Being John Malkovich
Year: 1999
Rating: R
Length: 113 minutes / 1.88 hours
I have to blame Being John Malkovich (1999) for making me try more films written by Charlie Kaufman than I probably wanted to. While it is a quite peculiar film, it was strange in all the right ways. This movie was saying more than I could comprehend when it hooked me the first time I watched it, but now I can see its deeper meanings having been given the time to see it again with fresh eyes. And perhaps Being John Malkovich was more my introduction to Spike Jonze films, which has been a much better journey.
Kaufman’s writing is bizarre in ways that annoyed me in Synecdoche, New York (2008) and I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) but worked for movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Being John Malkovich (1999). Perhaps it’s because the latter two in this list have actual plots. I can appreciate the meta nature of having John Malkovich play himself here, but the whole setup surrounding it is so weird that it might not work in any other context. I mean, a portal into his head that’s hidden on a half-floor of an office building and spits you out on the side of the Jersey turnpike isn’t something you see every day.
What I didn’t realize at first when I fell in love with this odd movie was how the ability for women to be inside a man’s body translated to a trans experience that I wasn’t ready to understand yet. For all its queer elements (i.e., peculiar design and story choices), I only now understand its queer elements (i.e., lesbian and transexual messages). And even if the “straight white man pulling the strings” bit seems a little on the nose now, I can appreciate what it was trying to accomplish at a time where these things weren’t openly talked about.
An odd film with some forward-leaning LGBTQ themes, I give Being John Malkovich 4.0 stars out of 5.
This movie appeared in Cinema Connections:
– #322. Actors Being Usurped
– #323. Puppetry
