Being John Malkovich

The most excitingly original movie of the year. It’s set in a casually surreal version of the everyday, where puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) discovers a portal that sucks him into the mind of John Malkovich. Before long, Craig, his wife (Cameron Diaz), and a diamond-hard office vixen (Catherine Keener) are using Malkovich as a host body, layering their identities on top of his. Director Spike Jonze works in a bustling yet deadpan pretzel-logic style, so that you never question the reality of what you’re seeing. Welcome, Jonze seems to say, to your own role-scrambled head: the 21st-century Wonderland. A