"Naked Lunch" (1991)

Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider.

First, the Lowdown: Worlds collide when beatnik meets Scanners.

Americans always seem to be under the impression that if you are to produce something that is both creative and surreal, you have to be under the influence of some mind-altering substance. People have long assumed that if you express any form of eccentricity you were either old, insane, intoxicated, or a combination thereof. After all, nobody NORMAL would CHOOSE to be WEIRD, right? Having been someone who has frequently indulged in "chemical entertainment" I will say that I am far too distracted when I'm high to do ANYTHING creative aside from philosophize about minutia.

Unfortunately, people like Burroughs do nothing to dispel this myth at all. The dilemma is this: Naked Lunch is definitely a product of a twisted mind, but which mind is more to blame? First you have William S. Burroughs: a man whose poetical and prosaic style is like listening to an old record that's been warped by the sun, you understand the gist of it, but it still sounds weird. Then there's director David Cronenburg: Mr. Let's-Poke-It-With-A-Stick-And-See-If-It-Twitches. Both men have extensively produced works about hallucinations, homosexuality, and kinky sex. And both men's storytelling styles seem to draw in your attention, and then fuck with it when you're least expecting. It's a toss-up either way.

Naked Lunch can best be described as "Walter Mitty's Week-Long Bender". The movie is only KINDA based off of Burrough's book and only KINDA based off of Burrough's life. Not being an expert on either, I leave it up to you. Peter Weller plays William Lee, mild-mannered exterminator, whose power-can ends up running out while on a job. Worried about losing his job, Lee is only further frustrated when he finds out that his wife has been shooting up with it to produce a Kafka-esque high. (Like roaches' thoughts are really that damn interesting.) After trying a taste of the Flit in his canister Lee is picked up by the police for drug possession and interrogated by a giant cockroach with a TALKING ANUS.

After that, all hell breaks loose. The Roach Anus informs Lee that his wife is a deep cover agent of "the Opposition" and to kill her. So he does, and it's hard to say whether it was intentional or not. He flees to a place called Interzone (based off of the International Zone in Tangiers) and ends up getting hooked on something harder than bug powder: writing.

At this point in the movie, it's just one long semi-disjointed hallucination. In fact there are parts where people from the "Real World" show up and you wished they'd go away so Lee can continue with his trip. There's a lot in this movie that is hard to describe, but easy to watch for some reason. We got talking roaches, a Mugwump, roaches with keyboard interfaces, a lesbian housekeeper, Julian Sands, an RV with tank treads, and an Arabic typewriter with a hard-on.

With the visual metaphoric imagery that Cronenburg is famous for, it's hard to tell if you actually saw the movie or are still feeling the effects of that bad headcheese sandwich you just ate.

Line of the movie: "Exterminate all rational thought" Sound advice for this movie.

Five Stars. Not redeemable for cash.