Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 36 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 130 Ratings

  • Starring: Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Cusack, John Malkovich
  • Summary: An out-of-work puppeteer (Cusack) takes a filing clerk job on the cramped 7 ½ floor of an office building where he discovers a hidden tunnel allowing him to enter the mind and life of actor John Malkovich for 15 mintues before being ejected onto the New Jersey Turnpike.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
  1. Gloriously inventive, delightfully nutty comic treasure is unlike anything you've ever seen. It's lunatic.
  2. 100
    Either Being John Malkovich gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains.
  3. 100
    Being John Malkovich, which contains not a frame of extraneous footage, is more than a must-see movie: It's a must-see-more-than-once event.
  4. 80
    It's a gleeful, nitrous-oxide high.

See all 36 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 46
  2. Negative: 6 out of 46
  1. Being John Malkovich really is a film like no other. Director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman's vision for the film is so complete, so unique and off-the-wall, it makes for an utterly spellbinding viewing experience. The performances are all superb, and many a far cry from the respective cast member's usual roles.John Cusack makes a very engaging, if highly unlikeable protagonist as Craig Schwatz, an ambitious but morally bereft puppeteer, who finds a mysterious portal into the head of John Malkovich. Malkovich, quite amusingly, gives one of the best performances of his career, playing a parody of himself, who is unwittingly used by a whole host of people for entertainment, entrepreneurial ventures and for a far more sinister purpose. Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and Orson Bean are all excellent too as Craig's unfulfilled, animal-loving wife, his sexually deviant co-worker and his ancient and looney boss respectively. Being John Malkovich delivers on all fronts, from the cast playing a weird and wonderful array of characters to Spike Jonze's tight and controlled direction, Lance Acord's cinematography perfectly capturing the simple, yet effective visuals, Carter Burwell's fantastic score and especially Charlie Kaufman's slick, sharp and side-splittingly funny script. It's surreal, dark, well-written and simply hilarious. It's also superbly odd, bordering on lunacy, but in a good way. There's nothing else like it, and there likely never will be. By the end of Being John Malkovich, you've certainly been on a journey - you're not certain where you've been, or what it all means, but by God you had a good time. Expand
  2. I am a little confused about this movie. And frankly speaking before I read other comments, I can not understand this movie. But to some extent, I think it is a good movie but not perfect one. Expand
  3. Mike
    7
    I thought Adaptation and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind both have it beat by a wide margin. Maybe I should see it again.
  4. Best part of the entire movie is when puppeteer Schwartz (John Cusack) is punched by a father conveying his disappointment in the perversion of a puppet show, which are typically enjoyed by children. The Puppeteer Collapse

See all 46 User Reviews

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