see this movie

Rating: Null/10 (19 November 1999)

To describe my experience seeing this film you would have to imagine an amusement park ride that is simultaneously physically exhilarating and profoundly moving. The genius of Spike Jonze's first feature is located not in a brilliantly inventive idea well-executed, but in a sensibility that is expansive enough to take in a world beyond that idea. Characters and situations (the tortured performance artist puppeteer, the office located on the 7 ½ floor, the chimp with unresolved childhood trauma) are both absurd and completely believable. While the absurd aspects of this story have gotten it attention, the themes of lost self-identity, unrequited love, success & failure are what ultimately make this film.