New videos in local stores Tuesday
31.12.69
Rated: R for language, sexual content and violence
Length: 113 minutes
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts
An impressively stylish directorial debut for Clooney is now available on Blu-ray. Based on the probably fabricated, possibly deluded memoirs of TV game show producer Chuck Barris (Rockwell in an incredible transformation), “Confessions” is a wry, often scathingly funny riff on the idea that the creator/host of “The Gong Show” led a double life as a government assassin. Clooney and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation”) play the perverse story entirely straight as Barris holes up in a New York hotel to chronicle the story of his wasted life as a cautionary tale and a last chance at personal redemption. Barrymore and Roberts are featured as the good/bad women in Barris’ busy double life. Extras include commentary by Clooney and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, deleted scenes, Rockwell’s screen test, assorted “Gong Show” acts and a stills gallery.
Source: Mundelein Review