Naked Lunch

Impossible to describe or even explain (almost but not quite as incomprehensible as FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS), the movie is not exactly a telling of the book Naked Lunch (even though some characters, namely the vile mugwhumps, show up) as it is a telling of Burroughs writing the book and what he may have imagined while writing it.

THe film starts out with the main character William Lee and his even more "creepy" (if anyone in the Burroughs line ever wanted to label what's inside themselves) wife, Joan, are addicted to the roach powder pyretheum, which Lee obtains thru his job as an exterminator. After playing a drunken William Tell act with his wife and blowing her head off so to say (which actually happened to Burroughs and his wife, and is said to have sparked the writing of Naked Lunch), he escapes to Tangiers, Mexico (with a "ticket" which actually appears to be a syringe). There he flows into a seemingly hallucinatory Interzone--a place populated by all the things mentioned above and tons more weirdness. He also meets the wife of a bisexual author who looks almost identical to his wife...and they engage in a particularly freaky sexual practice in which a typewriter tries to join in. If I say any more, the plot will be totally given away, so just watch, and compared to all the elaborate twists and turns on this unreal path to hell, I've said very little.

Great performances from Roy Sheider (who plays Dr. Benway, another character direct from the book), Paul Weller as Lee, Judy Davis as Joan and the other Joan, and Robert A. Silverman as a truly unique black centipede meat salesman with a disquieting manor (the black centipede meat, as well as Burroughs' thoughts on how centipedes controlled many Interzone lives, were from the novel). You'll either be completely confused or completely tripped out of yr. mind, but you won't leave the film unchanged...just like Burroughs' writings.


A Fitting Tribute to Burroughs   March 21, 2000
Jill Traynor (Oklahoma)
29 out of 33 found this review helpful

As a devout Burroughs fan, of course I was a little hesitant to view this movie initially. And having read the book "Naked Lunch" prior to watching the film, I was at a loss as to what I expected. Certainly there was no way this book could translate into a movie...even "The Wall" director Alan Parker would have been lost.

In essence, Cronenberg didn't attempt to recreate the book verbatim. Instead he deftly interwove Burroughs' life with some of the routines and rants from the book. This movie is not for the fainthearted as it shows man-sized mugwumps and talking typwriter/insects who are really operatives for a covert attempt to penetrate Interzone, using a hapless writer, Bill Lee, as their chief spy.

Definitive moments in Burroughs' life, such as his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and the death of his wife Joan at his own hand are featured in the movie. It also gives a surreal biography to the birth of the writer in Burroughs as he attempts to write his way out of the guilt of his wife's death and the drugs that numbed the difficulties of his life.

Those who think that this movie had no real plot or if they did think there was a plot that the plot wasn't linear, then they can't be that big a fan of Burroughs. His life was not normal, his fans are not normal, and his mode of thinking was, frankly, insane. Cronenberg does a brilliant job getting inside the mind of the writer, the genius, the man, William S. Burroughs. Take a trip into his mind, ladies and gentlemen, and be changed forever.


Sad, funny, horrific and intriguing   April 8, 1999
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

I'm both a Cronenberg fan and a Burroughs fan, so maybe my review of this film lacks objectivity. That being said, I think Naked Lunch is quite an achievement, not only visually (Chris Walas' creatures are wonderful, Denise Cronenberg's costumes are elegant and authentic to the film's period), but in terms of screenwriting and in the realm of ideas. Burroughs' novel could be said to be about a number of things, but I believe the film is mainly about how our appetites and urges manifest themselves if they are not acknowledged. Bill Lee, the protagonist in the movie, spends much of the first part of the film avoiding his need to write. After he flees to Interzone, he begins to hallucinate that his typewriter is a giant talking bug that orders him to compile "reports" on various and sundry people and subjects, such as his sexual proclivities, his relationships with friends and acquaintances as well as his need to have a reason to create. Much is made, subtly about the connection between mental imbalance, orgasms and the creative process.Cronenberg has picked up on a theme that runs through all of Burroughs' writing, namely the consequences of living in a society that labels immoral all healthy forms of personal release. For Burroughs, and by extension Cronenberg, this includes sex, artistic expression and liberated use of language. In the novel, being denied these outlets leads people to all kinds of perversions of personal power, drug addiction and insanity. Cronenberg uses different means, but shows his audience the psychic toll of denying one's deep personal needs.In all, a fantastic hallucinatory ride, with a great cast (especially Peter Weller, who has never been better chosen for a role) and a whole feast for discussion by thoughtful filmgoers everywhere.


the peak of Cronenbergian weirdness   May 24, 2001
19 out of 24 found this review helpful

David Cronenberg, one of the last surviving geniuses in the modern film industry, has always made uncompromising, nightmarish films enmeshed with meanings and messages that lie under the celluloid surface, waiting to be dissected. As a filmmaker, he relies (to a certain degree) on the audience's imagination to be at work once the end credits are done rolling, and his adaptation of William S. Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" is no exception. While it should be made clear that the movie (according to other reviewers) is more of a document of the events leading up to the novel's publication rather than a flat-out adaptation, Cronenberg does a brilliant job capturing the sheer hallucinatory tone of the author's scatterbrained prose.

From the darkly comic image of mutated insects talking through their scphincters, cannibalistic typewriters, and the accurate, amazing creation of Mugwumps, it's clear that most of "Naked Lunch" is Cronenberg's film (not to disrespect Burroughs, of course). The story begins in New York, where William Lee (an appropriately deadpan Peter Weller), an exterminator, and his wife Joan (Judy Davis) are building a steady tolerance to bug powder (cooked and shot up like heroin, of course); when a shooting accident puts Lee on the lam, he winds up in Interzone and is drafted as an agent. Needless to say, Cronenberg employs this simple, back-lot setting as an atmosphere to create some of his most audacious, hallucinatory imagery to date (including a typewriter that sprouts sexual organs and an aristocrat who mutates into a beetle). He also uses deliberate lighting effects to display a character's narcotic-aided state, usually zeroing in on the eyes (very well-done).

Like the novel on which it's based, "Naked Lunch" truly relies on the viewer's willingness to be sucked into the story without any guarantee that a sensible, "perfect" end will be reached. Fans of Cronenberg (or even David Lynch, for that matter) will know what to expect, while the more casual filmgoer may want to tread more lightly. That being said, I must admit this is probably the director's most easily accessible film, second only to his ultra-mainstream, FX-laden remake of "The Fly."

The performances are great, attaining a sweet level of oddness that at least matches the novel's nothing's-shocking delirium. Weller and Davis are excellent, cast very much against type here; Ian Holm & Julian Sands, as two eccentrics subject to their own strange behaviors, showcase an ominous normality; and Robert A. Silverman (who also appeared in Cronenberg's "Scanners" & "eXistenZ")--as a scary little man with a strange accent--is amazingly comic with his ill-timed, inappropriate laugh.

"Naked Lunch" is a fitting epitaph for Burroughs, and simply one of the best films David Cronenberg has made to date. Lay down your reservations and give this film a chance, you won't be disappointed.


Superb.   December 4, 2000
Amy Balot (pa)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful

David Cronenberg's dazzling sci-fi imagery meets William S. Burroughs' dark humor in this bizarre cult film. Peter Weller plays William Lee, an exterminator who can't seem to keep track of his bug powder. His writer friends hint that it may be a `domestic problem.' Indeed, he finds that his wife is stealing his bug powder for its narcotic effects.

At a party with two friends (meant to be Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg), Lee nods to his wife and says, `About time for our William Tell act...' Joan balances her highball glass on her head and closes her eyes. Bill isn't such a good shot that night, and accidentally shoots a hole through Joan's forehead. The glass falls to the floor, intact.

Soon the police are after Lee. They lock him in a room with a giant bug, who tells him his real identity. It starts him on his journey to Interzone, a strange hallucinatory world inhabited by talking insects, living typewriters, and alien/insect mugwumps that secrete intoxicating juices from the penises on their heads.

Lee has a long strange trip in Interzone. His insect typewriter sends him on missions where he meets strange people and even stranger creatures. And all the while he is still on the run from the police.

David Cronenberg's screenwriting and directing skills were in top form for this movie. Once called `the king of venereal horror,' his trademark grotesque sexual imagery and bug obsessions, as seen in Videodrome and The Fly, have been honed to give the perfect nightmarish effect. Surely there couldn't be a better man to bring Burroughs' Interzone to the big-screen.

The acting was also superb. Wearing a fedora and an anonymous tan overcoat, and speaking in Burroughs' low monotonous drawl, Weller is a very believable William Lee. Judy Davis was also excellent, bringing to life the most three-dimensional portrayal of Joan Vollmer Burroughs ever.

The fabulously surreal special effects are sure to draw in Cronenberg fans, and fans of Burroughs will be equally entertained by samplings of the original book's `routines' and parallels to Burroughs' own life. However, Cronenberg isn't known for making accessible movies, and when coupled with Burroughs' characters, this certainly isn't a film for everyone. Rated `R' for heavy drug content, adult language, and `bizarre eroticism,' there are scenes portraying bug powder injection (a heroin metaphor), typewriters with genitalia, and a gay sex scene in which Julian Sands turns into a parrot. But for all the "adult" content, this is a very intelligent, complex, and inspired movie that its viewers will not soon forget.