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Naked Lunch
Jul. 11th, 2009 07:30 amOh man, it took us about two weeks to watch this movie. Part of the problem is that I knew it wasn't the kind of movie you watch with friends or if you're in a really good mood. I've never been able to stomach David Cronenberg movies - except for A History of Violence, they tend to be all quite weird, which is an understatement. Videodrome was positively terrifying. If homosexuality and drug use bother you, definitely skip this one. What does it mean when a movie makes you uncomfortable? I'm not sure at the moment...but I was really surprised by what an excellent actor Peter Weller is. Apparently he turned down Robocop 3 to film this movie instead.
Cronenberg certainly doesn't hold back in Naked Lunch which is more autobiographical than derived from William S. Burrough's book. I picked the movie out because I was too young to watch it when it came out. It was a unique way to approach the subject matter because the book is so wildly offensive, graphic and bizarre that I'm sure it would induced vomiting on a mass scale. At the same time, it's an artfully constructed movie with close attention paid to colour and detail and filled many visual metaphors. The one I liked most was that of the talking typewriters that resemembled cockroaches. Come to think of it, the story is something of a beat-era version of The Matrix in which reality is frequently called into question. Layering and themes of duplicity and paranoia abound.
Cronenberg certainly doesn't hold back in Naked Lunch which is more autobiographical than derived from William S. Burrough's book. I picked the movie out because I was too young to watch it when it came out. It was a unique way to approach the subject matter because the book is so wildly offensive, graphic and bizarre that I'm sure it would induced vomiting on a mass scale. At the same time, it's an artfully constructed movie with close attention paid to colour and detail and filled many visual metaphors. The one I liked most was that of the talking typewriters that resemembled cockroaches. Come to think of it, the story is something of a beat-era version of The Matrix in which reality is frequently called into question. Layering and themes of duplicity and paranoia abound.
