Did you know that the celebrated director Stanley Kubrick faked the Apollo moon landing for NASA in a Hollywood studio? It’s one of the ‘claims’ made in the outlandish and esoteric documentary analysing the 1980 Horror masterpiece The Shining. Room 237 is a Kubrickian ‘mind fuck’ that will have the conspiracist and/or philosopher in you emphatically awakened. Rodney Ascher delves deep, geek deep into this 9-part dissection in search of the hidden meanings of the infamous film.
Resembling the commentary film format found on most DVD Extras today, plus some wonderful tidbits of the master himself on set, the 100min feature rounds up several Kubrick devotees to pore over minute details of the film to arrive at some very serious, amusing and at times, like the aforementioned claim, down right preposterous ideas. Numerology, genocide, psychoanalysis, sublimal sexual imagery, they all get the microscopic psuedo-intellectual treatment. But Ascher and his friends do their homework, and like Kubrick himself, an incredible amount of detail is presented. It’s heady stuff. Forgoing any talking heads or even pauses to contemplate, the documentary positively revels in constantly mounting scene after scene of the film. And, most importantly the arguments are convincing. Some of them. Why, it’s enough to have you get online and read for yourself the various theories about the film, which is how Room 237 came to life, Ascher himself received a posting on his Facebook page about a theory on the movie. From this perspective, Room 237 draws, not just its strength, but its obsessive and quirky charm. There is no denying the conviction and dedication in all the presenters, as I said they go very deep.
But be warned, it probably helps if you have seen The Shinning more than 5 times, maybe ten to be sure, for absolute maximum enjoyment. Not to mention you probably will have seen all his other works to be fairly confident that you can keep up with these folks. At a minimum, though this is a curious, deliciously fun trip, full of intellectually and visually arresting ideas and images that should find favour with cinema lovers of all ages and generations.
Director: Rodney Ascher
Stars: Bill Blakemore, Geoffrey Cocks, Juli Kearns
Runtime: 102 min
Country: USA
Film Rating: 
