{"id":3983,"date":"2024-09-10T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T21:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=3983"},"modified":"2024-08-20T22:06:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T04:06:37","slug":"movie-being-john-malkovich-1999","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/10\/movie-being-john-malkovich-1999\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Being John Malkovich (1999)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BeingBeing John Malkovich
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1999
\nRating: R
\nLength: 113 minutes \/ 1.88 hours<\/p>\n

I have to blame Being John Malkovich<\/em> (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<\/em> was more my introduction to Spike Jonze films, which has been a much better journey.<\/p>\n

Kaufman’s writing is bizarre in ways that annoyed me in Synecdoche, New York<\/a> (2008) and I’m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em><\/a> (2020) but worked for movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em> (2004) and Being John Malkovich<\/em> (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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

An odd film with some forward-leaning LGBTQ themes, I give Being John Malkovich<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This movie appeared in Cinema Connections<\/em>:
\n– #322. Actors Being Usurped<\/a>
\n– #323. Puppetry<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,2],"tags":[863,3820,2068,3823,1067,1413,13,8,3821,3822,3118],"class_list":["post-3983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21","category-4-0-stars","category-movie","tag-863","tag-being-johm-malkovich","tag-charlie-kaufman","tag-john-malkovich","tag-lgbtq","tag-meta","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-spike-jonze","tag-strange","tag-trans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3991,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3983\/revisions\/3991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}