Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich

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Edition: VHS Tape

VHS Movie Reviews of Being John Malkovich

Movie Review: Who is pulling my strings?
Summary: 5 Stars

While I have seen and enjoyed this film many times I figured with Where the Wild Things Are about to come out I'd give this film a re-look-see and write a proper review for it. BJM is on it's surface satirical take on modern famous types, unknown creative types, and what it is that makes those at both ends of the spectrum tick. Now while the true creative type from any discipline is compelled by unknown forces there are also those amongst them that are, shall we say, compelled by less pure forces. Those being fame and money. Still, even the pure artist needs recognition of some sort. After all, art is just another form of communication. Without anyone to communicate with an artist can go ever inwards and mad, I suspect, if one is not understood by others on some level. Craig Schwartz, is a pure artist who is at the start of the film misunderstood and not communicating, no matter how hard he tries, to those around him. As events unfold his wife leaves him and he is eventually thrust into the head of real life actor John Malkovich. This is where the film departs from what is typical in mainstream movies. Ambiguity, symbolism, and exploration of existential concepts is not what most people go to the films to enjoy decoding, thinking about, or passively watching. Soon sexuality and the male and female body types we are born into are questioned and subsequently broken down. Also challenged is talent, fame and the notion that recognition comes from good art or just any established face in the public eye with some money to spend to explore any whim. Finally the film brings into question our very lives and if in fact we are in control of anything, or if some unseen force controls us. Craig Schwartz is a puppeteer who in fact winds up controlling John Malkovich and using his fame and money to further his personal self indulgent need to be a puppeteer is a never ending tunnel of mirrors like the very universe itself, where particles and matter are seemingly infinite outwards and inwards. This same topic is explored in other films written by Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York being the first that comes to mind with the never ending warehouses and smaller and smaller paintings.

In ending we see a new life born, unaware that it is controlled by hidden forces. Is this each and every one of our experiences? This is food for thought in BJM. The film never fully explains itself and that is why the film is so great. For if everything were explained and summed up then there would be no reason to re-watch the film again and agin, seeing it fresh each time it's explored down the road.

The inclusion of animals and higher primates in the film is symbolic. I suspect it alludes to our evolution, base animal nature and how we so often deny that we are in fact just another animal on this planet, albeit a creative one, apart but the same from all other creatures.

The 1/2 floor represents our subconscious, and also animal side. Much is explored and hashed out in the 1/2 floor of that building. things go in and things go out. Personalities and desires, thoughts, hopes, dreams. The characters want to go back to the portal that is in there. The portal to ones true self.

Comedy, a trait that most likely developed as a result of our higher brain functions, is explored as well. Comedy in this film is approached as absurdity. Existence is a bit absurd and this film takes it head on. Comedy probably developed as a buffer from the complex human brain running itself mad with endless thoughts about the nature of existence. These thoughts are explored and bubble up and out of the subconscious to the surface.

This film is a masterwork by the writer and director. It will be remembered long after the drivel of the day is long forgotten. This is one of the great films of our times.

Movie Review: Sick...incredibly sick!
Summary: 1 Stars

Sorry to disagree with everyone, but this is like the little boy telling the emperor that he is naked.
This is one protracted sick premise that is not funny, inventive, or entertaining unless you have the type of intellect (or lack thereof) that enjoys having your fingernails pulled out and being attacked by killer bees simultaniuosly!

Movie Review: Hilarious and quirky
Summary: 5 Stars

This is one of the most original, quirky and hilarious movies I have ever seen. In fact, it is the most original, quirky and hilarious movie I have ever seen. How these guys--Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze ever came up with this is beyond me. I want more films and books etc from these guys. I highly recommend this movie, but with the caveat that it may not be funny the movie for everyone. You probably need to be off-kilter a little bit to really enjoy this movie.

Movie Review: A new kind of monster movie?
Summary: 4 Stars

This movie kind of reminded me of Kafka for some reason:
no offense, but $200
for 15 minutes of being John Malkovich
seems over priced?
The acting is first rate and the script is is just kind of awesome in the way you get to hate the John Cusack character who is
pretty much the anti-hero of this modern surreal drama.
In the end I guess I liked it, but I wouldn't take kids to see it.

Movie Review: Strangely Enjoyable Comedy.
Summary: 5 Stars

This movie is just funny. The characters and how the interact is just hilarious. It kept me entertained, as I hope was the point of the movie, because if there really was a deeper side to this movie I missed it.

It made me lulz.
It's kind of like one of the movie adapts of Alice in Wonderland. Not the book, mind you, but like the movie adapts...

The movie follows the story of a very strange, lonely, unhappy guy (Cusack) who, do to his wife's insistence, gets a job in a filing company. The office itself is crazy and his co-workers/boss are just as strange.
He soon wants to cheat on his wife with a very snobby, hot woman that works on the same floor.
Shortly after his attempts with her, he finds a portal to the mind of John Malkovich behind a filing cabinet in his office. Then just random, hilarity follows.

I did not fully understand the ending, and it was a bit disturbing, but still, a hilarious film.

Write your own review

Summary of Being John Malkovich

While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich.

The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognizable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalize on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pi?ce de r?sistance, riffing on his own persona with obvious delight and--when he enters his own brain via the portal--appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, Being John Malkovich is a wild place to visit. --Jeff Shannon

While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich.

The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognizable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalize on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pi?ce de r?sistance, riffing on his own persona with obvious delight and--when he enters his own brain via the portal--appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, Being John Malkovich is a wild place to visit. --Jeff Shannon

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