Can't wait for your 15 minutes?

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2014)

We've all heard Andy Warhol's most famous quote. But this is the first and likely to be the only movie that will ever made that liberalizes that notion. 'Being John Malkovich' is a brilliant, whacky Kafka-esqe comedy of inventive writing. This is the kind of movie where you either hate every second or you smile and let yourself go with it. I am part of the latter. This is the craziest and most original comedy I have ever seen.
As the movie opens a street puppeteer named Craig (John Cusack) has just lost his job. His puppets are works of macabre performance art and now he has found himself looking for work because of 'today's wintry job climate'.
He goes to work as a file clerk in a building on floor 7½, which has low ceilings that the employees have to stoop down to work under. Any other comedy would have been happy with this joke but Kaufman's script is just getting warmed up.
One day Craig discovers a small door behind the file cabinet. He opens it and his whisked away through a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. He hears what Malkovich hears, sees what he sees and goes where he goes. Fifteen minutes later he drops out of the sky by the side of the New Jersey turnpike.
He informs his co-worker Maxine (Catherine Keener) of his journey and after she tries out the portal she hatches a plan. She persuades him to start charging admission so that people can get their fifteen minutes. Eventually John Malkovich himself discovers their little operation and goes to find out what is going on. At one point he enters his own portal and - let's just say that Freud could have written volumes on that experience.
Another development: Craig's wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz) tries out Malkovich's portal while Malkovich is on a date with Maxine. When Lotte and Maxine find out what has happened they begin having a pseudo-lesbian affair that only works when one takes over Malkovich's brain.
Now, what I have described of the plot is only about 15%. The movie still has a long way to go. A new development comes along and then another and another and another. Charlie Kaufman has a screenplay here that would have been enough for ten movies. When it was over I realized that as much material as he has in his wonderful script that this movie could have gone on for another hour.
The cast contains some of my favorite actors. John Cusack that wonderfully intelligent actor here plays a puppeteer who finds the ultimate puppet show. Catherine Keener is perfection at playing cold, manipulative and nasty women here and in last year's 'Your Friends & Neighbors'. Cameron Diaz is a beautiful actress and gives up something for this film that most actresses never could: her vanity. She plays Lotte behind mop of unruly brown hair and no make-up. Her character is sweet but becomes obsessed Maxine and Malkovich.
'Being John Malkovich' is the kind of movie that I long for. After all the junk, this is a drink in the oasis in a desert full of mostly 'entertainment' dreck. It must have taken a small miracle for director Spike Jonze to get this kind of content on screen. I have heard some people call it weird confusing nonsense. Mostly those are the people who go in for dead-end garbage like 'The Waterboy'. 'Being John Malkovich' is funny and creative and gives the audience something to talk about afterwards. Those who can appreciate it know its greatness. Just like the portal, this wonderful film is beyond description to those who haven't seen it. You just have to see for yourself.