ShockYa: Maybe you’ve had this experience. You come out of a movie and begin to discuss your impressions with a friend only to hear your pal say, “Hey, relax, it’s only a movie!” This is the kind of outlook that had led to experts holding film’s role as a mere stepchild to great painting and literature. When you come out of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” or his “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or his “Full Metal Jacket” or “Clockwork Orange,” you’re likely to find true art, the equivalent of classic literature. Many things are there to discuss, however, though most of these post-film chats would deal with the quality of the direction or the acting or production design or what-have-you. But dig more deeply into a Kubrick film and you may find that the master—who is said to have had an I.Q. of 200—had placed challenges within his works that only most prescient of film buffs would discover. In fact if you were to see in “The Shining” what Rodney Ascher, director of “Room 237” did, and tried to convince your pals of some off-the-wall interpretations, you might be laughed out of Starbucks where you hoped to make salient points.
With nothing promising coming out in the following weeks, Meodia recommends 6 titles to check out on Netflix while you wait for the February slate to hit.
Will Ferrell's movies are hit or miss to me. I often times find myself pleasantly surprised though, so I'll have to check out "Casa de Mi Padre"
For me it tends to be who he is paired up with. His style somewhat reflects based on his partner.
That's why I enjoy him when he is with Mark Whalburg, the two are crazy funny to me.
Have you seen Daddy's Home yet? I LOVE The Other Guys, but I didn't think the new one looked all that good.
Not yet, I wanted to but it came out around Star Wars time so theaters were too busy.
Well it sucks that Ireland doesn't have access to half o the movies that are out on the US version....
Independent Cinema writes: For years, people have been going through their favorite films and trying to understand the logic behind them. What makes this character tick? Does this plot twist fit in with the rest of the film? The culture of breaking down the myth in our favorite media has been around since we witnessed our first movie and listened to the song that we couldn’t get out of our head. Room 237 brings us the ultimate thesis statement of the obsessions that we grow for the movies that inspire or mystify us. From the guilt of having faked the footage of the moon landing to the idea that the film deals with the holocaust, various subtexts (with varying degrees of ridiculousness) are exposed by five individuals whom who do not see throughout the picture. All we are left to see are the visuals of Kubrick’s work and other re-enactments. This is what we are given as viewers with no predisposed ideas on the type of people whose opinions we are listening to. For a film that seems to focus on the little things, it’s interesting to notice that we don’t have much to think about aside from the film. The people we hear are never exposed to us and we listen to their voices and while we may want to see who they are as actual people, Ascher shows great responsibility in only bringing the footage from The Shining and having narration of the people. Photos of map layouts of the Overlook hotel are on display to suggest certain theories and little red circles to outline certain things from frames of the movie. Then again, this may just be the sign of a great yet uneven documentary.
Less a documentary about what Kubrick's The Shining means and more an examination of the fine line between adoration and obsession, and how easily it can be crossed.
Full review by Chris Pandolfi for At A Theater Near You.
