Naked Lunch

5.00
    Naked Lunch
    1991

    Synopsis

    Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

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    Cast

    • Peter WellerBill Lee
    • Judy DavisJoan Frost
    • Ian HolmTom Frost
    • Julian SandsYves Cloquet
    • Roy ScheiderDr. Benway
    • Monique MercureFadela
    • Nicholas CampbellHank
    • Michael ZelnikerMartin
    • Robert A. SilvermanHans
    • Joseph ScorenKiki

    Recommendations

    • 90

      Variety

      Stretching himself with each new work, David Cronenberg has come up with a fascinating, demanding, mordantly funny picture.
    • 80

      Chicago Reader

      This David Cronenberg masterpiece (1991) breaks every rule in adapting a literary classic - maybe On Naked Lunch would be a more accurate title - but justifies every transgression with its artistry and audacity.
    • 80

      Washington Post

      There's a synergistic overlap here between Cronenberg's own particular brand of weirdness and Burroughs's; they're both twisted in ways that complement each other nicely.
    • 78

      Austin Chronicle

      Ultimately, Naked Lunch is more about the act of writing, while the original is concerned with the phenomenon of addiction. Each does what it does well… but differently.
    • 75

      TV Guide Magazine

      A treat for Cronenberg fans, though this could hardly be called a gripping, or emotionally involving, story; you're more likely to need a can of bug spray than a hanky.
    • 70

      The New York Times

      For the most part this is a coolly riveting film and even a darkly entertaining one, at least for audiences with steel nerves, a predisposition toward Mr. Burroughs and a willingness to meet Mr. Cronenberg halfway.
    • 63

      Chicago Sun-Times

      While I admired it in an abstract way, I felt repelled by the material on a visceral level.
    • 60

      Empire

      Cronenberg's attempt to meld his style with an established writer didnít exactly pan out.

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