The Adaptable Mr. Jonze

Spike Jonze

Words: Sandy Hunter
Photo: Ben Kaller

 Enter the Spike Jonze videography...
 The Crew of Adaptation...

With the release of Adaptation, music video master, feature filmmaker and all-around prankster Spike Jonze has gotten serious. Like his first feature, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation is a dark comedy that's at times absurd and at times painful, but always engaging, with performances so subtle, honest and full of dry realism that the more bizarre elements of the story shed any air of contrivance.

So how did the most prolific and successful music video director of the 1990s become one of the most provocative and original filmmakers of the 2000s, with A-list Hollywood stars lining up for parts? Well, much like the tale told in his second feature, Jonze's story is one of personal evolution.

Many of Jonze's first exploits are well documented. Spike Jonze (aka Adam Spiegel) was spawned by the same early love for thrashing that inspired him to skip college and head to California (via Maryland) to work for BMX/skate mags Freestylin' and Homeboy. There, and later with DIRT (the male answer to Sassy he founded with his Freestylin' compadres), Jonze's knack for capturing skate sickness became apparent. So, too, did his bent for innovation; his use of old-style, half-frame photography for shooting trick sequences heavily influenced other skate magazines. Jonze was soon directing skate videos for Chocolate and Girl Skateboards; getting behind the camera soon led to his first music video, Hush, for Wax, which he co-directed with Wing Ko in 1992. It was around this time that he hooked up with producer Vince Landay, and began to build a team of collaborators that includes cinematographer Lance Acord, editor Eric Zumbrunnen and production designer KK Barret, all of whom remain his steadfast partners today.

Nearly a decade later, Jonze's music videos had set the standards at MTV. Not only is the Jonze video oeuvre a testament to his ability to slice, dice and re-jig pop cultural fodder, but his list of musical collaborators reads like a music critic's decade of favorites. Kitsch, choreography, deft use of digital post techniques and an oddball, yet endearing, humor that speaks the vernacular of both the jaded hipster and the middle-American teen, help compose Jonze's music video style.

The '90s also saw Jonze direct award-winning commercials while sharing digs with the likes of David Fincher and Mark Romanek at Propaganda/Satellite Films. Nike's "The Morning After," when a jogger with a hangover goes for a run through chaos-filled Los Angeles on New Year's Day 2000, is an example of Jonze's branding skills, as is Levi's "Crazy Legs," in which a loose-legged hipster gets superhumanly jiggy as he traverses Mexico City's washed-out cityscape. Throughout the decade, Jonze also earned a reputation as a joker and purveyor of silliness and stunts.

In 1999, Jonze directed his first feature, the mystically charged dark comedy Being John Malkovich, which garnered an Oscar nod for best director. Jonze also directed documentaries on subjects as diverse as Al Gore and ex-Pharcyde rapper Fatlip, explored acting in Three Kings and married fellow director Sofia Coppola. And now, even after two features, he continues to move between short and long format projects as easily as he moves from the lowbrow stunts of Jackass to his thoughtful if still quirky feature films.