Empire's Room 237 Movie Review

Room 237
The Best Exotic Moribund Hotel

Plot
Five Shining obsessives — a war reporter, a professor, a playwright, a musician and an author — expound their theories about Kubrick’s horror masterpiece. It’s so much better than it sounds.

Review

As fastidious and obsessive as Kubrick himself, Rodney Ascher’s brilliantly imaginative investigation into The Shining is at once rigorously smart and gloriously bonkers, a work of fan faction that will make you think, laugh and send you back to the movie quicker than you can say Red Rum.

More than anything, Room 237 resembles the kind of critical video essay that is commonplace online but here is delivered with much more intelligence, wit and technical élan than the average movie-minded mash-up. Dividing into nine title-carded sections, Ascher dives headlong into the world of Overlook obsession. Some of the arguments on show are borderline obvious (it is a metaphor for the genocide of the Native American Indian), some are clearly crackpot (it is proof positive that Kubrick faked the moon-landing footage), others fascinatingly skirt the line in-between. Whatever the level of reason, Ascher presents these arguments with a lucid lack of condescension that allows each of them to reverberate as brain food.

To illustrate the arguments, Ascher offers a canny compilation of shots and scenes from The Shining, the ‘making of’ and Kubrick’s back catalogue. On-screen diagrams track Danny’s trike, revealing the hotel geography as impossible. We see the superimposition of shots as the film is projected forwards and backwards at the same time (check out the first and last shot juxtaposition). The carpet patterns, the Indian on the baking powder tin, Danny’s Apollo 11 jumper, German typewriters, Playgirl and, of course, the mysteries of Room 237 all come in for some marvellous scrutiny.

Ascher has also assembled a virtuoso collection of clips from all over the place — Mario Bava to Walt Disney, Jesus Christ Superstar to Schindler’s List — as sly counterpoint to the theories (the best involves Creepshow). The whole thing is nutzoid but is about more than just The Shining. Room 237 captures the true nature of viewing, talking about and dissecting movies to the nth degree and it is infectious. Think Cheaper By The Dozen is just a Steve Martin film about a big old family? Think again.

Verdict

Reviewed by Ian Freer

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Room 237

RE: Rambling on and on and on.
I saw this on Friday, certainly not a 'classic' (Five stars... really?) but you can't help but feel both intrigued by some of the themes, motifs and observations that come up and bewildered by what are clearly some mental filmgoers. The native american theme for me seemed the most realistic though of course we'll never get to find out what Kubrick's intentions were. Some were laughable though (it was definitely a skier, not a centaur...lol). I did love the backwards/forwards thing though (even ... More

Posted by UTB at 03:39, 13 May 2013 \| Report This Post



RE: Rambling on and on and on.
Some extremely weird theories in this film, ranging from quite plausible in parts (such as the 'impossible' set design used to unnerve viewers) to the completely weird (it's all somehow due to Kubrick's guilt about faking the moon landings). The more interesting theories are the ones discussing the film itself (such as the extent of Danny's influence on events) rather than the ones about Nazis and Indians. The version of The Shining played forwards and backwards does throw up some ext... More


Posted by RobotDevil at 03:23, 13 May 2013 \| Report This Post



Rambling on and on and on.
I didn't expect so many inane rantings by this bunch of uninteresting talking heads. About 5 minutes of this documentary would summarize all the interesting theories well enough, but unfortunately there is another 90 minutes of observations that would generally be too stupid to include even as a bonus feature on a DVD of The Shining. Just go and watch The Shining for yourself and you'll easily come up with more interesting interpretations than anything offered in this film. ... More


Posted by film ninja at 00:00, 03 May 2013 \| Report This Post



Utter, utter rubbish
Bunch of fanatcis that see things that just aren't there and then smugly comment on how us normal people wouldn't spot it. New entry into my "Worst ten films of all time" ... More


Posted by david hayes at 16:02, 29 April 2013 \| Report This Post



Utter Tripe!
Possible spoilers! Believe what you want, but my opinion is these theorists are seeing what they want to see and trying to make something of something that just isn't there. Why does there have to be so many conspiricies? Whats wrong with just making a great psychological thriller? Some of the outlandsish claims are just plain ludicrous, for example, Mr Ullman and the phallic symbol when he shakes Jack's hand?! Or maybe its just a coinsidence, the poster of the skier really being an ima... More


Posted by fraser1978 at 09:32, 04 April 2013 \| Report This Post



Room 237
Spot on, this is a film that has obsessives dissect (perhaps overly so) Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece The Shining. Yes, some of the theories here may well be nonsense but that is not the point. The point is seeing a film that expresses the bewildering depths in which we read films, as well as the mystique that surrounds certain works of cinema. Each opinion here be it apollo or impossible windows is argued with such passion that you never feel as though these people are being silly, they be... More


Posted by JJB888 at 23:04, 29 March 2013 \| Report This Post



Look! Doesn't the paper tray look like a boner when he stands beside it? THE HOLOCAUST IS IN THIS MOVIE!!!"
Absurd rubbish, I'm afraid. Perhaps this is a little reactionary, coming after watching the film, then reading a 5* review of it, and feeling the need to over-compensate. However, there is very little in this documentary to be entertained or intrigued by. It really is a line-up of one nutjob after another seeing things they want to see, with no time dedicated to deductive reasoning whatsoever. Also, the sound mix is dreadful, with various individuals muttering into their microphones while the s... More


Posted by RyanShanks at 22:32, 04 March 2013 \| Report This Post



It`s Not About The Jewish Holocaust, Persecution of American Indians & No Kubrick Isn/t In That Cloud!
I saw "Room 237" last night and it does make you wonder what people maybe under the influence of when watching movies to come up with some of these theories. It takes being obssessive about movies to new and quite frankly daft extremes. More to the point surely "2001: A Space Odysey" is much harder to follow and deserves more clarification than "The Shining". The mind boggles what these people would have concluded from that film. "The Shining" is about the Jewish Holocaust because the litt... More


Posted by Cruisecontroller at 16:49, 30 October 2012 \| Report This Post



Five stars? Are you kidding??
This was absolute gunk. It's easily the worst film I've seen this year. 90 minutes of insane theories? There was nothing going on with this documentary. Perhaps if it had explored WHY these people were so obsessed with the film. Or maybe asked some of the film makers themselves. No, nothing like that, just crackpot after crackpot. For 90 minutes. The Internet has spilled onto the big screen, and it ain't pretty. ... More


Posted by JohnnyWalker2001 at 01:23, 30 October 2012 \| Report This Post



Five stars? Are you kidding??
This was absolute gunk. It's easily the worst film I've seen this year. 90 minutes of insane theories? There was nothing going on with this documentary. Perhaps if it had explored WHY these people were so obsessed with the film. Or maybe asked some of the film makers themselves. No, nothing like that, just crackpot after crackpot. For 90 minutes. The Internet has spilled onto the big screen, and it ain't pretty. ... More


Posted by JohnnyWalker2001 at 01:22, 30 October 2012 \| Report This Post



Brilliant
I caught this at the Curzon in Soho last night. The Shining is one of my favourite films so when heard about this documentary on one of Empire’s podcasts recently, amazed it had slipped under my radar, I started reading up on it. It’s a loving tribute to Kubrick and his horror masterpiece which speaks to some very obsessive and slightly mad fans about their interpretations of the films subtexts. It’s really well put together and uses a lot of clips from The Shining and Kubrick’s previous ... More


Posted by Workshed at 17:17, 29 October 2012 \| Report This Post



Brilliant
I caught this at the Curzon in Soho last night. The Shining is one of my favourite films so when heard about this documentary on one of Empire’s podcasts recently, amazed it had slipped under my radar, I started reading up on it. It’s a loving tribute to Kubrick and his horror masterpiece which speaks to some very obsessive and slightly mad fans about their interpretations of the films subtexts. It’s really well put together and uses a lot of clips from The Shining and Kubrick’s previous f... More


Posted by Workshed at 17:17, 29 October 2012 \| Report This Post



i LOVE that review
i can't remember the last time a movie review made me so excited i can NOT wait to watch room 237 :) ... More


Posted by bill the butcher at 23:37, 25 September 2012 \| Report This Post



i LOVE that review
i can't remember the last time a movie review made me so excited i can NOT wait to watch room 237 :) ... More


Posted by bill the butcher at 23:37, 25 September 2012 \| Report This Post

Room 237The Best Exotic Moribund Hotel

Room 237
The Best Exotic Moribund Hotel