DVD Review - Naked Lunch (1991)
Back in March 2007, I wrote a review of Naked Lunch. Criterion Collection had added it to their list. It's currently #220 of their 660 titles. On April 9, 2013, Criterion released it on Blu-Ray. In honor of its re-release, I've decided to re-post my review.
"Nothing
is true. Everything is permitted." That's the quote that begins this
hallucinatory tale of a bug exterminator named Bill Lee. David
Cronenberg created the character based on the main figure of William S.
Burroughs' other writings. The film is Cronenberg's biographical
interpretation of certain elements in Burroughs' life that inspired the
writings.
Burroughs was a member of the Beatniks, a group of writers and
expatriates who were at the forefront of the Beat and Hippie Generation,
including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Drugs played a big role. An
attitude of rebellion against the mainstream was also integral.
In just the opening 15 minutes, you get a woman injecting roach
powder into her breasts for the narcotic high, the Ginsberg and Kerouac
characters trying to convince Bill Lee to do a porn book and Bill Lee
actually caressing with his fingers an actual talking asshole.
Naked Lunch is a perfect
social satire not unlike a film version of 1950s American life as
observed by Jonathan Swift or Lewis Carroll. It is fantastical on so
many levels but on those same levels an absolute reflection of our
culture.
The Criterion Collection put together a great DVD two disc set. I
just recently discovered it, which includes an explanation of how
Cronenberg culled together Burroughs' insane work and how he crafted the
various creatures of Burroughs' equally insane Inter-zone universe like
the Mugwump aliens and of course the Arabic sex blob, a moist fleshy,
half-man, half-centipede, gluttonous, phallic juice maker.
With a slick acting style by Judy Davis in a dual role and actor
and Burroughs' aficionado Peter Weller (Robocop) giving a cool and
seriously comedic performance as a man losing his mind and becoming more
and more drug dependent and addicted, as he grapples to understand his
guilt-created world of ambiguity, this movie is funny and weird to the max.
Weller's speech about an anus that grows teeth is priceless and not
to be missed. As Burroughs parodies noirish tough cop tales and cheesy
50s sci-fi novels with sheer genius of wit, Cronenberg translates it
with great style and incorporates sick but exciting puppetry. "Welcome
to Annexia."
Five Stars out of Five.
Rated R for heavy drug content, bizarre eroticism, and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 55 mins.
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