“Charlie Kaufman’s New Take on Hollywood: A ‘Cancerous Lie-Spewing Machine’”

From Steve Pond at The Wrap:

Charlie Kaufman’s feelings of eternal sunshine seem to be over.

“Frank or Francis,” the Oscar-winning screenwriter’s newest film, is a twisted and bitter broadside against nearly every aspect of the movie business, from filmmakers to critics to audiences.

TheWrap got an early look at the script, which Kaufman will direct. Here’s his Hollywood 101:

Moviegoers are dumb sheep who flock to idiotic movies and don’t know how to handle anything the least bit out of the ordinary.

Movie bloggers are ill-tempered losers who live with their parents, except when they’re pretentious snobs scared to be creative and desperate to tear down other people’s creativity.

Actors make deals with the devil (or whatever equivalent they can find) to have success.

Oh, and it’s also a musical.

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Even Kaufman’s tenderest sentiments in “Frank or Francis” are delightfully adrift in a sea of bile — and toward the end, in a summation delivered by a character about whom the less said the better, Hollywood once again gets a thorough takedown:

“America’s biggest import, by far, its biggest influence on the global community is itself. Its values, its ideals, its ridiculously inflated opinion about itself. Its idea of celebrity … And how is this export disseminated? Movies, TV, music. You are a cog in this cancerous lie spewing machine.”

“A cog in this cancerous lie spewing machine.” Sounds like the Hollywood version of “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Anybody who has read “Frank or Francis” and cares to weigh in about the script or you just want to vent on Hollywood, see you in Comments.

For more of The Wrap article, go here.

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