From the warped, creative, insane, and brilliant mind of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman came by far the most original movie of 199, and, as you can see from this list, that's saying a lot. If you've never seen it before and think you know what to expect, you don't. And if you always wanted to see what it would be like for John Malkovich to enter his own mind, you're in for a treat. John Cusack plays a depressed puppeteer who discovers a portal inside the mind of actor John Malkovich, and if you think the movie's description is strange enough, you haven't seen anything yet. Stars Cusack and Cameron Diaz so immersed themselves in their roles that they were almost unrecognizable, hiding their beauty behind thick glasses, frumpy clothes, and ugly wigs so that their remarkable performances would shine through. This trend would continue with Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance in Monster and new Oscar winner Jared Leto in Chapter 27, wherein he gained 67 pounds to hide inside the portly body of John Lennon's psychotic killer. Perhaps the movie's greatest casting coup though was getting John Malkovich to essentially play himself. It makes one wonder what the movie would have been like if he refused to do it and they had to cast someone else, forcing Kaufman to rewrite the movie, as he has said he always envisioned John Malkovich in the title role. Kaufman would go on to pen the equally twisted Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (a personal favorite), and the somewhat incomprehensible Synecdoche, New York, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. But with Being John Malkovich, Kaufman proved that audiences were finally ready for mainstream movies this wonderfully weird. So which movies from '99 did we miss? Let me know your favorites in the comments section below.
Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.
