Adaptation

This is back when Kaufman was just smart and fresh. He was clever enough to thwart expectations, but not yet devastate them. Synecdoche, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and Antkind are devastating, with all of the cleverness of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich but a heavy dose of dread to boot. Those are more interesting to me (note: I haven't seen Human Nature, Confessions,...).

It doesn't help that Malkovich and Adaptation age poorly, even (especially) for Kaufman fans. Acquaintance with his later work or any self-conscious metawriting makes those films redundant. Their egocentrism robbed of originality by decades and writers they influenced, they lean upon a rotting staff of Y2K humor and style. To me they're mostly artifacts of screenwriting history, and pieces to understanding a figure influential to my life. Even in high school I didn't care too much about those two films; it was Synecdoche and Eternal Sunshine that changed me. Now I have a singular experience of Antkind and admiration for I'm Thinking of Ending Things (and I've never minded Anomalisa). I haven't seen Synecdoche or Eternal Sunshine in a while, and I can't remove them from their memories in my judgment, but considering all of this I suppose I can still call myself a Kaufman fan.

Some artists decline entering later phases of their careers. The vigorous early works live on. Maybe Kaufman will be remembered for Malkovich and Adaptation, catalysts in screenwriting, but I think he has only matured, at worst finding more interesting ways to embrace his immaturity, at best discovering new human insights through obsessively spelunking his own mind.