This movie has a terrible reputation even among some of Kaufman’s biggest fans. It was for a while the only Kaufman movie I hadn’t seen, and I was saving it for a rainy day, which ended up being today… dude what the hell is the matter with people? I thought this was vintage C.K.: savagely, hilariously observant of what fuckups people be. It provoked more belly laughs from me than, say, Tropic Thunder or The Hangover or a number of other contemporary comedies with a shitty joke-to-laugh ratio. Like: the reveal of Otto’s American accent, the congressman’s promise to pass legislature to address the issues raised by Puff’s narrative, Robbins’ little adopted brother chasing his woman up the stairs, the women getting their hair done and reacting in unison to Arquette’s book, and cetera.

I suppose it tries to muster an unearned seriousness in Puff’s diatribe about words before Robbins snuffs it, but in retrospect of seeing Synecdoche and understanding more fully what Kaufman was getting at, it struck me as rather profound. So if you all have been avoiding this one because of the word on the street, I offer my dissenting opinion.

Also, a film critic I quite respect wrote the following: “It’s a film that thinks it a good idea for Rhys Ifans to appear either full monty or in a diaper for the majority of his performance, likewise that Patricia Arquette have a pelt of hair covering every curve of her Romanesque physique.” Are you fucking kidding me? Das sexist dude!

As for Human Nature, I have to check it out. It isn’t easy to find.