Being
John Malkovich
directed by Spike Jonze
starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary
Kay Place
and John Malkovich
playing at selected theaters - hunt for it!
(available on video May 2, 2000)
* * * *
(four stars)
no
time to read the whole review?
THE
JIST of MY PROSE
After my second viewing, I was blown away by the
completeness of that wonderful narrative. Has the genius consistency and
comedy of 'Waiting for Godot', with all the little niches that make it
one-of-a-kind. Read the original screenplay at www.script-o-rama.com
and be blown away.
You must think me insane. After I lambasted this film for it’s
startling jolt of
reality in it’s third act, I thought about it. And I thought about
it. And I thought about it
some more. I saw it again. A second viewing is the better viewing.
What an amazing
work of fluffy ridiculousness, haunting self-discovery and tragicomedy.
And for the love
of God - Malkovich is due an Oscar! It is he who holds the threads
together, parades a
brilliant self-mockery and plays into the very absurdity that John
Malkovich would be
part of some strange hero-worship cult. When he’s mocking himself,
he’s terrific. When
he’s playing John Cusack (who inhabits his body for quite awhile),
he’s a grand
comedian : doing an impression of someone we all know (since we’ve
been watching
him throughout the first part of the film) in the presence of the story
we’re all watching
him in. Blurring the audience with a premise that compounds it’s absurdity
every
moment is an effective technique. Director Spike Jonze exploits it
well, taking it low-key
and keeping the visuals simplistic rather than extravagent and irritating
(as most music
video directors would do : see ‘Stigmata’). The reason this film works
so perfectly is that
it never makes perfect sense. It exists in another world, but hides
behind the pretense of
our world. What hangs especially heavy is the fact that writer Charlie
Kaufman has
several other scripts that have just been sold. All of them deal with
the oddities of the
body. We’re all in for a whole box of cinematic ecstasy in the very
near future.