I think it's kinda sexy that John Malkovich has a portal, y'know, sort of like, it's like, like he has a vagina. It's sort of vaginal

No 441 - Being John Malkovich
Director - Spike Jonze

A couple of days ago I went to see Where the Wild Things Are and I found it a truly upsetting experience. Don't get me wrong - you MUST all watch it, it is a beautiful and emotional journey and a visually stunning film. It is also a detached, cold, harsh and painfully heartbreaking study of loneliness. I found it very difficult viewing and at times almost inaccessible. I'm amazed that this was considered a 'kid's film' for a while.

After watching it I felt inspired to go and watch some of Jonze's past films to see if they were as hard and as moving as Where the Wild Things Are. So, it makes sense to begin with his ridiculous debut film.
The plot is too difficult to explain as there are so many little additional parts of it which make the story twist and turn. But the key essence of the film is paraphrased by the protagonist, Greg Schwartz (John Cusack)
There's a tiny door in my office, Maxine. It's a portal and it takes you inside John Malkovich. You see the world through John Malkovich's eyes... and then after about 15 minutes, you're spit out... into a ditch on the side of The New Jersey Turnpike.

Therein follows a film which blends a very fucked up love triangle with talk of what it is to have a soul, how you can manipulate people, immortality, fame, perception and obsession. It is a deliberately obtuse and confusing film, and yet I find it far more light hearted and far more accessible than WTWTA. I think part of this comes from Charlie Kaufman's very odd sense of humour. His film is willfully strange, hiding the intelligence of the bonkers central concept with layers of peculiar whimsy.
It is like Synechdoche New York (the only film Kaufman both wrote and directed) - the central concept is very strange, the premise is disturbingly bleak but the layers of silly fantasy around it keep the film enjoyable and funny. I think Malkovich is a comedy. A black comedy that has got incredibly twisted over the way but a comedy none the less. But there are no reasons for a lot of the weirdness in the film.
Let us look at what happens:
Greg's Office is on the 7 1/2 floor - this is sort of explained in the film, but not really... not in a way that really makes sense.
The odd odd Orientation video filled with cheaply made 70's nonsense.
In fact everything about Lestercorp is weird. The whole feel of the film is farcical (Dr Lester him self is a hilariously kinky old letch. It does make me chuckle).

The film just manages to stay light hearted, it means it can present quite painful or confusing subjects in a way that entertains rather than alienates.
For example. Look at Elijah the chimp's flashback to when he was being hunted. We're watching animal hunting, definite cruelty, but the way it is presented is so novel and unexpected that you're forced to laugh.
Or when Malkovich enters Malkovich and you're facing the most hilarious metaphysical headfuck - it kind of looks like Roald Dahl's witches are meeting up.

Malkovich's portrayal of himself is quite understated and he is made to look like a very normal and nice man. It is a bit odd seeing him as normal - talking about sex or smoking a joint for example - but he comes off as refined and gentle, albeit confused.
It is an interesting portrayal when compared to the two leads of Greg and Maxine (Catherine Keener) who are both unlikable. Greg is a whiney selfish git of a man and Maxine is just pure evil. A self centred manipulative bitch who enjoys messing people around.
The two protagonists become all the more unlikable when you compare them to the nicer characters like Malkovich or Dr Lester (who is a perv but amusing and charming with it) and Greg's wife Lottie (Cameron Diaz). Yes, she has one of the most complicated and confusing affairs in the world, but she is so naive and so NICE that she pulls it off without the audience hating her.
And what I like about Diaz and Cusack is that they're willing to grubby up because neither Greg nor Lottie are typically 'Hollywood Hot' people. It shows a massive change from Diaz's grand opening in The Mask just five years earlier (and yes, that was an entirely crowbarred aside just so I could include this clip). But then this becomes a typical part of Kaufman's films, they seem to involve the leading characters no looking all that attractive.

Really, when you look at it, I'm amazed this film is as approachable as it is. It is weird. Painfully weird. It contains puppets, which are creepy (though the puppet work in this is astounding). It is about being unfulfilled and wanting to be something (or someone) else and it is contains 2 truly horrible protagonists.
Yet throughout all of that it remains wittier and more accessible than a film starring the coolest kid ever and characters from the Jim Henson Creature Workshop. Go figure.

Though, the film does have one massively chilling point. The ending. It is horrible. It is such a traumatic final thought, such a bleak and distressing notion. It is amazing.

I can't even attempt to explain it, it takes most of the film to build up to that point. But go watch it and see for yourself.

I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter.

No 446 - High Fidelity
Director - Stephen Frears

Narration is a tricky cinematic feat. It is perfectly normal for a book to be written in first person, or to be written in a style that directly targets its audience.
"You may be wondering, dear reader, why I - a humble plumber from Constantinople did blah blah blah...."
However this is a very difficult thing to convey in filmic terms. A narrator and breaking the fourth wall is a very risky move. Which can sometimes work and sometimes feel like a lazy inability to convey emotion.

Rather than a narration, we have a protagonist who is also the narrator. The riskiest of risky moves as he flips out of the film to tell the viewer something, whilst surrounded by oblivious co-stars and extras.
This film presents itself as a story of love and music, but it isn't. It is a story about lists. John Cusack's Rob has a near-autistic obsession with lists. He loves music and records, OBSESSES over music and records because it can be compartmentalised, put into lists. Top 5 side 1 track 1s, Top 10 live performances between 1969 and 1973 etc etc. This film is also about his inability to grasp relationships and romance. He represents it as this big, oppressive, confusing entity which he can't grasp - because he can't organise it.
I would not be surprised, ladies and gentleman, if Mr Rob Gordon is perhaps on the autistic spectrum.

It would also explain his store which is deliberately elitist, difficult to find and rude. The only reason people go there is it is the only place with the records they need in stock.

I find it hard to like Rob for a lot of these reasons. But mainly because he feels that he deserves better, that a better life should be handed to him. He spends 90% of the film complaining. Breaking down former situations and focusing on the negatives, bitching, moaning and being infuriatingly 'woe is me' about everything.

The film basically follows Rob after he has been dumped and he dismantles his top 5 worse break ups and revisits his exes to get closure. Slowly he starts to realise that he isn't the destructive force he feared he was. That the relationships ended naturally (or in one excellent scene, that he himself ended the relationship).
Each moment is introduced with a flashback of the relationship, and they are faultless. I don't if it is the genius of John Cusack as an actor or if it is excellent use of make up and wardrobe. But, teenage Rob and Mid 20s Rob all the way up to present day Rob. Each is a perfect and real feeling snapshot. Even the kid they get to play 14 year old Rob looks and acts like John Cusack, it is a really impressive feat.

I also love that there are some really weird choices for cameos which motivate Rob on his journey. Firstly Tim Robbins as Ian, the man whom Laura (Rob's most recent ex) has left him for. Despite the cameo in Anchorman, I still see Tim Robbins as a SERIOUS ACTOR - mainly, I think, down to Shawshank Redemption. So I found it really odd to see him appearing as this middle aged business orientated - new ager full of self importance and pomposity. I went to uni in Brighton. I know the type.
His cameo also leads to one of the best scenes. Due to the fact that this film acknowledges it is a film (through John Cusack's to camera narration) it means that a singular scene of fantasy can be forgiven. When it is as brilliant as this - it is more than forgiven, it is LAUDED.

The only other flight of fantasy in the film is the excellent cameo from The Boss himself, Springsteen - who tells Rob to go on this journey of self discovery. That cameo is excellent because Springsteen is excellent. Like a Boss.

These individual reunions help him to discover something. He is still in love with his current ex and finally Rob's character begins to deepen.
He seems to spend the entire film expecting the worst. He expects the worst from his relationships so he's always on the look out for a better option (which naturally leads to his relationships failing). So the finale of the film is great because it proves him wrong on so many levels.
Firstly - he gets back together with Laura and the film's journey of reunions showed him that the 'fantasy woman' doesn't exist and that he does love Laura and he does want to be with her.

Secondly the 'no good punks' who clutter up his kids are talented musicians and people like their music. So he promotes them.

Finally (and most refreshingly, for me as a viewer) - after an entire film of mocking his colleague Barry's band. They play and they are excellent. Barry is the scene stealing dervish of arrogant chaos that is Jack Black - and Rob is convinced that his band, Sonic Death Monkey, will be awful. Laura asks them to play a gala event and Rob tries to get them to back out.

Luckily the band is fab - and Rob's reaction is the most important part of the film.

This is not a film about music. This isn't even about lists. It is about realising there is more to the world than the impossible dream and to embrace the good that surrounds you rather than focus on the flaws.