Movie · 1999 · Comedy, Drama, Fantasy · 1h 53m · R · English
Curator score: 8.9/10 (855.5K ratings)
Ever wanted to be someone else? Now you can.
Overview
One day at work, unsuccessful puppeteer Craig finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters its mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.9/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 4.07/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 90
TMDB: 7.4/10
Director
Spike Jonze
Production
Propaganda Films, Single Cell Pictures, Gramercy Pictures
Cast
John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, W. Earl Brown, Carlos Jacott, Willie Garson, Byrne Piven, Gregory Sporleder, Charlie Sheen, Reggie Hayes, K.K. Dodds, Judith Wetzell, Octavia Spencer, Ned Bellamy, Eric Weinstein, Madison Lanc, Kevin Carroll
Where to watch
Peacock, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A wildly inventive, darkly funny, and unsettling surrealist comedy about identity, control, and desire. It rewards viewers who like bold high-concept filmmaking, sharp satire, and stories that get stranger as they go.
Best for
fans of surreal comedy and high-concept premises
viewers who like existential or identity-based satire
people who enjoy off-kilter indie films with mainstream actors going all-in
audiences open to absurd humor mixed with discomfort and melancholy
Skip if
you want straightforward plotting and clear emotional realism
you dislike cringe comedy or morally awful characters
you prefer grounded fantasy over bizarre, concept-driven surrealism
you need tidy answers or conventional genre beats
Overview
Being John Malkovich is the kind of movie that feels like a dare: a premise so absurd it should collapse, yet it keeps finding new layers of wit, dread, and emotional weirdness. Spike Jonze directs it with a playful confidence that lets the film swing from deadpan office satire to full-on philosophical nightmare without losing momentum.
Worth noting
What makes it endure is that the joke is never just the joke. The portal is a brilliant comic device, but it quickly becomes a sharp metaphor for fame, possession, intimacy, and the fantasy of living inside someone else’s life. The film is funny in a deeply uncomfortable way, and that discomfort is part of its intelligence.
Bottom line
The performances are fearless across the board, especially from the cast willing to make selfishness, vanity, and desperation feel almost operatic. It’s a movie for people who like cinema to be inventive, a little cruel, and completely unafraid of being strange. Even years later, it still feels like nothing else.
John Malkovich reading this script and agreeing to go all in on it is the definition of king shit
Collin Taylor (4.5★) · 6301 likes
Oh my god, they even give the chimp a character arc.
Karsten (4.5★) · 5466 likes
Hate films like this because they're so good I usually just don't know where to begin when I have to write about them. It's one of those that takes full advantage of the creative freedom that comes with filmmaking and reminds me why I love this art form so much.
Not a horror film but the existential anxiety that this comes with is enough for me to qualify it as a spooky watch for Halloween this year.
James (Schaffrillas) (3.5★) · 4885 likes
Honestly fuck Maxine, Lotte deserves so much better