"BEING JOHN MALKOVICH"
Puffin' is derived from "Puff Daddy," the famous producer of rap/r&b music who consistently samples from other artists, but doing little in the way of manipulating the sound at all, thus throwing all originality out the window (for the record, I believe that you CAN sample and be original... quite a few musicians do it today, but no one does it better than Dr. Dre). So for example, when I'm at work and one of the guys I work with creates a 3D animated flying logo or a web site where the look, interface, or whatever is copied from another source, that person is puffin'. Get it?
You must be asking yourself, what the hell am I getting at? Well, Hollywood does lots and lots of puffin'. Most Hollywoood studio films follow one of several different formulas and are really nothing more than variations of a theme. "Being John Malkovich" is not like that. It follows no formula. There is no puffin'.
Do you think all that was worth it... the whole diatribe about what puffin' is just to make that small point? Probably not. Oh well. Sue me.
"Being John Malkovich" may very well be the most original movie I've ever seen. Imagine a coherent Terry Gilliam movie with a very quirky wit that has one surprise after another. By the way, I don't think that it's a coincidence that the trailer for "Being John Malkovich" uses the music for Gilliam's epic, "Brazil."
The very cool cast of this most unusual film includes John Cusack (the man was in "Better Off Dead," an 80s classic), a virtually unrecognizable Cameron Diaz, indie film queen Catherine Keener (though she recently crossed over when she played Nicolas Cage's wife in "8mm"... cool, she was in a movie with Nicolas Cage, who was in "Con Air" with John Cusack and John Malkovich), and of course, the title character playing himself... or does he? Also, there are lotsa cameos, some of which are really shocking. The acting is exceptional, every single one of them is excellent. If I had to pick a standout, I'd give it to Catherine Keener, though.
This gem of a movie was directed by Spike Jonze, a frequently used music video director (frequently used because he's good) who also acted as the hick friend of Mark Wahlberg in "Three Kings." This is his debut feature film. It's also the debut feature film for Charlie Kaufman. Man, this guy came outta nowhere! Who is he?!?
My only complaint about "Being John Malkovich" is that it's slow
at times, but it's still a very enjoyble movie, even during the
slow parts. "Being John Malkovich" is truly original. You hafta
see it to believe it.
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