Fantastical, Absurd, Brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2020)

Few films have earned their own wholly unique space in the Pantheon as has the nearly unimaginable "Being John Malkovich." Part comedy and part acid trip gone awry, this is a maniacally sidesplitting meisterwerk of the first order, and one that somehow projects as both deviously plotted and joyously unrestrained.
By night, dead-end puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is mired in a futile marriage to pet-centric wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz). By day, he's a clerk for New York's deceptively plain-wrappered LesterCorp, where he toils on the low-ceilinged 7-Â½ floor. Craig gets the hots for coworker Maxine Lund (Catherine Keener), who flatly can't be bothered. He soon finds a small door behind a filing cabinet, and into it - and into the mind of legendary thespian actor John Malkovich - he crawls. For fifteen minutes per session, Craig can see the world through Malkovich's eyes before being unceremoniously dumped roadside at the Jersey Turnpike. He can't help but share the portal with Maxine, and together, they monetize the Malkovich experience like that of a $200 amusement park ride.
Malkovich himself is plainly stunning in his straight-faced repurposing of his real-life self. And despite the onslaught of elite work that followed, director Spike Jonze has never been as magical as he is in his feature film debut. Yet above all else, "Being John Malkovich" is a master class in writing - both in its wildly unshackled conception and throughout its methodically brilliant execution - and only the great Charlie Kaufman can be held responsible. This is the film you present to aspiring scribes as screenwriting at its most aspirational. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)
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WATCHED IT? THEN WATCHLIST:
"Adaptation. (2002)"
"Stadium Anthems (2018)"
"The Big Lebowski (1998)"