(Rodney Ascher, US 2012, 102 min., DCP)
After the commercial failure of Barry Lyndon, Stanley Kubrick took on a more commercial project: an adaptation of a bestselling thriller by Stephen King, whose Carrie had delivered major box office a few years earlier. Of course, the end result, The Shining, befuddled just as many critics, even as it steadily gained recognition as … what? A statement about the breakdown of patriarchy? A disguised study of the Holocaust? An allegory for the genocide of Native Americans? An apologia for Kubrick’s helping to fake the moon landing? Director Rodney Ascher takes on these theories and more in Room 237, which explores the divergent readings of a group of devout fans and film scholars in the manner of a suspense thriller. A darkly funny deconstruction of Kubrick’s masterpiece and our desire for fixed meanings, Room 237 is a must for any of his fans.
