A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining (1980).
However wild and wacky the arguments, they are never less than compelling. More worryingly, as the film progresses, they begin to make more and more sense.
Meanings or myths? Rodney Ascher’s hugely enjoyable docu-collage of Shining theories embraces ambiguity but proves that Kubrick’s deep chiller is worth the revisits. Check in: eyes wide open.
It probably helps if you’ve already seen The Shining, but Ascher’s documentary is also a love letter to those movie discussions that continue long after getting home from the cinema.
Room 237 does highlight aspects of the movie that you've never noticed before, and it guarantees that you'll be more attentive than ever the next time you watch The Shining.
A celebration of Kubrick, The Shining and the thrill of watching, analysing and loving film. It’s the best movie about a movie we’ve seen in ages.
As outrageous as some of these theories are, though, they’re fuelled by Kubrick’s own near-mythic obsessive nature, though in the end what the film really does is pay tribute to the power of cinema to entice and enthral.
Engrossing.
It's pretty enthralling, all the same, and it will either ruin The Shining forever or else drag you into its obsessive web of conspiracies.
The movie's flaw is that it is sometimes unclear if it really is about The Shining – or merely about cracked and delusional interpreters. But it raises very interesting ideas about how we view a film, about what happens if we take the act of viewing down to a deeper, molecular level, and about how a movie's significance and effect need not be those intentionally willed by the director.
Theories about the meaning behind Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining are taken to unimaginable extremes.
Fascinating, nutty, cleverly edited.
Less about The Shining than about the spell that some films can cast over their viewers.
Documentary Room 237 unravels the theories surrounding The Shining
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General release. Check local listings for show times.
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