Naked Lunch
Naked Lunch
R | 27 December 1991 (USA)
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Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

Reviews
Linbeymusol

Wonderful character development!

Tedfoldol

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

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Jakoba

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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Janis

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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funeralfortheliving

Naked lunch is a visual and metaphoric masterpiece about creativity art and poetry and the depths of insanity that have given us the most astonishing and creative leaps towards human evolution. David Cronenberg unfortunately is a true auteur in a business ran like a production line assembly due to the audiences inability to enjoy anything that doesn't relate to what they have been brain washed into identifying with. William Burroughs actually stated that this film was the closest adaptation to anything ever attempted out of his writings and is the only time I have ever heard a writer say a film adaption didn't make them cringe at its gross misrepresentation. So why would the lemmings who pay 13 dollars to view Transformers 3 have a problem with this imaginative astounding work of art? It is simple, if you don't like films like this your an idiot there is no way around it. People are going to try and use excuses like free will and some things are not for everybody. But lets be real those are nice ways of saying you have chosen to be stupid. Do people in the Olympics say you can't compete because it's just not for everybody, no they understand you can't compete because your not talented or skilled enough to even stand on the side lines. But since we live in the land of the symbolically deformed and challenged it's OK to pretend being a sucker is great seeing as the kindergarten level propaganda employed is the only means of selling garbage and lies to pee brains just to keep our economy above total depression. How could a cgi crap fest with no story or character development like Dred get higher ratings than a master piece of the symbolic like Naked Lunch? Once again proving stupid people only like movies that spoon feed them all the answers in one sitting like 6th sense and Memento. Movies that have only one message and one goal knowing the morons who flood cinemas have to be slapped in the face for 1 1/2 hours to go oh I get it after the final reveal that leaves nothing to be imagined rams right down their butter lubricated throats. This is why I left film school just like in ancient rome Americans have been turned to brainless sheeple who think true art is to be demonized as the devil and replaced by product ruled by bottom line and would rather watch Happy Feet than be philosophically challenged. Congratulations you are all new age christians who burn art, feign experience, and take your queue's from a square that promises a safe distance from perception and knowing. True roman solders defending the status quo as being a mass of mindless idiots who cling to the lowest human functions of domestic drama and talking point arguments founded in identifying your self as a soulless sellout with no sense of individuality; instituted by a culture industry that promises minimum wage for your suspension of the constitutional rights given to you by people who valued truth and knowledge. So if you are incapable of relating to anything artistic or meaningful and like to get caught up in societal ignorance's and your idea of philosophizing is am I a good Ma Ma and Da Da, or think fundamental life choice is what should I wear to the prom or which homoerotic child's game is playing tonight on the idiot box, you might not even want watch this and you surly should not be leaving a review. You don't see dyslexic people leaving reviews to grammar text books or blind people reviewing books not available in braille do you? And you surly don't see moron's reviewing Einstein and Tesla claiming their works to be worthless drivel because they can't understand it so why in the world of cinema is it OK? You don't see me going to web sites that sell foreign books in other languages and saying this is just a bunch of gibberish because I don't know how to decipher it do you? Yet IMDb is flooded with reviews of piaxar-latent inhibitionists who think talking animals are visceral genius and farting cartoons are comedic bravado. Stick to your lame human dramas please and stay out of grown ups business. Have some kids or go play at the local playground you'll find subjects more in line with your intelligence level. Schopenhauer was right.

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Michael Radny

Naked Lunch is not your typical movie. In fact most of it is like a messed up hallucinogenic acid trip. However, what it offers is a look into the mind of crazy weird. Centerpede humans and beetle type writers, nothing is like this film. It's storyline is interestingly compelling, whilst simultaneously being disgustingly absurd. A really terrifying look into drugs and insect killing and addictive chemicals. The Naked Lunch is not a film to watch to love. The Naked Lunch is a film about love that you watch to experience. Much like David Lynch's Eraserhead, this more direct storytelling but equally strange film will ensure to be meaningful and there are scenes you will never forget.

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RevRonster

I never saw "Naked Lunch" when it came out. It was only recently that I was reminded of its existence after watching another David Cronenberg movie and I decided to finally sit down and give it a chance.I really liked Peter Weller's performance in it and I really enjoyed the animatronics that brought the aliens and bugs to life. I know hating CGI is all the rage now but seeing really solid practical effects from a time past is still really cool and neat to take in. I also really enjoyed the strange, trippy story the film provides as David Cronenberg not only made a loose adaptation of the novel this is based on but also inserted segments of the author's real life into the plot as well. In all honesty, the only thing I didn't care for was the use of a negative term for describing homosexuality in the film—but this was made during a time where that awful word was still used, so this complaint is pretty moot.The only real problem I have with "Naked Lunch" is the fact that it might be too weird for its own good. While I dig a trippy film here and there, this movie never lets up on the trip and even the ending suggests that that fantastic ride for the character of Bill Lee is far from over. Usually, strange films end with a way that sums everything up as if to say, "Look, there's a reason for the oddities." This film doesn't really have that and just has it ending with a nod and a wink that suggests that ride is far from over. That's all well and good and I dug that but it did make for a movie that doesn't offer up repeat or future viewings. In the end, it felt like, "Well, I experienced it, what's next?" Greetings, friend! The name is Rev. Ron and if you feel like reading more of my rants, ramblings, bad jokes, geek references,and other movie reviews (like a more in-depth look at "Naked Lunch" and other, less trippy films) you can visit my blog at revronmovies.blogspot.com. If you don't want to do that because of my average experience with this film and that makes you dislike me immensely, you don't need to visit.

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braddugg

This is a film that jolted me in my sleep and made me awake, days after I saw this. Some scenes are terribly brilliant in this surreal drama.Thanks to Criterion, because of which I got to know of this film, and picked it up from their collection. David Cronenberg is one of the outrageous directors existing today. He does not seem to compromise with his vision and tries to be so true to the material that it frightens the viewers very much. I wonder if I can ever see this on a big screen, in theater somewhere. Will they dare to put it up, will there be audience in the first place? I really doubt. yet, this is one of the finest surreal dramas that was made in 1990's.A week after I watched it, I just woke up as I got a scene from this film in a dream. Damn, even today (which is a month after I watched it) as I type the review, the hairs strands are standing on forearms. Creepy it is and totally insane too. I wonder how such a subject was chosen to be presented.This is an adaptation of the novel by the same name, written by William S. Burroughs. I wonder whether those who have read it imaging the details presented in the book, also have been through nightmares as I did watching this film.Nevertheless, this is a very important aspect of art and film making and indeed it is needed. I appreciate the courage of the director and more so the producers. Obviously, this is not a film for everyone, even for the generally weird people, but it's for those who have a liking for aesthetics of weird, nightmarish, disgusting things.I cannot reveal characters or the plot points coz that would make any reader of this review miss the fun, given that he chooses to see the film. It's definitely worth a one time watch and that perhaps is enough for a lifetime as it would not be easy to erase from memory either. It has tremendous impact undoubtedly. A 4/5 for one of the terrific and even terrible surreal movies

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