Spike Jonze, 1999 (9*)
Music video director Spike Jonze (not to be confused with comic musician Jones from the 40's) has crafted one of the more unique and inventive comedic fantasies in film history. First of all, there's an office that occupies a half-floor in buiding, only it's vertical so the ceiling is about 5 feet high, you have to crawl off the elevator into the half floor, and then everyone's stooped over all day. Inside this office John Cusack finds a portal, a secret panel in a wall that leads one inside the head of actor John Malkovich, and you experience whatever he's going through for 15 minutes, then you are rudely dumped from the sky onto some grass next to a freeway outside L.A.! Cameron Diaz plays Cusack's wife, also look for Sean Penn, Charlie Sheen, Mary Kay Place, and Catherine Keener. You'll probably either love or hate this Oscar-nominated screenplay by Charles Kaufman (Oscar winner for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), but you'll have to agree that has the unique and unexpected; it actually deserves its cult classic status.
PS - one wonders if due to casting if this may have been titled "Being Adam Sandler", "Being Charlie Sheen", or (yikes) "Being Patrick Swayze"?