Shazam!
High Life
Widows
The Walking Dead
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified.
Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service.
Being John Malkovich is both funny and smart, featuring a highly original script.
All Critics (130) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (121) | Rotten (9) | DVD (15)
Fabulously funny and delightfully disturbed, "Being John Malkovich'' is the ultimate voyeur movie, a dark and at times malevolent take on what it's like to be in someone else's skull, looking out. Jun 12, 2018 | Full Review…
Fabulously funny and delightfully disturbed, "Being John Malkovich'' is the ultimate voyeur movie, a dark and at times malevolent take on what it's like to be in someone else's skull, looking out.
David Germain
Devilishly inventive and so far out there it's almost off the scale. Jun 17, 2008 | Full Review…
Devilishly inventive and so far out there it's almost off the scale.
David Rooney
This outrageous comic fantasy may not sustain its brilliance throughout its 112 minutes, but it keeps cooking for so much of that time that I don't have many complaints. Feb 8, 2008 | Full Review…
This outrageous comic fantasy may not sustain its brilliance throughout its 112 minutes, but it keeps cooking for so much of that time that I don't have many complaints.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
By the time the tunnel worthy of the likes of Gulliver and Alice becomes a freeway clogged with bit players, a big chill has descended on all the characters. Apr 27, 2007 | Full Review…
By the time the tunnel worthy of the likes of Gulliver and Alice becomes a freeway clogged with bit players, a big chill has descended on all the characters.
Andrew Sarris
It is hard to mix moods -- the film is manic, subtle, comic and vaguely sad -- but [Jonze] does it masterfully. Jul 21, 2005
It is hard to mix moods -- the film is manic, subtle, comic and vaguely sad -- but [Jonze] does it masterfully.
Jeff Millar
It's clever, witty, dark and, most importantly, unwaveringly bizarre. Nov 6, 2002 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
It's clever, witty, dark and, most importantly, unwaveringly bizarre.
Jeff Strickler
What could have developed into a one-gag film becomes a gender-bending extravaganza with a crazy network of love triangles... The real magic of Being John Malkovich is that it never fails to surprise. Apr 12, 2019 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…
What could have developed into a one-gag film becomes a gender-bending extravaganza with a crazy network of love triangles... The real magic of Being John Malkovich is that it never fails to surprise.
Kaleem Aftab
Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's hallucinatory meditation on human embodiment, celebrity, and, uh, John Malkovich remains the ultimate marriage of '90s music-video aesthetics and absurdist narrative storytelling. Mar 26, 2019 | Full Review…
Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's hallucinatory meditation on human embodiment, celebrity, and, uh, John Malkovich remains the ultimate marriage of '90s music-video aesthetics and absurdist narrative storytelling.
Lindsay Zoladz
Accept that even Jonze and Kaufman will most likely never provide a worthy substitute to Being John Malkovich themselves. It's awfully hard, even 20 years later, to find a movie even half as bizarre that was also even half as successful. Mar 25, 2019 | Full Review…
Accept that even Jonze and Kaufman will most likely never provide a worthy substitute to Being John Malkovich themselves. It's awfully hard, even 20 years later, to find a movie even half as bizarre that was also even half as successful.
Rob Harvilla
The beauty of the film is the way it elevates John Malkovich from an actor to an axiom. Mar 21, 2018 | Full Review…
The beauty of the film is the way it elevates John Malkovich from an actor to an axiom.
Chris Chang
It's a film, indeed, of such jaw-dropping originality that its flaws -- and it definitely has some -- count for far less than they otherwise would. Nov 27, 2017 | Full Review…
It's a film, indeed, of such jaw-dropping originality that its flaws -- and it definitely has some -- count for far less than they otherwise would.
Gilbert Adair
Though Being John Malkovich was deliciously original and delivers an underrated performance by John Cusack, the ending was a bit disappointing. Sep 11, 2017 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…
Though Being John Malkovich was deliciously original and delivers an underrated performance by John Cusack, the ending was a bit disappointing.
Candice Frederick
A strange, existential, and ultimately disconcerting film that just gets weirder and weirder. Major points for Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman for originality, but the film's atmosphere and mood are just so dismal. The film is almost saved by Malkovich's performance in second half, but the film remains too drab to provide enough reason to love it. A lot of originality and uniqueness (as well as strangeness) to offer, but not enough entertainment value. There is no comfortable balance between the two.
Super Reviewer
[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] Spike Jonze's wittily-written, incredibly acted comedy drama about a disgruntled but ambitious puppeteer who to his amazement finds a peculiar, mystical portal into the mind of John Malkovich, is a brilliantly surreal and mind boggling experience. It's profoundly original dream-like narrative exploring humanities selfishness and one's desire to be something else makes it consitently entertaining and builds up to an utterly unforgettable cinematic experience. Charlie Kaufman's clever yet non self-indulgent script creates some very awkward but hilarious situations for the characters and flawlessly disguises the insane fableness and fantasy of the story and it's characters infinitely believable. He went on to work with director Michel Gondry and wrote his masterpiece; Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which I think is one of the best films ever made. He is arguably one of the most talneted art-house writers out there today and although he makes very few films the one's that he does work on are always brilliant. In the interesting case of Being John Malkovich, performance-wise it is perfect, Cameron Diaz and John Cusack advertise some fantastic chemistry, but the greatest stand-out is easily John Malkovich who is just perfect and undeniably engaging at being/playing John Malkovich. Catherine Keener is also great as the bitterly inhuman anti-hero, and Jonze's outstanding direction nails the film as a landmark. I think it's one of the best directorial debuts of all time, and if your not laughing at it, or being moved by it, you'll certainly be admiring it. It's a strange and emotionally detatching screen presence but in my opinion it's one of the best of it's kind. Endlessly fascinating and completely extraordinary.
Lotte Schwartz: 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, y'know, like he has a, he has a penis AND a vagina. I mean, it's sort of like... Malkovich's... feminine side. I like that. "Ever want to be someone else? Now you can." Charlie Kauffman's and Spike Jonze's first team up is a complete masterpiece. This is a movie unlike any you have ever seen and is only equaled in brilliance and originality by another film that was written by Kauffman, Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind. Being John Malkovich is a bizarre, eccentric, out in outer space film that is sure to turn some people off based purely on just how weird a film it is. For those who love bizarre, when it is genius, will love this one. Craig Schwartz is a puppeteer, but there isn't much demand for his profession, so he has to take a job as a filer. While there, he finds a small door behind a filing cabinet and enters. Turns out that door is a portal into John Malkovich's mind. He teams up with a beautiful co-worker, who he is smitten for and starts selling trips into Malkovich's mind at $200 a pop. There's a lot of weirdness going on including a secretary that can't understand a word anyone says, an office on the 7 1/2 floor that is half the height of a normal floor, and a love... square. Describing a film like Being John Malkovich is a hard thing to do. People who love, don't see it as just a weird movie, while people who hate it see it only as that. With all the weird stuff that is going on in Kauffman's screenplay, there is just as much intelligent stuff going on. Most of it is the same. There's something altogether brilliant about every single thing going on here. From looking into the mind of a chimp to having a setting placed on a floor that isn't really a floor to Keener's character being in love with Diaz's because she senses Diaz's presence in Malkovich's when they make love. You can't help but just be swept up by it all. Or at least I can't. If you're familiar with Kauffman's and Jonze's other works, you know that both of them are in love with the bizarre. So when they get together for movies like this and like Adaption, the end result is no less than warped, but also no less than amazing. If you want to watch something truly original in just about every facet; this is a must watch. If you don't like movies that are trying to do something outside of the routine, boring movies that are mass made each year, don't watch it. For those who can accept the films eccentricity, you'll find a movie that is made with pure imagination and love. Being John Malkovich is easily one of my favorite movies of all-time. I could watch it a thousand times and still love every single moment of it.
Be All That Someone Else Can Be Excellent FIlm! I enjoyed it alot! Great acting and storyline, funny, clever and insane film. Don't worry if this all sounds a little strange to you, it should do, it's probably the most surreal film ever made. Go see it! Craig, a puppeteer, takes a filing job in a low-ceilinged office in Manhattan. Although married to the slightly askew Lotte, he hits on a colleague, the sexually frank Maxine. She's bored but snaps awake when he finds a portal leading inside John Malkovich: for 15 minutes you see, hear, and feel whatever JM is doing, then you fall out by the New Jersey Turnpike. Maxine makes it commercial, selling trips for $200; also, she's more interested in Lotte than in Craig, but only when Lotte is inside JM. JM finds out what's going on and tries to stop it, but Craig sees the portal as his road to Maxine and to success as a puppeteer. Meanwhile, Lotte discovers others interested in the portal.
View All Quotes
View All