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Naked Lunch

EMAIL PRINTTwentieth Century Fox

7.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama | Fantasy | Sci-fi

Written by: David Cronenberg
William S. Burroughs (novel)

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 27, 1991
DVD: November 11, 2003

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: Canada / UK / Japan

Summary

RATING: R

Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, and Monique Mercure

Bill Lee becomes addicted to the insect powder he uses and accidentally kills his wife. Under the influence of the powder, he finds himself in a world of bugs and writing reports of his secret missions.

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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr

Though much of Naked Lunch is flip, hip and hilariously funny, it never wanders far from a profoundly melancholic undertone - Cronenberg's unshakable sense of loneliness, isolation and anxiety. [10 Jan 1992]

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

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

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Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

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.

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Washington Post Hal Hinson

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.

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Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

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.

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TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

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.

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The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

Paradoxically cerebral and primal, reasonable and anti-rational, life- affirming and nihilistic, Naked Lunch is a sensual and intellectual feast. It will not be a meal to everyone's taste, but in its bizarre class, there is nothing classier. [10 Jan 1992]

The New York Times Janet Maslin

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.

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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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

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USA Today Mike Clark

Naked Lunch is so well-acted and so amusingly warped that it's a shoo-in to become a cult movie. [30 Dec 1991]

Empire Staff (Not Credited)

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

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Time Richard Corliss

The movie is way too colorful - cute, in a repulsive way, with its crawly special effects - and tame compared with its source.

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Boston Globe Jay Carr

Cronenberg hasn't so much filmed Naked Lunch as tamed it, turned it into entertainment, with oozy rubber bugs, big and little, that look left over from David Lynch's movie of "Dune," or the intergalactic dive from "Star Wars." [10 Jan 1992]

Los Angeles Times Peter Rainer

It's a movie for people who really dig Cronenberg's mulchy fixations-and probably for no one else. [27 Dec 1991]

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Naked Lunch will undoubtedly bring pleasure, much of it perverse, to [David Cronenberg]'s many fans - and, simultaneously, confound and repulse a huge chunk of filmgoers. [10 Jan 1992]

Washington Post Desson Howe

It feels studiously surrealistic, an excuse for cinematic buggery; deep in its center there's a lack of conviction.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jan B. gave it a4:
A surrealistic, frequently boring movie with an incomprehensible plot.