Naked Lunch (1991)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 32,749
Movie Info
This cinematic/literary hybrid fuses motifs from Beat writer William S. Burroughs's novel of the same name with elements of the author's biography and plenty of the cerebral alienation and biomorphic special effects fans of creepy cult director David Cronenberg have come to expect. Bill Lee (Peter Weller) wants to write, but he exterminates bugs to pay the bills. His wife, Joan (Judy Davis), becomes addicted to Bill's bug powder dust, and soon he joins her in a world of unorthodox hallucinogens;
Dec 27, 1991 Wide
Nov 11, 2003
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast
-
Peter Weller
William Lee -
Judy Davis
Joan Frost/Joan Lee -
Ian Holm
Tom Frost -
Julian Sands
Yves Cloquet -
Roy Scheider
Dr. Benway -
Monique Mercure
Fadela -
Nicholas Campbell
Hank -
Michael Zelniker
Martin -
Robert A. Silverman
Hans -
Joseph Scorsiani
Kiki -
Claude Aflalo
Forgeman -
Peter Boretski
2nd Exterminator/Creatu... -
-
Michael Caruana
Pawnbroker -
Yuval Daniel
Hafid -
Joseph Di Mambro
Interzone Boy -
John Friesen
Hauser -
Laurent Hazout
Interzone Boy -
Howard Jerome
A.J. Cohen -
Justin Louis
3rd Exterminator -
Sean McCann
O'Brien -
Kurt Reis
1st Exterminator -
Julian Richings
4th Exterminator -
Jim Yip
The Chink -
Ornette Coleman
The Ornette Coleman Tri... -
Barre Phillips
The Ornette Coleman Tri...
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Naked Lunch Trailer & Photos
All Critics (44) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (10) | DVD (18)
A challenge if you're expecting a forward-moving plot but there's also more than enough pitch-black humor and straight-faced madness to lighten the mood, especially since Burroughs' strange lingo and vicious knack for language are intact.
If you've yet to purchase this incredible mind-trip involving bug powder, Brazilian centipedes, typewriters turning into giant insects, and bumping into Mugwumps in bars then the Blu-ray release is well worth your hard earned money.
...very nearly accomplishes the book's goal of "extinguishing all rational thought."
a respectful fugue on Burroughs' life and art ... It can be forgiven its acolyte's soul, for it is willing ...to confront Burroughs' signature themes of addiction and control, and to meld them into ... an evocation of the master.
This is the only film in which a typewriter beetle kills another typewriter beetle for being a secret agent. I mention it only because of the relevance of the written word, and typewriters %u2013 portable ones in this case %u2013 are the medium of the mes
Given that nobody could really have adapted Burroughs' book in any literal manner, what Cronenberg does instead is predictably creepy, warped and dreamy.
Stands on its own apart from the book.
There are no great scenes, just flat moments of weirdness with lots of schlorping noises.
One of Cronenberg's most difficult but deliriously clever and emotionally insinuating films.
Cronenberg's overly-ambitious attempt at filming the unfilmable.
At root the most personal mission statement of a vital cinematic voice.
Cronenberg is the right man for a very, very odd job.
A twisted, brilliant masterpiece. One of Cronenberg's best.
While certainly original, its hallucinatory terrain is basically weird for the sake of weird... and ultimately buckles under its own pretense.
Cronenberg's masterpiece and perhaps the best film ever made about writing
Some movies just try too hard to be hip, and David Cronenberg's adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch is certainly one of them.
incomprehensible
Audience Reviews for Naked Lunch
Super Reviewer
"Exterminate all rational thought."
Beyond bizarre. So far beyond bizarre that it's hard to organize my thoughts about what I have just seen. All I know for sure is that in the end, I really didn't care for it.
For the first half hour or so, I was in love with the movie. I found the whole insect poison as a drug thing interesting. As the film went on, I started to fall out of love with it. Then altogether, I just lost interest in what I was seeing. The viewing experience is very much like getting high. At first your having fun, it is a great time; but you must come down, and I did... hard.
To explain more than a few details of this plot would be tedious. So I'll just keep it to the bare minimums. An exterminator learns that his wife has been stealing his powder and has been shooting it up. His wife then turns him, an ex-junkie himself, onto the drug and soon is just as addicted as his wife. Then he starts hallucinating. Bugs are telling him secret information about all sorts of wild stuff. For awhile, the bug scenes are incredibly interesting, but after the third or fourth one, they become boring.
I won't say that I hated this movie altogether. Maybe with another watch later in life, I'll enjoy the whole experience more. Cronenberg is just a weird director and that's what makes him so interesting. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of him, yet. I've only seen five of his movies and I have fallen completely in love with any of them. But one thing I will say is that the bizarreness of Cronenberg is much easier to watch and get through, than that of Lynch.
If this plot at all interests you, I would at least give it a shot. It's well made and big time fans of Cronenberg should love it. Even if you don't like it in the end; there's enough interesting stuff going on, that it won't feel like you just completely wasted your time. You are sure to see images that you have never seen in another movie.
Super Reviewer
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- Dr. Benway: Speaking of new uses for old technology, we could use a man of your calibre. A 32, wasn't it?
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- 2nd Exterminator/Creature Voices: Take it from me Bill, your not the first person to develop a bug powder problem....
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- Joan Frost/Joan Lee: It's a literary high, a Kafka high. You feel like a bug. You want to try?
- William Lee: I don't know, our metabolism's are very different...
- Joan Frost/Joan Lee: You mean yours and Kafkas?
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- Yves Cloquet: I've seen you around, but I had no idea you were queer.
- William Lee: Yes, the Lee's have always been perverts.
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- Tom Frost: That's my mujaheddin! For gods sake!
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- Dr. Benway: Oh it's all natural, made from giant braziallian centrepedes or some such outlandish thing....
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Movie: ID: 13423 Title: Naked Lunch Release Date: 1991-12-27 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- El almuerzo desnudo (ES)
