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Plot: Story about a pest exterminator who injects some of his own insecticide, thus invoking a world where reality and hallucination are indistinguishable.
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:June 27, 2008David Cronenberg films the unfilmable. Though almost nothing like the book the title get's it's name from it's nonetheless an excellent film about the life and works of author William S. Burroughs. Like "I'm Not There", "Naked Lunch" takes a fragmented persona and mixes autobiography into fiction, and cuts them together. So it helps to know a few things about William S. Burroughs before going on.
Things like he "accidentally", shot and killed his wife in mexico while tryng drunkenly to perform this films William Tell Routine, an event which would start Burroughs in his writing career(William and "Tell" being a strange coincidence for a writer named William), he was addicted to various drugs until his death in his 80's, heroin longer than any, did once work as an exterminator, spent a good deal of time in Tangiers and North Africa, was monotone voiced and always sharply dressed, though the film shows him as more bi-sexual than gay(he did have children), but was overwhelmingly gay(read a few of his books and you will get the overwhelming part). Was also an expret marksman, a gun entusiast, and afraid/obsessed of centipedes. His freinds in the film(who help get his book published) are supposed to be young versions of beat writers Jack Kerouc and Alan Ginsberg. If you look closely you can see that several different places are built out of the same sets, as the protagonist Bill Lee, doesnt really go anywhere, but into his head. (Oh the murder aspect of the Burroughs story is also basis of another film from 2000 with Kiefer Southerland as Burroughs, called "Beat", but it's not so great.)
But does any of that really explain why the type writers are insects who speak out of their assholes? Well the asshole story in the car ride, is a "routine' he used to do at dinner parties, as well as the asshole in general being both for Burroughs as a gay man a place of desire(or desires not spoken) and a social symbol of everything in life we avoid or would rather not say. As for what the title "Naked Lunch" means,
it's the point during a meal when one looks down theire fork and realizes what it is they've been consuming and eating all this time, where the true nature of the meal is revealed(not that this get's discussed in the movie)
Without any of that information and before I started reading Burroughs, I had no idea what was going on, in this movie save something about drug addiction, sexual identiy confusion, and paranoi (which it is too) afterwards though I was amazed at how much David Cronenberg was able to bring together. It's not really an adaptation of "Naled Lunch" the book, but a Burroughs inspired film about Burroughs, that uses the techniques, preocupations, and ideas of the author and his life to tell a Burroughs story. Because any type of literal adaptation of the book would probably be banned in every country on Earth...well maybe not Japan where incidentally you can buy the insect/asshole type writer (Who can say Christmas wish?)
So yeah if you like "wierd movies" you'll like this, if you like William S. Burroughs or David Cronenberg you should like it, everyone esle though, approach with caution, even for "drug" cinema, there really isn't anything like this. -
MCT:June 26, 2008
Very good, but excessively strange, often simply for the sake of it. Apparently based loosely on the book and the life story of it's creator, who got messed up on heroin and murdered his wife
- it doesn't take wild imagination to see the metaphors throughout - in fact, this film leaves very little to the imagination at any and every point.
A bit too much. -
MCT:June 25, 2008This is one of the most surreal, and creepiest movies out there. Be ready for some nightmares after seeing this one.
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MCT:March 28, 2008This is not a movie to watch at 2 in the morning. I am still confused as to which is reality and which is hallucination.
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MCT:March 24, 2008
Movie adaptation of the classic William Burroughs novel. One of Cronenberg's best. Great cast, great acting, bizarre plot. Don't watch this if you don't like weird movies.
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MCT:March 20, 2008I didn't particualary like all the scenes, however the kafka references, the frames and the twists make this a highly interesting movie.
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MCT:March 12, 2008hablar de la obra de willam s burroughs no es nada sencillo, sino mas bien todo lo contrario. sus textos, verdaderos laberintos de la mente, son acidos, polemicos, extraños pero siempre polemicos. a la hora de llevar una adpatación de su libro mas famoso a la pantalla, no podria haber sido otro que cronenberg quien se ponga en esa dificil tarea.
se sabe: naked lunch es un libro intrincado, del que muy pocas cosas quedan claras, algo innearrable, dificilmente adaptable.
pero bueno, cronenberg lo hizo. y mas alla de hablar de la pelicula en si (que si uno no esta bastante familiarizado con la obra de burroughs, puede llegar a ser algo muy complicado), tiene, entre muchos de sus logros, justamente ese: el de hacer posible algo imposible, narrar lo innenarrable. -
MCT:March 9, 2008
Amazing. Cronenberg's best work IMO. A trip from start to end, not for the close minded. William S's work was done great justice in this movie.
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MCT:March 5, 2008
David Cronenberg did the impossible with this one: He filmed a virtually unfilmable novel, and did so expertly. Highly recommended for Cronenberg fans, everyone else, run away.
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MCT:March 3, 2008
It can not get any weirder than this. But I did overall like this film. Just be ready for some over the top hallucinations and sex.
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MCT:February 21, 2008
A failed writer decides to inject himself with insecticide, kills his wife, and starts hallucinating. Now, bearing in mind that this is a Cronenberg film, these are no ordinary hallucinations. You haven't lived till you've seen a couple having sex with a hermaphrodite typewriter. Visually, it's what Terry Gilliam would produce if he got depressed and took lots of acid. Not a bad film, but a definite case of style over substance.
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MCT:February 11, 2008
my hubby loves this movie...and i think this is one of the most disturbing movies of all time...i cant get myself to watch it...but i know he loves this!
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MCT:February 3, 2008
Bizarre and erotic, a fascinating work where the desires and every obscure emotion of the writer is explored and brought out for all to see, the perversities and confusion of a writer and the creativity and confusion and difficulties are stretched out. Very similar to Cocteau's Death of a Poet, innovative like it too, especially the scene where the guy talks but the lips don't sync, personally one of the best scenes in the movie and some shots of the reflection were really beautiful.
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MCT:January 31, 2008
Moi et le surréalisme, nous nous marrierons. Non, peut-être pas à ce point là, mais je n'arrive pas à concevoir la raison de mon attraction envers le surréalisme tandis que le postmodernisme me répugne et m'épuise. Devrais-je plutôt me tourner vers l'absurde et le burlesque? Le fait est que Naked Lunch m'a vraiment fasciné du début jusqu'à la fin, et ce, peu importe ce qu'en dise les critiques. Cronenberg réalise un film qui s'inscrit dans la ligne sacrée des réalisations surréalistes et fait presque même rougir par là le Pape Breton.
Ce qui est merveilleux, c'est que, non seulement le spectateur retient ce qu'il veut bien retenir du film, mais que, contrairement au pur surréalisme, chaque élément a un lien, il est sous-entendu, sous-relié par une conspiration qui guette la monotonie. Par sa machine à écrire, Bill Lee exprime son inconscient. Par Cronenberg, nous exprimons aussi le nôtre.
Ce film, n'eût été du surréalisme, en serait un kafkaïen. -
MCT:January 19, 2008I didn't know how to grade it or what to think of it at all. The movie is for sure disgusting (considering those awful bugs) and it is very personal, as the movie is based on a novel written by Burroughs and as immpossible as it seems, some things that are happening in this movie really happened to this writer. I wouldn't watch it again, but I do find it special.
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MCT:January 16, 2008
Hank: See, you can't rewrite, 'cause to rewrite is to deceive and lie, and you betray your own thoughts. To rethink the flow and the rhythm, the tumbling out of the words, is a betrayal, and it's a sin, Martin, it's a sin.
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MCT:January 14, 2008
among the 5 weirdest films i ever seen..!!spectacular direction and verry well made screenplay from the book..!!i didn't believe this book could be put on screen..!!well it did..!!
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MCT:December 21, 2007
Some one say that this classic Bourroughs book couldn't be translated to a film. The craziness of this TRIP is the perfect illussion, just like in a dream, or life sometims, nothin makes sense in itself but ecerithng does. The perfevt tranlation from book to flm makes a fantastic, terrific, surrealist , beatnick dark and brillian masterpiece. The exepyion to he rule that stands "Tradutore traitore"
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MCT:December 10, 2007
One thing to remember when venturing into this film is that it's not plot driven. Attempt to understand the storyline but remember that reality, in this film, is not what we're used to in our everyday lives. Reality is given to us as a result of a mind-expanding substance. Enjoy the ride but keep some Thorazine or Xanax handy - just in case.
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MCT:November 28, 2007
Probably one of my favorite Cronenberg movies.. because lets face it, he doesnt do a lot of good stuff
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MCT:October 22, 2007
A completely surreal experience where the viewer feels like he's on drugs, thinking he knows what's happening but is never completely sure. Hints of reality cleverly seep through into lead character, Bill Lee's, consciousness but never quite gel there. Cronenberg boldly incorporates his own themes as well as William S. Burroughs's novel and personal experiences into what is perhaps the most original adaptation of any novel.
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