herbiehancock

Spike Jonze Biography Director, actor, producer. Born Adam Spiegel, in 1969, in Rockville, Maryland. Related (on his father’s side) to the prosperous Spiegel family and an heir to its catalog fortune, he grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland with his mother and older sister (his parents divorced when he was still young). By the time he entered high school, he had adopted the name Spike Jonze and was participating in competitive skateboarding and BMX bicycling. Immediately after his graduation from high school, the 17-year-old Jonze moved to Los Angeles and began working as an editorial assistant at Freestylin’ , a biker magazine. In 1991, he helped found Dirt , a short-lived spin-off of the popular teen magazine Sassy aimed at teenage male readers. His first music-video gig came in 1992, when he was hired to shoot video footage of skateboarding for Sonic Youth’s “100%.” His breakthrough video, for “Sabotage,” by the Beastie Boys, was an inspired take...

No 441 - Being John Malkovich Director - Spike Jonze A couple of days ago I went to see Where the Wild Things Are and I found it a truly upsetting experience. Don't get me wrong - you MUST all watch it, it is a beautiful and emotional journey and a visually stunning film. It is also a detached , cold, harsh and painfully heartbreaking study of loneliness. I found it very difficult viewing and at times almost inaccessible . I'm amazed that this was considered a 'kid's film' for a while. After watching it I felt inspired to go and watch some of Jonze's past films to see if they were as hard and as moving as Where the Wild Things Are. So, it makes sense to begin with his ridiculous debut film. The plot is too difficult to explain as there are so many little additional parts of it which make the story twist and turn. But the key essence of the film is paraphrased by the protagonist, Greg Schwartz (John Cusack ) There's a tiny door in my office, Maxine. It...