I’m sticking with my snotty pronouncement that Charlie Kaufman is the greatest screenwriter of the 21st century… but I did enjoy your exercise in alternatives. I’ve got a few, too.

Lisa Cholodenko and Tamara Jenkins might have been contenders, if they made more than a movie every decade (the former has been working mostly in TV, and the latter got stuck in development hell). Noah Baumbach‘s great – and why did everybody hate so much on Margot at the Wedding? – but his films don’t seem big enough. Mike White could have made the B team if it weren’t for Year of the Dog, a movie that makes me clench my jaw just remembering it. And Nicole Holofcener – well, she’s fantastic, and I don’t know why more people don’t know who she is. Stop what you’re doing and go rent Lovely & Amazing right now.

I’m gonna think on this some more, though, because most of those writers are also directors (all, in fact, although Year of the Dog was White’s first), and at some point I want to talk about the writers who don’t direct.

I’ve got to duck out for a few hours – I’m going to see Synecdoche, New York again. It’s not going to be open until November, but if you live in Austin, you might be able to catch it when it plays at the Austin Film Festival (with Kaufman in attendance).

Here’s the trailer.

Youtube video

This article appears in October 10 • 2008.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...