Spike Jonze makes strange premises work by keeping embarrassment, attraction and selfishness recognisable. We rate the feeling he finds in surreal comedy, though Being John Malkovich sometimes explains what its performances have already made clear.
Fi1m perspective
A puppet moves like a person, but cannot choose what it does. In Being John Malkovich (1999), Jonze makes that fact troubling without stopping the comedy to explain why. We were moved by the puppetry: the human movements are reproduced so carefully that the figure's helplessness becomes painful. He lets that unease sit beside the wish to be somebody else. The joke is allowed to become uncomfortable.
His early work in skate videos included Video Days (1991), followed by music-video directing from 1992. That experience with unexpected images helps explain his assurance, but his feature debut is unusually restrained about asking us to admire its ingenuity. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman gives him desires that are recognisable beneath the peculiar circumstances. Their partnership continued with Adaptation. (2002), another film interested in how stories are constructed. Kaufman matters enormously to this early work, and so does Jonze's ability to keep actors from being lost inside the cleverness.
In Being John Malkovich, embarrassment, resentment and attraction matter as much as the fantasy. Jonze pays attention to the selfishness that can accompany desire, and to how readily people justify themselves when somebody else might object. The performances keep this funny without making the cruelty harmless. Our reservation is the film's appetite for explaining an idea that already works; occasionally, it talks when we have understood enough. Still, Jonze avoids the exhaustion of surreal comedy that keeps asking for applause simply because something unusual has happened.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Her (2013) put Jonze's own screenwriting alongside his direction. The interest in relationships with technology in Her extends his concern with human connection. The feature work is relatively sparse; music videos, commercials and documentaries such as Beastie Boys Story (2020) also occupy him. For a first encounter, we would choose Being John Malkovich. Allow for a little over-explanation, and do not expect the comedy to leave everybody feeling better.
Biography
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor. Born Adam Spiegel on 22 October 1969 in Rockville, Maryland, he began his career directing music videos and commercials before making his feature film debut with Being John Malkovich (1999).
Jonze collaborated with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman on Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation. (2002). He also directed Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Her (2013), and co-created the Jackass television and film franchise. He appeared as Conrad Vig in Three Kings (1999).
