Naked Lunch
1991 Directed by David Cronenberg
Synopsis
Exterminate all rational thought.
After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.
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There is something about noir that begs genre-blending, I am convinced. Whether it's sci-fi in Blade Runner, comedy in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, or surrealism here in Naked Lunch, there is just something about noir and neo-noir that make it so much the chameleon of genres, working with and for so many other types of films. For me, it worked perfectly in Naked Lunch.
Burroughs and Cronenberg ought to be the driving force behind Naked Lunch, and I don't mean to lessen their roles, but the real star of the show and the glue that holds all the craziness together is Peter Weller. Played razorblade straight in perfect noir fashion, Weller's William Lee (the character himself a loose adaptation of…
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Well thank you Letterboxd for making me watch this weird film. I never would've seen it if it wasn't suggested to me on my writer's list. I agree with something I read somewhere that this is one of the best depictions of what it's like to be in a writer's mind. My favorite films adapted from novels are ones that add something new and fresh to the experience of the book, so that they go hand in hand like companion pieces instead of slightly different versions of each other. Even though I haven't read the book, based on the bizarre content and unforgettable visuals of this film, I'd be willing to bet it succeeds on that front.
Bill Lee (Peter…
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If Crash and Existenz had weird fetish sex it would be... nothing like this. I don't know. I don't understand. I don't understand.
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A neo-noir unlike any before or since, which is no easy feat, being one of the most malleable of genres. A lot of the satirical paranoia is inherent in William S. Burroughs’ writing, but Cronenberg makes the impossible translation into visual delirium seem effortless. The unfolding of plot and the mysterious identities of characters are in classic noir structure where not a one person has an honest or sympathetic characteristic, even down to the wise-talking inanimate objects. The effects are astounding to this day. Cronenberg takes gleeful attention to detail, swarming the film with bizarre insects that aren’t bursting from the framework of the walls, but the walls of the mind. The cast lineup could be argued as Cronenberg’s most inspired, from Weller on down to Scheider, everyone is memorable. Howard Shore’s jittery jazz soundtrack is a highlight, as he usually is.
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65/100
Cronenberg's forays into blatant surrealism rarely work for me, so I'm trying to puzzle out why I like this so much more than Videodrome or eXistenZ. I think it's because he's melded the novel and Burroughs' life into a fairly conventional, even hackneyed narrative: part junkie odyssey, part birth-of-the-artist. If you stripped each down to its essence, it would look pretty damn square; replacing the typewriters with Chris Walas monstrosities and the drugs with mugwump jism shocks you into seeing the clichés anew, makes them potent again. Weller's hilariously deadpan performance helps a lot, too—his very first line, which is just a dully spoken "Exterminator" (recalling the land shark's "Candygram"), made me laugh so hard and so long I…
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Why does this movie turn me on a little?
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Film #63 of the 100 Movie June Challenge
Too much wtf going on for me too enjoy it, sorry Naked Lunch you are not for me.
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Definitely the most weird film you'll see about hallucinatory drugs and repressed homosexuality.
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A fun noir-surrealist picture featuring secret agent talking bugs-cum-typewriters and giant aquatic Brazilian centipede hallucinogens based on beat writer W.S. Burroughs's novel and elements of his life. Director Cronenberg delivers the film quite well in his own style of.. well, experimental weirdness. Peter Weller seems like he was made for this leading role.
The film puts on a pokerface throughout the dreamlike nonchalant madness and has quite a few "ooh pretty" moments, albeit heavily outweighed by the "what the fucking fuck was that" moments. Though the further one gets into it, the more one tends to go along and stop questioning it. Perhaps a point of success on its own given the film's tagline: "exterminate all rational thought".
All in all a fun and interesting film, particularly for aficionados of surrealism/absurdism, fans of beat era literature and Mugwumps.
Mugwump jism. You just can't beat it.
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A bizarre portrait of William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch proves to be as entertaining as it is surreal.
Like the film Videodrome, Naked Lunch displays all of it's symbolism upfront, and challenges the audience by constantly throwing complex oddities to be examined and dissected after the viewing. Take the Violence, Domination, and video tapes of Videodrome and replace it with Art, Drugs, Homosexuality, and Centipedes in Naked Lunch, not to mention both films also end in a violent re-enactment of something previous to happen in the film. (I know the comparisons to videodrome aren't necessary but I found them interesting.)
One large difference between them however is that Naked Lunch is much tied to the back story of Burroughs as…
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'Trainspotting' con bichos.
'La metamorfosis' con drogas.
Y yo qué sé. -
a great film but not the book
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Don't know how a "straight" adaptation of this book could ever happen, but Cronenberg nevertheless stretches the material to fold in Burroughs himself, refocusing the book into some twisted treatise on the writing process. Drugs, sex, blocks and inspirations filter through Peter Weller, whose limited range has never been explored so thoroughly. I may well be underrating it, but it's the Cronenberg film I'd be fastest to revisit even though I've revisited almost all the ones of his I've seen.
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Iako je ovo adaptacija Burroughsovog romana, film i ne odskače previše od ostalih djela ovog redatelja. Malo je dosadniji od ostalih.
Lijepog izgleda i uvjerljive atmosfere lako će vas uvući u radnju i onda smarati sljedeća dva sata. Naravno, neizostavna fascinacija MESOM je opet prisutna.