Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

maxastree In reaction to the overwhelmingly plastic culture of the 80s, 90s media started to regurgitate grainy images of "the Beats", fifties counter-cultural icons that could be easily reduced to a handful of key works, stylized photographs and design-heavy biographies dropping names like Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, Ginsgberg and of course Burroughs - a man who's inherited wealth, tragic past and anthropological interest in obscure cultures made him a hipster, low rent bon vivant and comedy artist all at once, lampooning Americana whilst somehow representing it at the same time.The film "Naked Lunch" is something of a failure. It has some fascinating qualities, such as Ornette Colemans jazz score, and Judy Davis's somewhat crazed depiction of Burroughs wife in the film which creates a story opening that has a real sense of purpose, but then it all goes astray because, essentially, this is a film without a functioning plot.Sure, the main character has a motivation: after the accidental shooting of his wife, he moves to North Africa, creating screeds of experimental writing under the influence of painkillers and alcohol as an escape, or perhaps a form of therapy. That's characterization though, whats the story actually about? Essentially, this movie is about typewriters, broken typewriters, hallucinatory moments, various confessions of homosexual guilt or reflection, and static, overly smug exchanges between Burroughs screen stand-in and his compatriots that bare witness to a story that goes nowhere.Matters are made worse by location restrictions, so the crew shoot on sound stages covered with sand and prop work. Not only does the story evaporate, but the sense of place and time is oddly unconvincing also. I almost feel after seeing this movie that it could have served better as a stage play, with a bit of tweaking. Did I mention Peter Weller is in this film? He must have hoped something as diametrically opposite to his role in Robocop would have helped his career, but his casting just contributes to the list of misplaced decisions that created this picture. After this film made back a fraction of its budget (people like Peter Suschitzky and Howard Shore hardly work for free) Weller disappeared from wide release films for many years. The least flattering thing to say about Cronenbergs "Naked Lunch", a film that isn't really related to the wild satire and poetry of the famous book, is that it continued to reduce the image of Burroughs to an aesthetic, as if the death, addiction and suffering in his life could just be recycled as part of a conveniently "hip" pop culture style.Cronenberg and Burroughs themselves are people of considerable talent, for sure, but not here.

LeonLouisRicci This is beyond a Challenge. It is an Impossibility, Yet it Can be Done. Attempting, and Ultimately Succeeding, to Review a Film that was made from an Unfilmable Book. The Book, it might even be said was a Book that was Unwriteable, But yet it WAS Written.The Paradoxes and Ironies abound. They Bounce around the Works of William S. Burroughs and David Cronenberg with a Symbiosis that is Rare, but it does Occur. This could be Called "A Happening".The Melding of these Twisted Minds could Never Result in anything Approaching Linear. It's as Futile as returning a Pretzel to its Doughy Larval State. But yet, Here it is. Cronenberg's Movie has a Beginning, a Middle, and an End. So do the Books of Burroughs. Trying to make Sense of the Surreal, both the Writer and the Director never Expect, although Require, the Reader and the Viewer to do so.It's the Attempt, the Trying that is the Thing. Involvement, Participation, Thinking. Just the Process is the least an Artist can Expect from the Patrons. Peter Weller Embodies Burroughs in Mind and Stature, and He is the surprisingly Witty and Confused "Grounding" for the Audience to Glaum ahold of as this Trip to the "Interzone" Gets Underway. Good Luck with that, because, You See, Mr. Lee (Burroughs) is too High most of the Time to be anywhere Near the Ground.The Plot doesn't Thicken, as Things Unfold, It's more like the Plot Solidifies into a Madness of the Mind. It's that Kind of Movie Cronenberg Made and that Kind of Book that Burroughs Wrote. Get Involved with this Film Only if You have the willingness to Expand Your Consciousness and Entertain the Creative Minds of the Dangerous. The Thoughts and Images of the Unthinkable. It will be a Challenge. Are You Up For it? If Not, it's Better to Stay Down there Where You Are.

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.

amazing_sincodek I generally love Cronenberg's films. They (generally) have a unique, dark, hallucinogenic sensibility that is often compared to David Lynch, but characteristically differ from David Lynch's films in that they often get progressively weirder as they go, constructing their own logic and drawing the viewer further and further from what (s)he expects to see in cinema.Naked Lunch is the only exception I've seen so far. Though the first 30 minutes or so suggest something familiar from his previous films, the rest of the film is too obvious in its intentions (namely, a figurative discussion of the writing process and of Burroughs himself), with no surprises or additional weird stuff being introduced. All the weird stuff gets introduced in the first 30 minutes, and then the "rabbit hole" feeling disappears.There's nothing wrong with that, I guess, if you are a fan of Burroughs, or, alternatively, if you AREN'T a fan of Cronenberg. That is, this movie, while certainly pretty disgusting and weird relative to mainstream films, is actually pretty generic in its artistic sensibilities. It uses metaphors which are easy to interpret and nests social commentary in its dialogue in a way that is easy to recognize.I wanted a movie that would challenge me, confuse me, and unsettle me more and more as it progressed. Instead, I started yawning and fast-forwarding as the same metaphors were recycled over and over. Again, this is fine from the standpoint of traditional art and narrative construction, but I expect Cronenberg's films to go beyond what I am able to interpret. No such luck here.