Charlie Kaufman is the kind of creative thinker whose works tend to highlight characters on the fringes of popular culture. With that in mind, this screenwriter and director has managed to receive oodles of mainstream praise for his quirky, visionary contributions to both the big and the small screen.
Whether he's writing scripts for Spike Jonze films or helming his own ventures, Charlie Kaufman has left an indelible print on contemporary cinema. From '90s sitcoms to 2020's I'm Thinking of Ending Things on Netflix, Kaufman concentrates on the deepest recesses of the human psyche with his unique brand of dark, surreal humor.
Ned And Stacey (1995 - 1997) - 64%
Kaufman got his start working on TV as a writer and producer on sketch series like The Dana Carvey Show and The Edge, as well as short-lived sitcoms like The Trouble with Larry and Misery Loves Company.
One of the more successful sitcoms Kaufman worked on is Ned and Stacey, which stars Debra Messing and Thomas Haden Church as two New Yorkers who decide to engage in a sham marriage. Kaufman wrote for and produced this long-forgotten Fox series that lasted two seasons, noted for its impressive list of guest stars.
Synecdoche, New York (2008) - 68%
The first film Kaufman wrote and directed, Synecdoche, New York is an ambitious examination of the creative process told through the story of a theater director who spends the last half of his life producing an intricate, expansive play. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the director, Caden Cotard, whose production blurs the distinction between reality and fantasy.
Synecdoche, New York incorporates philosophical and literary theory into its narrative, as well as universal symbols and motifs. Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Tom Noonan, and Emily Watson are among the film's talented ensemble cast members.
Get A Life (1990 - 1992) - 77%
Comedian Chris Elliott, known these days for playing Roland Schitt in Schitt's Creek, is the star of this Fox sitcom that aired for two seasons. Kaufman served as a writer alongside another notable name in comedy: Bob Odenkirk.
Get a Life sees Elliot playing a 30-year-old paperboy who lives above his parents' garage. For a sitcom, Get a Life goes into surreal, nonsensical territory — making it an outlier for primetime Fox offerings. The series' dark, outlandish humor may also explain why it was canceled after 35 episodes.
Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (2003) - 79%
Kaufman penned the screenplay for this insane biopic about the life of game show host Chuck Barris, who claimed he was recruited by the CIA to serve as a spy during the Cold War. Sam Rockwell gives a brilliant and crazed performance as Barris in the film, which co-stars Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts, and George Clooney.
Clooney is also the director of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and he made something more mainstream (but still engrossing) out of Kaufman's script. The film did well both critically and in theatres.
I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (2020) - 83%
Kaufman's latest venture is a long, circuitous exercise in subverting all narrative expectations in film. Written and directed by Kaufman, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a Netflix film that stars newcomer Jessie Buckley as a young woman who agrees to meet her new boyfriend's parents.
Jesse Plemons co-stars as Jake, the woman's boyfriend, whose parents are played by Toni Collette and David Thewlis. As these four characters converge around the dinner table on a snowy night, their memories, stories, and even appearances begin to shift in unsettling ways until the film dives into a dreamlike, never-ending maze.
Adaptation. (2002) - 91%
Nicolas Cage plays a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his twin brother Donald in Spike Jonze's layered, experimental take on adapting a book into a screenplay. Kaufman wrote the script for Adaptation., which he later admitted resulted from an intense period of writer's block.
In the film, Kaufman is tasked with penning a screenplay based on writer Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief, which tells the story of Florida orchid hunter and horticulturist named John Laroche. Meryl Streep plays Orlean, and Chris Cooper co-stars as Laroche; their lives intertwine with Kaufman's in irreversible ways as the screenwriter struggles to come up with a compelling story.
Anomalisa (2015) - 92%
Kaufman flexes his stop-motion skills with Anomalisa, which he wrote and directed with the help of producer Duke Johnson. Far from a light animated feature, this film is a tense psychological drama about a traveling customer service expert who perceives everyone as having the same voice and the same face.
Voiced by David Thewlis, Michael Stone lives a lonely, bland life until he meets Lisa — who sounds and looks different than everyone else. Lisa, an insecure woman attending a conference where Michael is the keynote speaker, engages in a confusing, tumultuous affair with the older man that ultimately provides more pain than pleasure.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) - 93%
Kaufman's singular take on love and romance reaches new, hallucinatory heights in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Directed by Michel Gondry and written by Kaufman, the film stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a former couple who decide to have their memories of each other erased at a special facility.
The result is a nonlinear, memory-based tribute to the messy yet beautiful nature of close, intimate relationships. Kaufman won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his refreshingly original take on the romantic comedy.
Being John Malkovich (1999) - 93%
Being John Malkovich is the feature film debut for both Kaufman as writer and Spike Jonze as director, who later collaborated on Adaptation. A magical, post-modern fairy tale, the dark comedy stars John Cusack as a pony-tailed puppeteer who discovers a hidden door in an office building that leads into the mind of actor John Malkovich.
Malkovich worried the film would be a total bomb due to its absurd plot, but the opposite turned out to be true. Full of surprises and laughs, Being John Malkovich topped many Best-Of lists for 1999.