John Malkovich

Shadow of the Vampire
$14.98
I find this story to be very well-written and (vampire)beautifully filmed. I appreciate that it was done without a lot of computer graphics. It's also a very interesting premise in the story line. Willem Defoe is so believeable in this role I forgot that I was watching an actor. And Malkovich performed with his usual and expected level of excellence in this character. This film maker was intense and detached. And he was appropriately torn and at the same time totally driven. I found the ending to be quite unexpected.

Empire of the Sun (Snap Case)
$14.98
this movie about the youth and strenght of a young boy to survive in the fear and uncertainy of war. to be torn from his mother and father gets to me every time i watch. something about the boy getting separated from his mother just kills me.

Ripley's Game
$19.97
Ripley's Game (Liliana Cavani, 2003)

I've been a huge fan of Liliana Cavani's since I first saw The Night Porter, which is solidly on my list of the hundred best movies ever made, but everything about Ripley's Game just didn't sit right with me when I first heard about it. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of either adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley to hit the screen (Minghella's 1999 adaptation with Matt Damon and Purple Noon, Rene Clement's 1960 adaptation), and that factored into it as well. And while John Malkovich is a fine actor, him as Tom Ripley? I was expecting mot to enjoy this all that much, but as it's Cavani, I had to check it out, and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Tom Ripley (Malkovich) has grown into a wealthy landowner, continuing his life of fraud and violence on one hand while living the happily-married life of the idle rich on the other. As we open, Reeves (Ray Winstone), an unsavory character from Ripley's past, shows up with a proposal for a contract killing. Ripley doesn't want to get directly involved, so he hatches a plan to get a neighbor of his, Trevanny (Dark Water's Dougray Scott), to do the job. Trevanny is dying, but the extra money could get him an experimental treatment that might prolong his life. Eventually, however, the full breadth of Reeves' plan comes to light, and Ripley realizes Trevanny is in over his head. But when Ripley tries to rectify things, Murphy's law kicks in...

Cavani's script is what makes this work. The three leads are all very good actors, but Cavani really gives them something to sink their teeth into in a way the other Highsmith adaptations I've seen haven't done. I'm still not convinced John Malkovich was the best choice for Ripley (Johnny Depp would have been obvious, but I think Cavani wanted to stay within the time frame of the books--this one takes place seventeen years after The Talented Mr. Ripley, and it's no coincidence that John Malkovich is seventeen years older than Matt Damon), but he does get the right blend of manipulation and horror once everything's out in the open. He's just never struck me as a violent guy, and perhaps my problem with him in this is that I never quite got past the idea that I was watching John Malkovich rather than watching Tim Ripley. That's a minor quibble, though, and this is a solid film that should have gotten much wider release in this country than it did; give it a look. *** ?

Being John Malkovich
$14.98
While I have seen and enjoyed this film many times I figured with Where the Wild Things Are about to come out I'd give this film a re-look-see and write a proper review for it. BJM is on it's surface satirical take on modern famous types, unknown creative types, and what it is that makes those at both ends of the spectrum tick. Now while the true creative type from any discipline is compelled by unknown forces there are also those amongst them that are, shall we say, compelled by less pure forces. Those being fame and money. Still, even the pure artist needs recognition of some sort. After all, art is just another form of communication. Without anyone to communicate with an artist can go ever inwards and mad, I suspect, if one is not understood by others on some level. Craig Schwartz, is a pure artist who is at the start of the film misunderstood and not communicating, no matter how hard he tries, to those around him. As events unfold his wife leaves him and he is eventually thrust into the head of real life actor John Malkovich. This is where the film departs from what is typical in mainstream movies. Ambiguity, symbolism, and exploration of existential concepts is not what most people go to the films to enjoy decoding, thinking about, or passively watching. Soon sexuality and the male and female body types we are born into are questioned and subsequently broken down. Also challenged is talent, fame and the notion that recognition comes from good art or just any established face in the public eye with some money to spend to explore any whim. Finally the film brings into question our very lives and if in fact we are in control of anything, or if some unseen force controls us. Craig Schwartz is a puppeteer who in fact winds up controlling John Malkovich and using his fame and money to further his personal self indulgent need to be a puppeteer is a never ending tunnel of mirrors like the very universe itself, where particles and matter are seemingly infinite outwards and inwards. This same topic is explored in other films written by Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York being the first that comes to mind with the never ending warehouses and smaller and smaller paintings.

In ending we see a new life born, unaware that it is controlled by hidden forces. Is this each and every one of our experiences? This is food for thought in BJM. The film never fully explains itself and that is why the film is so great. For if everything were explained and summed up then there would be no reason to re-watch the film again and agin, seeing it fresh each time it's explored down the road.

The inclusion of animals and higher primates in the film is symbolic. I suspect it alludes to our evolution, base animal nature and how we so often deny that we are in fact just another animal on this planet, albeit a creative one, apart but the same from all other creatures.

The 1/2 floor represents our subconscious, and also animal side. Much is explored and hashed out in the 1/2 floor of that building. things go in and things go out. Personalities and desires, thoughts, hopes, dreams. The characters want to go back to the portal that is in there. The portal to ones true self.

Comedy, a trait that most likely developed as a result of our higher brain functions, is explored as well. Comedy in this film is approached as absurdity. Existence is a bit absurd and this film takes it head on. Comedy probably developed as a buffer from the complex human brain running itself mad with endless thoughts about the nature of existence. These thoughts are explored and bubble up and out of the subconscious to the surface.

This film is a masterwork by the writer and director. It will be remembered long after the drivel of the day is long forgotten. This is one of the great films of our times.