by Arik Ben Treston

Being John Malkovich
USA Entertainment, 1999


The success of Being John Malkovich will hopefully give major Hollywood studios a push into the direction of more independent-minded films. First time feature film director (music video maven and Three Kings co-star) Spike Jonze deftly maneuvers his cast of characters into a maze of wild situations and surreal circumstances. The screenplay is from newcomer Charlie Kaufman, who was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the recent Academy Awards.

Puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) has finally come to the realization (with the help of animal-loving wife Cameron Diaz, in a truly different role) that he needs to get a job and temporarily put aside the notion that he will become a world-famous puppeteer. Schwartz stumbles upon work that will keep his hands agile and swift. To both stay in practice and to make ends meet, he takes a filing job at Lester Corporation.

The sheer visuals of the film are breathtaking. Just the puppeteering alone is amazing to watch. If you haven’t seen the trailers for the film, I’ll let the film give you the treat of seeing the sight gags where Craig works and learning the history of floor #7½. It is reminiscent of Terry Gilliam’s brilliant film Brazil in its tone and bizarre use of space.

This is a script-driven piece that works to create unusual and extreme characters. The working relationship between Craig’s boss and his secretary is one extremely amusing subplot-that could have been longer, it gracefully adds to the cockeyed tone of the movie.

While working in his office, Craig stumbles upon a small door hidden behind a filing cabinet. Exploring the tunnel behind it, Craig begins his journey into the unknown. What happens next is a ‘slide’ of some kind into another place, John Malkovich’s head to be more specific. For fifteen minutes, a person can experience what it is like to be John Malkovich by being in his head and seeing and feeling what he experiences (until you are rudely spit out onto the side of a New Jersey freeway). This amazing discovery leads Craig to share it with Maxine. Maxine, (supporting actress Oscar nominee Catherine Keener) is a tough beauty who works on the same floor as Craig. She has made it perfectly clear that Craig’s interest in her will not be reciprocated. She does have a head for business though, and decides that this wild and crazy ride into the gray matter of a famous actor should be enjoyed by everyone (at a nice profit, of course).

The relationship that ensues between Craig, his wife and Maxine is too entertaining to divulge fully. Suffice it to say that it gives new meaning to group sex and craftily explores human sexuality in all its transformations.

John Malkovich does a wonderful job giving his all in the role of himself. Letting the film poke fun at his image and seeming to enjoy it, Malkovich becomes the perfect actor for this part. He brings his strangeness and mystery to it and plays it to the max. 

The film taps perfectly into the pop-culture psyche of stardom and what it is like to be (and want to be) a star. So many want to be famous (even when they have nothing to offer) and what better way to get your fifteen minutes of fame than to be in the body of a famous person for that amount of time.

Cusack does a great job playing a hapless schlub who doesn’t quite manage to get the things he wants. Diaz completely transforms herself from the exotic beauty we know her as to become a slightly wacko plain-Jane whose life is forever transformed by this discovery. The great Catherine Keener (Out Of Sight, Your Friends and Neighbors) pulls off a sublime turn as a sly and bullshit-free woman who gets what she wants when she wants it. Jonze wisely keeps the movie at an even pace and restrains himself from going too over-the-top. While at times Being John Malkovich veers into a darker mood than the one it sets up, it still retains enough humor and fable-like fantasy to provide a skewed, alternative and fresh movie viewing experience. 


Dead Again
Paramount, 1991


Another mind-bending film that never received quite the recognition it deserved was Kenneth Branagh’s noir-ish romantic thriller Dead Again. Branagh, working from a script by Scott Frank (Out Of Sight, Malice, Get Shorty), directed and starred with then-wife Emma Thompson, both in dual roles set in two different periods, the 90s and the late 40s.

In the present, Mike Church (Branagh) is a detective who takes on a charity case for his priest to learn the identity of ‘Grace’ a woman (Thompson) with amnesia. With the help of his photographer friend Pete (3rd Rock From The Sun and Seinfeld star Wayne Knight, in a great role that plays against typecast), Mike begins his search for her past.

When an antique dealer (famed British actor Derek Jacobi) shows up and offers to help unlock Thompson’s memory through hypnosis, the offer is accepted. Things change from that moment on. While Mike remains a skeptic, ‘Grace’ tells of memories past, specifically the late 1940s when she wasn’t even born yet. What she sees is herself and Mike as a wealthy couple in memories that are very real. One of them was, perhaps, murdered by the other and now for whatever reason —Robin Williams, in an uncredited cameo as an ex-shrink, has his own theories — they have met up again in the present with the outcome looking uncertain and perhaps dangerous. History might repeat itself. 

Branagh gives the lagging genre a classic updating and manages to re-energize it. He appears to have had fun playing an American private dick and while the film gets a tad corny in the last few minutes, it has the power to satisfy mystery fans as well as thrill-seekers and romantics at heart.