BEING JOHN MALKOVICH RATING: 8 /10 --> Great movie
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I've always loved director Spike Jonze's original music videos ranging from the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" to Bjork's "It's so quiet" to Daft Punk's "Da Funk", so I was one of the first to applaud his transition to movies with this, his motion picture directorial debut. With Jonze's obvious penchant for the creative, I expected nothing less that a film that would be unlike any other. And boy-oh-boy, did he deliver on that expectation.
PLOT: An unemployed puppeteer finds himself a temporary "regular job" as a file clerk in an office on the 71/2th floor of a corporate building. One day, he discovers a tiny door and a room which apparently leads into the brain of actor John Malkovich, allowing anyone who enters the portal to automatically be inside the thespian for about 15 minutes before being spit out and onto the side of a New Jersey Turnpike. Got that?
CRITIQUE: This is one messed up movie! Messed up in a good way, of course. This is probably the most creative film of the year with a script loaded with layers of surreal cream, a cast playing against type and scoring with solid performances all around, and an inventive look inside the infamous Wharhol-annointed "everyone will get their 15-minutes of fame" parable. On top of all that, this film actually makes sense (for the most part) unlike many of the other "weird" films which attempt to break the calmness of Hollywood's arrangement with the mediocre (see BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS) and is genuinely funny! I could see Dali and Frued sitting around with some over-salsa'd nachos and having a blast with this movie! Oh, and how I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall when they attempted to interpret this film's many zings and zangs. Fry this egg, why don't you.
What was even cooler about this film was that I never knew what was going to happen next. In fact, its main plot force of a portal leading inside actor John Malkovich's head was just the springboard from which an even wilder ride through one's own conscious and subconscious feelings of identity, life, love and sexuality took form. Wonderfully written, succinctly directed by Jonze, who could not have picked a more appropriate script for his own paranormal sensibilities, and featuring an unrecognizable great performance by Cameron Diaz, another solid show from Catherine Keener, and Cusack showing us that he can play more than just a wise-cracking smart-ass. It also needs to be said that actor John Malkovich, besides being a good sport about the whole thing, plays himself and all the other characters extremely well, and does quite the job of convincing everyone that he is himself (?). Looking back, there were no specific scenes in this film which were particularly memorable, and the script may have gone a little over-the-top in certain respects (did they really have to be living with a monkey?), but one cannot blame the genius when running rampant and dropping a couple of their eccentricities by the wayside. All in all, an entertaining surreal ball of confusionary psychological fun for the strange one in all of us. Also, look for a couple of pretty cool cameos by some of Hollywood's hipsters. Definitely, NOT for everyone!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Director Spike Jonze's real name is Adam Spiegel. He was born in St-Louis, Missouri, and recently married the daughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppolla, Sofia. This union would make actor Nicolas Cage his cousin-in-law. Some of you may remember Spike as an actor in this fall's critically praised flick, THREE KINGS, in which he played Conrad Vig, Mr. White Trash himself. Charlie Kaufman's next screenplay is an offbeat romantic comedy called HUMAN NATURE and will feature Patricia Arquette as a woman with too much body hair in love with a man with the world's smallest penis who, in turn, is in love with a perfect French beauty. When a man, raised as an ape, enters the picture, it throws things out of balance. Spike Jonze will co-produce. Catherine Keener is married to fellow actor Dermot Mulroney. Look closely and you will see actor Gary Sinise sitting behind John Malkovich in one of the pictures of his upbringing, as he and Sinise co-founded Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre. Malkovich recently broke up a street fight in Spain and lives in France with his family. Cameron Diaz was set to play Sonya Blade in 1995's MORTAL KOMBAT, but broke her wrist prior to filming and was replaced by actress Bridgette Wilson. Yes, one of the producers of this film is none other than the lead singer of the rock band R.E.M., Michael Stipe. Orson Bean, the man who plays Dr. Lester in this film, was blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s.
Review Date: November 14, 1999 Director: Spike Jonze Writer: Charlie Kaufman Producers: Steve Golin, Vincent Landay, Sandy Stern and Michael Stipe Actors: John Cusack as Craig Schwartz Cameron Diaz as Lotte Schwartz Catherine Keener as Maxine John Malkovich as John Malkovich Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 1999 --------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com --------------------------------------- (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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