The quintessential meta Kaufman work, Adaptation takes the subgenre of the "writer's block movie" (see also: Barton Fink, 8 1/2) and twists it into a classic Kaufmanian knot of self-referentiality. The beauty of this film? Go figure. But really, going to the movies is just an extension of the universal human desire at this particular movie's core: the yearning to experience a life and reality besides our own. Every Charlie Kaufman Movie & TV Series, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes) 9 Ned And Stacey (1995 - 1997) - 64%. This portal leads to the mind of celebrity John Malkovich, played by himself. This movie directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson is hilarious. Human Nature follows a cast of characters bizarre even by Kaufman standards: a man raised by apes (Rhys Ifans), a sexually repressed scientist (Tim Robbins) obsessed with manners and decorum, and a woman with hair all over her body (Patricia Arquette), whose starved libido drives her to return to society after years spent in the wilderness. Is "meta" the right word for that? ), most romantic (Eternal Sunshine), most adventurous (Malkovich), nor his most uninhibited (Synecdoche). Kaufman’s funniest film and it’s not even close. Those who scorn the hair shall reap scorn doubleth in return. In a way, you could look at Malkovich as a movie about the movies, which at their best give us temporary windows into other people's experiences. First of all, let’s clear something up: There will be no Cameron Diaz slander here. Contrary to their previous roles, Jim plays the role of a subdued man while Kate plays the role of a wild, carefree girl. Right? It released in the year 1999 and told the bizarre story of a puppeteer Craig Schwartz, played by John Cusack who discovers a door to a portal. I mean, on the face of it, what’s not to like? None of those layers are particularly meta, however. As the cliché goes, we all see ourselves as the protagonist of our own story, manipulating and compartmentalizing the supporting players in our lives, not so different from what Caden does with his immense company of players. I fear the lecture hall is subdued … To be fair, it is, and features Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in near career-best form. ), Tom Wilkinson (!!) It's Kaufman through and through; meta, though, it ain't. None of this negates what I argued at the start of this list. We'll never pass along your email address to spammers, scammers, or the like. Set largely in Joel's head, the film ingeniously tracks how his view of the relationship changes as its rocky stretches vanish from his mind, leaving a much sunnier outlook on a fundamentally mismatched pairing. Written by Charlie Kaufman, the movie marked his debut as a writer. Seriously. Drew Barrymore? Adaptation (2002) I’ll tell you, Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze make a really great team. Who is Malkovich? It's an edgy drama that shows how serendipity brings two people together, who were only connected by a book. It may not be the most watched, revered or imaginative of his films, but it’s the summation of his work, told with the kind of concise candor unseen in its predecessors. Confessions is a strange movie, almost playing like another collaboration between Adaptation's Charlie and Donald; the few signature off-kilter touches that remain are some of the film's highlights. Or, actually, for a marriage of the two, Steven Soderbergh’s. Early in his career, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman acquired a reputation as one of our foremost creators of art about art, cemented by movies like 2002's Adaptation, which stars Nicolas Cage as Kaufman himself. Here are other Charlie Kaufman movies fans can watch.