Recently, many of the video/commercial auteurs have made the jump to the big screen. Most of these directors have been critically and commercially successful (Michael Bay, Kinka Usher, Hype Williams). One of the biggest names not to have followed suit was Spike Jonze. Jonze is probably best known for his humorous videos, the Beastie Boys 70's cop homage Sabotage or Weezer's Happy Days parody, Buddy Holly. He has even made some memorable commercials, Levis' doctors singing Tainted Love and for Nike with Agassi and Sampras playing tennis on a New York City street. It would seem almost a logical progression for him to move on to movies. Yet, after all these years, no script was worthy (or zany) enough for Spike to get behind the lens. It seems unbelievable that such an amazing piece of writing like Being John Malkovich was not made specifically with Jonze in mind.

We begin with down-and-out puppeteer (yes, you read that right) Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) looking for work. Adding to the stress in his life, he goes back to a home filled with animals, courtesy of his pet-store-owning wife Lotte (Cameron Diaz). With no where to turn, Craig goes to an interview with LexCorp, a filing company. If you haven't noticed the quirkiness of the film at this point, you will now. An extremely funny interview process lands Craig a job. Starting with Craig is Maxine, a sarcastic officemate, (Caroline Keener) who brushes off Craig's futile attempts of flirtation.

Working one day, Craig finds a small door hidden behind a filing cabinet. Drawn by curiosity, Craig wanders inside and is led into a small tunnel. He is suddenly pushed through and ends up inside the mind of a man (John Malkovich). After a few minutes, Craig is shot out and ends up on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. Realizing what has happened, Craig returns to tell Maxine of his journey. She decides to turn the portal into a business and offer customers the chance to be John Malkovich for a few minutes.

After Craig tells Lotte about the portal, she asks to go through it as well. She immediately begins to get the same feeling as Craig, a sense of belonging only found through being in somebody else. After being Malkovich further, Lotte begins to have feelings for Maxine. After finding out that Lotte has been inside Malkovich, Maxine begins to stalk the real Malkovich, who only likes Lotte when she is inside Malkovich. Now throw in the fact that Craig begins to have feelings for Maxine as well and you don't have a love triangle…you have a love rhombus. In addition, Craig's boss, Dr. Lester, the inventor of the portal, has some other ideas for the portal. Eventually Malkovich himself finds out about the portal and decides to take a trip (what would happen if you went inside your own head?) Although it seems pretty basic, the struggle over the portal makes up most of the plot.

If you had a thousand monkeys banging away on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years, you still wouldn't achieve the randomness that occurs in this film. Kudos goes out to Charlie Kaufman for not only writing such a brilliant piece, but also for it being his first work. It has been over 15 years since we took notice of John Cusack in Sixteen Candles, but will we ever get sick of him playing a loser? He continues to take risky parts, yet makes it seem as if he was written for the role. Cameron Diaz can usually rely on her beauty to get by, but turn her into a frumpy, naïve wife and what you are left with is a good performance. What has to be his most difficult role (playing himself) Malkovich never turns in an over-acted portrayal. Whether poking fun at himself as celebrity, or as a man possessed, we never lose sight of who is actually in Malkovich at the moment.

Not to take away from the brilliant performances of any of these actors, but much of the success of this film must be attributed to Spike Jonze. Many of the short videos and vignettes that are present throughout rely on Jonze's past experience with the short form.

Being John Malkovich is an extremely funny movie; however, there is a very dark theme prevalent throughout. Although Malkovich is seen ordering bathroom accessories, reading the paper, and other mundane aspects of life, it seems so special to the non-celebrity. It is as much a commentary on our idolization of celebrity as it is a vehicle to spur creativity in the usual vanilla world of Hollywood cinema. It is unfortunate that many people will not see Being John Malkovich, whether due to the limited release or interest in the film. This is definitely the most original screenplay of the year and bodes well for first-timers Jonze and Kaufman. If you think this was crazy, Jonze and Kaufman's next movie already has Patricia Arquette to play the role of the world's hairiest woman who falls in love with a man with the world's smallest penis. Can't wait.