One of the best films I’ve seen this year is Room 237, and the first trailer has now gone online. Rodney Ascher‘s documentary uses Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining as the basis for a series of critiques where various critics try to untangle the film’s subtext by pointing out various “clues” littered around the picture. Some of the observations are fascinating while others are laughably pretentious. But Room 237 is more than just a movie about the The Shining. It’s about the art of criticism and how critics struggle to find subtext to support a thesis. The Shining provides an excellent basis for this exploration because of Kubrick’s reputation for meticulousness and the film’s established popularity so that there’s at least an agreement on the picture’s lasting influence.
The trailer doesn’t really explain any of this, and instead relies on review blurbs. I wonder if the trailer can’t use any footage from The Shining due to copyright claims, but the film gets away with it under Fair Use. In any event, hit the jump to check out the trailer for Room 237.
Check out the trailer for Room 237 below:
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great. a trailer full of predictable quotes. the suspense was oh so killing me…
~ p
Saw this last night at the VIFF (Vancouver Intl’ Film Fest). It was very entertaining, but presented nothing really new if you’ve surfed around about info on The Shining. And as pretentious as some of the theories are about its meaning, I’m pretty sure there’s at least a sliver of truth in all of them. Kubrick was a master of symbolism and iconography after all. One thing I did get out of Room 237 is a realization of just how much of parody of the horror genre and black comedy (for lack of a better term) The Shining really is.
well that was a completely wasted minute and a half.
i am now obsessed with seeing this movie. i will see it the first day it’s released in los angeles.
Good poster, though.