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Being John MalkovichRating:
Release Date: 01 May, 2001 Retail Price: $19.95 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (11 total) |
Being John Malkovich Reviews
Metaphor for Our Age
Spike Jonze has directed a film about people who want to get lost inside a portal of a celebrity John Malkovich and as such has made a film that is an allegory of our age: a society of tormented souls, who loathing their perceived mundane existence, seek transcendence by living vicariously through a celebrity. In our tabloid-soaked culture where we want our celebs dished out to us for our feasting, we now take our worship a step further: live inside and takeover a celebrity; get inside his brain and try to render our sense of being invisible by being John Malkovich.
Great idea but how does the film work in terms of pacing, plotline, and coherence? Amazingly, the narrative is tight and follows easily enough. The satire is always two steps ahead of us. There are too many laugh-outloud surprises in here to mention. But beneath the satire is a brooding, tormented meditation on a society that, without the razzle-dazzle of celebrity, is overcome by a sense of worthlessness and ennui.
if you love surrealism....
I love surrealism so I liked this movie. It's freaky, it's wierd, people don't look like themselves and there are unexplained pieces all over it. Puzzling bits. Unanswered pieces. Even the puppets add weirdness.
Craig (Cusack) is a brilliant, unrecognised puppeteer, who lives with his animal collecting wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz). I have to say right off that her hair was *hideous* and gave her character a waif-like incompetent look. She urges Craig to get a job after he gets hit by an offended dad while he's performing on the street in front of her shop. He goes to work as a file clerk, inexplicably in offices that take up only 1/2 floor, populated by employees who are just, well, odd- some are lechers, some think the whole world has a speech impediment and others are just wierd.
Craig discovers a "tunnel" and follows it into John Malkovich's brain and he and his freaky co-worker Maxine (Keener) decide this provides a fantastic opportunity to make extra cash. Like the good puppeteer he is, he needs to go further than just visiting Malkovich. Lotte, OTOH, finds the experience overpowering and overwhelming, with some interesting side effects in her relationship with the freaky Maxine.
I was uncomfortable with the scenes when Craig put Lotte in the cage- other people who are appalled by domestic violence will find that unamusing as well. Of course, people appalled by same sex couples will have issues with the evolution of Maxine and Lotte's relationship.
As and actor, John Malkovich has always fascinated me. Some other reviewers- who didn't like the movie- wondered why he would "lower" himself to the level of this movie. I, OTOH, would see it as a wonderful opportunity. How many actors get the opportunity to play themselves, yet, not really themselves? To be in a scene where every single character is *themself*? eeek! Hard to imagine what that would be like!
The whole entering-through-the-portal-and-living-forever aspect was left largely unexplored- or unexplained. We, the mere viewers, will just have to wonder about all those people who went into the tube and congregated together- for how long? and how many people were in each of *them*? *shudder*
The puppetry is amazing. Anyone interested in puppets needs to see this movie- they need to *buy* it to support the art of puppetry.
The interview with Spike Jonze is priceless but raises more questions than it answers. ***evil laugh***
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