Charlie Kaufman’s protagonists don’t at all times must let their psychological well being points swallow them up.

Image: Paramount/Everett Collection

That mentioned, Kaufman’s movies aren’t linked purely as a result of they characteristic the identical form of protagonist. His filmography is related as a result of his initiatives all heart on the identical topic, and the characters are gateways into that shared theme. According to Kaufman, “I think that it’s probably not possible — or even desirable — if you’re writing something for it not to be autobiographical. I mean — what else ya got? If you’re gonna be true, then you have to put yourself in your work. I try to.” Each movie Kaufman writes and directs is instantly impressed by his private life, and a method of him tapping into, analyzing, and processing his personal points.

His movies have the identical takeaway however not the identical focus, as a result of they every got here out at completely different factors in Kaufman’s life. His struggles with psychological well being could stay fixed, which is why it has turn into a shared theme in his filmography. But Kaufman’s actual commentary on the topic adjustments from movie to movie as a result of, like everybody else, his life has been crammed with ups and downs.

Kaufman makes movies for himself, writing what he is aware of after which giving it a singular spin, and that’s precisely why his work stays influential. Like any nice artist, he finds methods to let audiences join with the work he’s doing. When you strip away all of the meta-surrealism, introspective writing, and shared construction, you could have a collection of tales a couple of man coping along with his personal anxieties. Movies like Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and Orion and the Dark could also be extremely private tales for him. But they’re additionally private tales for virtually everybody else on the planet.