Post-modernism is a difficult term to define, especially as it pertains to film. As I understand it, post-modernism in cinema means a deconstruction of the medium, a process that actively reminds the viewer they are watching a contrived piece of art. This seemingly contradictory principle yielded films like "Breathless", a stylistic revolution in its time but virtually unwatchable from an entertainment standpoint.
Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman gave the 2000s its first, and maybe only, mainstream post-modern movie. "Adaptation" is about the writing of its own screenplay. Sure, not everything that unfolds actually happened, but that is precisely the point. Kaufman, arguably the most auteur of any working writer, proves the ultimate power of the screenplay (and its creator) by writing himself into an adaptation of "The Orchid Thief". Brilliantly, he still adapts "The Orchid Thief" to some extent and simultaneously details his difficulties in writing that adaptation, tying the two very different stories together as a study of writing. Kaufman deconstructs the process and weaves it into the fabric of the movie. Brilliant. If only he hadn't literally deconstructed his next work.
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