Taking a job as a filing clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor (don’t ask), John Cusack happens across a portal into the head of John Malkovich, the actor. Chivvied along by maneater Catherine Keener, he starts selling tickets to interested parties, but not before his wife (an unrecognisably frumpy Cameron Diaz) has decided she likes being a man so much she needs a sex change operation…
This was the feature debut for director Spike Jonze, after making his name with inspired music videos for the likes of Fatboy Slim and the Beastie Boys, and the first produced screenplay for writer Charlie Kaufman. (They would collaborate again on Adaptation.) There’s real yearning in this darkly bizarre, mind-bending comedy about voyeurism, sex, and the human desire to play God. You can’t get much further out of the box than this.
Staff Pick: Eirinn & Emma
Devilishly inventive and so far out there it’s almost off the scale.
David Rooney, Variety
An incredibly rich and entertaining (not to say, laudably malevolent) film that far transcends its already way-out title premise.
Jonathan Romney, Sight & Sound
Media Partner
Spike Jonze
John Cusack, Catherine Keener, Cameron Diaz, John Malkovich
USA
1999
English
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Michael Stipe, Sandy Stern, Steve Golin, Vincent Landay
Screenwriter
Charlie Kaufman
Cinematography
Lance Acord
Editor
Eric Zumbrunnen
Original Music
Carter Burwell
Production Design
K. K. Barrett
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Unforgiven
Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood) is face down in pig shit when we first see him. He's a bad farmer, but has a natural facility for killing people – a vocation to which he returns in a quest that combines both profit and justice. Or so he chooses to believe.
Malcolm X
In an indelible role, Denzel Washington give us a layered, compassionate, conflicted man who finds the strength in Islam to transcend his demons and confront the inequity and racism in America head-on. Along with Do the Right Thing, this is Spike Lee's greatest film.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Short Cuts
Altman's adaptation of Raymond Carver short stories, Short Cuts weaves between 8 or 9 overlapping storylines and 22 characters. it's a teeming, caustic and compassionate human comedy; a singularly astringent, often cynical view of America and Americana.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
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Three Colours: Red
Irène Jacob plays Valentine, a runway model living in Geneva, who crosses paths with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who's a bit of an eavesdropper. Initially repelled, she becomes intrigued by this man, as do we... Kieslowski's sublime adieu.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings begins with an onslaught of fucks. It's the first signal that this rom-com will break from tradition, despite the ritualized structural conceit described in the title. The witty screenplay is by Richard Curtis — it's still his best.
The Lion King
With its beautifully drawn East African setting, its humour, pathos, and engaging characters, as well as its stirring songs, The Lion King stands as the pinnacle of traditional Disney family entertainment.
Image: © Disney, 1994
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.