First off, let me emphasize that as a movie year, 1999 has been on of the best in recent memory. Being John Malkovich has to be THE most original movie this past year, and one of the best overall. The basic premise is that a puppet maker, John Cusack, takes a filing job at a strange office on the 7 1/2 floor. While digging behind one of his filing cabinets he discovers a portal into actor John Malkovich's head. From that point the movie takes on a truly surrealistic direction. Eventually there are hundreds of people paying money to spend 15 minutes in John Malkovich's head, witnessing various mundane things like Taxi rides, to the more exotic, like having sex. This movie also had me asking questions, that were answered later on like, what happens if John Malkovich goes into the portal into his head. It is an intriguing journey into our more primal fantasies, essentially playing on Psychologist Jeung's collective unconsciousness, twisting it into a "collective consicousness". The movie is quite Freudian in the primal sense, yet drawing on some of the more modern behaviorist philosphies. Let's all hope that Hollywood wakes up and sees that the "blockbuster" is officially dead, and creative intelligent movies are back in full swing. John Malkovich should be nominated for Best Actor this year. If you haven't seen this movie, go see it today. Its on par with, IMHO, the best movie of the 90's, American Beauty.
Review of Being John Malkovich
