01
Adaptation.
Why this pick
Shares Being John Malkovich’s inventive, self-reflexive absurdity and melancholy beneath the comedy, with identity and desire tangled in a boldly artificial narrative form.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1999 1h 53m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Being John Malkovich
ComedyDramaFantasy
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Being John Malkovich, try these.
01
02
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Why this pick
Its surreal conceit becomes an emotionally sharp exploration of longing, flawed people, and memory, balancing dreamlike visual play with the ache found under Malkovich’s comic strangeness.
03
Synecdoche, New York
Why this pick
A more somber Kaufman labyrinth: theatrical artifice, unstable identity, and deadpan surreal details expand an ordinary life into an overwhelming, darkly funny existential construction.
04
Sorry to Bother You
Why this pick
Matches the escalating absurdism and workplace satire, using a bizarre high-concept premise to expose ambition, alienation, and the unsettling compromises behind social performance.
05
The Science of Sleep
Why this pick
For the handmade, playful surrealism and emotionally hapless protagonist: dreams spill into daily life through whimsical visual invention, yet the romantic confusion remains genuinely tender.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife Lotte. After being hired as a file clerk for LesterCorp, in the strange Floor low-ceiling offices of the Mertin-Flemmer Building in New York City, he develops an attraction to his coworker Maxine Lund, who does not return his affections. Craig discovers and enters a small door hidden behind a filing cabinet, and crawls down a tunnel. Suddenly he is quickly drawn into the opposite end of the tunnel, and finds himself in the mind of actor John Malkovich.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
John Malkovich
John Horatio Malkovich
John Cusack
Craig Schwartz
Cameron Diaz
Lotte Schwartz
Catherine Keener
Maxine Lund
W. Earl Brown
First J.M. Inc. Customer
Kevin Carroll
Cab Driver
Patti Tippo
Malkovich's Mother
Willie Garson
Guy in Restaurant