Film Review: Being John Malkovich (1999)
Movie snobs never believe me when I tell them I knew who Spike Jonze was years before they did. I don’t say that to be one of those annoying “I was into it before it was cool” people, but rather because I’m really excited about Jonze’s pre-fame career as a skateboard photographer, filmer, and company owner – and I want to share that love. In case you’re in the dark about what I’m talking about, in 1991 Spike filmed and edited Video Days, one of the most – if not the most – influential skate videos of all time. And that Video Days happened to feature a groundbreaking street part by future My Name is Earl and Alvin and the Chipmunks star Jason Lee (not to mention all those Kevin Smith movies) is only a fraction of how cool that video truly is. But I’m off topic.
Fun fact: the wigs and costumes used in the Beastie Boys’ 1994 music video “Sabotage” (directed by Jonze) were first used a year earlier in the Jonze-directed skate video Goldfish from Girl Skateboards, which was, and is, to this day, co-owned by Jonze, former World Industries manager Megan Baltimore, and skateboarding legends Mike Carroll and Rick Howard. (For more on Spike’s contributions to skateboarding and media, check out the wonderful episode of Epicly Later’d filmmaker and skate rat Patrick O’Dell did on him back in 2017.)
The point is that, for us in the skating world, Spike Jonze was already a big deal. So, when we saw his name on a feature film in 1999, we all knew it was going to be rad – and probably really weird and funny too. We weren’t wrong. But, to truly understand the singular weirdness of Being John Malkovich, the movie in question, it might help to first understand its writer, because without the off-kilter madness of Charlie Kaufman, there would be nothing for Jonze to put his own unique stamp on.
To put things simply, Charlie Kaufman has written or directed some of the most interesting films of the last three decades. In addition to Malkovich, his writing credits include Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (directed by Michel Gondry), Adaptation (again with Jonze), and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (directed by George Clooney). His directorial efforts, if you can believe it, are even weirder than his strictly written ones. Synecdoche, New York, Anomalisa, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things are masterclasses in avant garde and experimental cinema, and that’s before the deeply affecting emotional impact of each has even been considered.
But, along with Jonze, Being John Malkovich was Kaufman’s first feature film credit. The pairing took the world by storm, and I dare say American cinema hasn’t been the same since.
To say that Malkovich is a surreal whirlwind is an understatement. Full of generational conspiracies, niche artistic expression, love triangles, and secret portals into the minds of celebrity actors, the Jonze and Kaufman express takes you places you never dreamed you would want to go. Upon arrival, though, you’d be hard pressed to imagine life before the strange and slightly nightmarish journey you’ve just taken.
Our guide into this peculiar ride into the psyche is Craig (a perfectly unlikable John Cusack), a wannabe puppeteer who can’t seem to understand why the world isn’t ready for his off-kilter artistic vision. After taking a filing job in an office with ceilings so low that the employees have to crouch, he accidentally discovers a hole in the wall that allows you to see through the eyes of John Malkovich (himself). Once your time is up inside the actor (you only get 15 minutes), you are inexplicably spat out along the New Jersey Turnpike.
For viewers not versed in the surreal, this bizarre experience might be quite enough to sate your appetite for such things. But, perhaps unfortunately for the tourists, the Malkovich experience is far from over. The details and vastness of the incursion into the mind of an artist are best left to experience for yourself, but what may surprise you is that, thanks to intentionally tawdry performances by Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich also boasts one of the best and oddly wholesome love stories of the late ’90s. In the end, it would seem, everyone gets what they deserve.
United States • 1999 • 113 minutes • Color• 1:85:1 • English • Spine #611
Criterion Special Features Include
- New 4K digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Working with De Sica, a collection of interviews with screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico, actor Enzo Staiola, and film scholar Callisto Cosulich
- Life as It Is, a program on the history of Italian neorealism, featuring scholar Mark Shiel
- Documentary from 2003 on screenwriter and longtime Vittorio De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and reminiscences by De Sica and his collaborators
