Retrospective: Being John Malkovich

Charlie Kaufman may be commonly placed in the Postmodernist Writers camp (a nebulous faction by any definition), but based on the evidence of Being John Malkovich, he clearly has a lot in common with cyberpunk writers. The portal to Malkovich (a gloriously stupid rendition of the portal to faerie that would have C. S. Lewis headdesking furiously) is the same kind of human technology as anything in The Matrix or Neuromancer (or, for that matter, every Starfleet crew member). The fact Kaufman and Jonze mostly focus on the epistemology of narcissism and wanting to be seen doesn't make this any less a science fiction movie.

But on the whole, while Being John Malkovich is a well cooked meal, you come to it for the individual weird moments. Where else are you going to see an Abelard and Heloise puppet show? Or a world of John Malkoviches? Or Cameron Diaz participating in a bizarre trans surveillance sex ritual by possessing John Malkovich in a dubiously ethical scenario? Perhaps ethics aren't the point here — Catherine Keener's character is as evil as John Cusack's, but she's much more fun, and her winding up with Diaz's character is simply weirder. This is a movie where the best variety of weird wins. I probably would have loved this a decade ago. As it stands, this is still a fun movie. Definitely watch it with your grandparents.