Being John Malkovich (1999)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This has been a great year for alternate realities at the movies. Films like The Matrix, Sixth Sense, Blair Witch Project, Thirteenth Floor, and Run, Lola, Run have all, in different ways, played with the line that separates past from present, reality from simulation, and truth from fiction. Being John Malkovich can be added to this list of innovative films that a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly described as the first films of the 21st century.There is little in this film that is formula. John Cusack plays a gifted puppeteer who aspires to be one of the world's great puppeteers. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of job openings for puppeteers so he is reduced to street theater where he is clearly underappreciated. An almost unrecognizable Cameron Diaz plays Cusack's wife, a pet lover who is just a little quirky. When Cusack decides to take a job as a file clerk on floor 7.5 of an office building, life becomes even weirder. Cusack discovers an opening behind a file cabinet, a little door that leads into a tunnel. Like the characters in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, (or Alice Through the Looking Glass), Cusack jumps in and finds himself in an alternative universe. Instead of Narnia or Wonderland, Cusack finds himself on a 15-minute ride inside actor John Malkovich (played quite capably by . . . John Malkovich).Cusack joins forces with a co-worker to create a business. For $200 people can spend 15 minutes inside of John Malkovich's head, seeing the world through his eyes. Since this is even better than Real World or a WebCam show, people come in droves. Eventually, Malkovich himself discovers what's going on and jumps the line to go inside of his own mind. This leads to what has to be one of the more unique scenes in the history of film. The story takes on an even more interesting twist when Cusack finds a unique way to fulfill his lifelong dream of being the world's greatest puppeteer.This is one weird film--and I've left out some of the weird. This is also one of the most creative films I have seen, and the film raises interesting questions about consciousness, identity, love and meaning. There are great performances here by Cusack, Diaz, Malkovich, and Catherine Keener (Cusack's co-worker and eventual love interest). The real star of the show, however, is the story itself. First-time screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has crafted an interesting and innovative story. First-time director Spike Jonze handles the material extremely well. This is clearly not a film for all tastes, and the language and sexual scenes may well offend. This is, however, something that is very rare, in Hollywood--innovative, creative, and thought provoking. Watch for this film during the Oscar nominations. If this doesn't get nominated for screenplay--at least--I will hang up my trophy.

One has to give credit to John Malkovich for allowing the film makers to use him as a character in this story, and not always to flattering effect. This is one of those quintessential movies to illustrate the absurd by being absurd. It starts out with the kind of quirky humor that I find entertaining enough but then tries to outdo itself by getting more and more in the weeds with it's intricate and often confusing treatment of personality exchanges and multiple Malkovich's. So in other words, it wears the viewer down after a while and gets to be somewhat overbearing in it's quest to be an off-beat movie. Actually, you know you're asking for trouble when Charlie Sheen is called upon to give advice. If you're quick enough, you'll be able to catch momentary glimpses of folks like Brad Pitt, Winona Ryder and Gary Sinise, some of them so quick they don't even qualify as cameos. Not to be too harsh, it's not a terrible movie and if you like off the wall writing and humor, this will definitely fit the bill. And to think it all started with a Help Wanted Ad looking for a man with fast hands.

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I wanted to be a philosophy major in college, but I also wanted to be gainfully employed so I abandoned that wish. Philosophy has remained a way of which I spend my time. A film, philosophical in its premise, will always be one that I gravitate towards. Being John Malkovich, the 1999 film by Spike Jonze is a film purely philosophical in its plot and approach. The film stars John Cusack as a man who makes a living as a puppeteer, desperate to control an aspect of his otherwise meaningless existence. When he finds a portal which allows people to enter into the head of actor John Malkovich, he attempts to make a profit with his business affiliate played by Catherine Keener. When both his business affiliate and wife played by Cameron Diaz fall in love with the actor, he has lost even more control of his life and may go to extreme measures to gain control.Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is a struggling puppeteer who builds his own puppets and is desperate to make a living doing the work he is impassioned with, lives a life that is filled with mundane activities. When his wife and animal lover Lottie, who herself owns a pet store, encourages him to finally get a job, Craig finds himself at a company called LesterCorp, located on the seventh and a half floor with ceilings so low one can't fully extend their body to an upright position to work as a file clerk. Something seems off about this building and its personnel immediately, before Craig can even learn the half of it (I'm punny). While attempting to settle into his new work environment one day, Craig stumbles upon a small door in his office that leads him into the head of actor John Malkovich. Craig and his co-worker Maxine Lund (Catherine Keener) decide to sell 15-minute increments of time in John Malkovich's head as an experience to the public. At first, the revelation makes Craig feel as though he has some control and purpose over his life and the lives of others. Soon, however, his co-worker and crush Maxine begins to fall in love with the actor, then, Craig's wife falls in love with him as well after her 15-minute ride in the mind of John Malkovich. His newfound control and purpose begin to spiral out of control leaving Craig desperate to find a way to gain it back, despite what that means to anyone involved.The idea of self is heavily explored throughout Being John Malkovich. Malkovich's "self" is intruded upon and under constant threat, which is a cardinal worry of many social philosophers. What does free will enter and how can one maintain their grasp on their free will when it is constantly under siege from so many intruders around us. Human isolation is also clearly illustrated throughout Being John Malkovich. Each of Craig's puppets is separated by a wall or some other object, and each of the people we meet in Craig's life doesn't spend too much time surrounded by others. Even the communal experience of gaining entry to John Malkovich's head further isolates people once their time as him ends. Each person that comes out of John Malkovich leaves appreciating his life more and their life less further calling to question issues of self. Perhaps the most overarching issue examined in Jonze's film is the question of the existence of a soul. What is beyond life and self and breaches the metaphysics, is anything. Each person seems more apt to explore the being of John Malkovich than actually explore their own identities. Perhaps there is nothing to the idea of soul to the filmmaker; either way, the existence of soul, the examination of self, and human isolation are extreme areas of interest to the plot and background of Being John Malkovich.