Another fantastic review - always appreciate how indepth these videos are. This film was the first (and only to my knowledge) to have a fictious person nominated for an oscar (Donald Kaufman) since he was technically credited as a co-writer to the movie.
It only turns into a Hollywood movie after he visits the fictional version of Robert McKee, who basically gives him the license to go for it. That's actually my favorite scene in film as well. The whole of the first two acts build up to it, if you think about it, and it pays off, imo. Aside from making fun of Hollywood thrillers with snap endings, like Se7en (his brother's script is called The 3) and multiple personalities, the more subtle joke is that the reason Kaufmann split his character into twin brothers is because it's a way of literalizing his own internal ambivalence about writing. It is the split in Kaufmann's personality where one part of him wants to write things like Se7en and just entertain mainstream audiences while winning all the financial and social rewards that come with Hollywood success, but the other part of him really wants to make great art. I can't really tell if he actually resolves this ambivalence in the film, at least not in a way that is sincere, but if he doesn't, it's probably because he couldn't resolve it in his real life.
Another fantastic review - always appreciate how indepth these videos are. This film was the first (and only to my knowledge) to have a fictious person nominated for an oscar (Donald Kaufman) since he was technically credited as a co-writer to the movie.
It only turns into a Hollywood movie after he visits the fictional version of Robert McKee, who basically gives him the license to go for it. That's actually my favorite scene in film as well. The whole of the first two acts build up to it, if you think about it, and it pays off, imo. Aside from making fun of Hollywood thrillers with snap endings, like Se7en (his brother's script is called The 3) and multiple personalities, the more subtle joke is that the reason Kaufmann split his character into twin brothers is because it's a way of literalizing his own internal ambivalence about writing. It is the split in Kaufmann's personality where one part of him wants to write things like Se7en and just entertain mainstream audiences while winning all the financial and social rewards that come with Hollywood success, but the other part of him really wants to make great art. I can't really tell if he actually resolves this ambivalence in the film, at least not in a way that is sincere, but if he doesn't, it's probably because he couldn't resolve it in his real life.