Room 237
IFC Films | Release Date: March 29, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critics
Positive:
26
Mixed:
3
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 28, 2013
Like “The Shining” and its maze within a maze, Mr. Ascher’s movie is something of a labyrinth. Puzzling your way through its compilation of vaguely lucid and crackpot ideas is pleasurable though, for avid movie lovers, it may also feel like a warning. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 27, 2013
Room 237 makes perfect sense of "The Shining" because, even more than "The Shining" itself, it places you right inside the logic of how an insane person thinks. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineMar 24, 2013
The doc positions The Shining as a comparably coiled, thematically overflowing microcosm--standing in for cinema, for history, for obsession, for postmodern theory buckling under the film's heft. Read full review
100
EmpireIan Freer Feb 10, 2013
Room 237 captures the true nature of viewing, talking about and dissecting movies to the nth degree and it is infectious. Read full review
100
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthFeb 10, 2013
Unique and at times profound, it's a reminder of how much Kubrick left for us to appreciate in his work, and how the greatest films always leave something more to be discovered with each viewing. Read full review
100
VarietyRob NelsonFeb 10, 2013
Handsomely produced and never less than hugely entertaining, Ascher's film is catnip for Kubrickians and critics both professional and otherwise. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMar 27, 2013
The effect of Room 237 is intense. It’s a deep dive into the rabbit hole of semiotics, designed to train viewers to become alert to what they’re really seeing. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 11, 2013
It is undeniably fun to see such a great movie sliced and diced and put back together in so many ways. Too often when we see a movie we like, we just say it’s good, recommend it to someone and leave it at that. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 4, 2013
Room 237, which goes into national distribution this weekend, may be the surpassingly eccentric — and enormously entertaining — film that Kubrick deserves. Read full review
90
Village VoiceSteve EricksonMar 26, 2013
Even if the theories don't persuade you, the film fascinates. It's revelatory about the nature of spectatorship in an era when technology allows audiences to watch films frame by frame. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 10, 2013
Nutty, arcane and jaw-dropping in equal measure, this is a head-first plunge down the rabbit hole of Kubrickiana from which, for some, there is evidently no return. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 18, 2013
Watching Room 237 is like being stuck on an airplane next to a stranger hellbent on convincing you of his very detailed, very paranoid theory of the universe. Actually, it’s like being stuck on a plane full of those guys, each with a different yet compellingly insane take on reality. And the in-flight entertainment features only one movie: “The Shining.” Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 28, 2013
Ascher's unique and unforgettable film is a tribute to movie love. I couldn't have liked it more. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc MohanApr 18, 2013
The credibility of these theories ranges from faintly plausible to frankly ridiculous, but Ascher isn't interested in judging them; his movie is more about the joys of deconstruction and the special kind of obsession that movies can inspire. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 5, 2013
Here at least the gobbledygook is entertaining. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 29, 2013
Even these ludicrous notions illustrate the real point of Room 237, as I see it, which is that “The Shining” is a disturbing, complicated and highly unusual creation of pop cinema that works on many levels, and whose slow-acting toxin continues to spread through our cultural veins more than 30 years later. Read full review
80
NPRScott TobiasMar 28, 2013
After all, the documentary itself stands as a thrilling testament to the fact that art is — and should be — open to interpretation. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsMar 28, 2013
Maybe they’re all right. Or wrong. It can’t be settled. What matters is that people are still crazy about the beauty of a beautiful movie about going crazy. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 26, 2013
Room 237 asks that you bring your own noodles; as docs go, it leaves you with questions, some worry and rib-sticking satiation. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 10, 2013
[Room 237] raises very interesting ideas about how we view a film, about what happens if we take the act of viewing down to a deeper, molecular level, and about how a movie's significance and effect need not be those intentionally willed by the director. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 12, 2013
Ascher treats all these insane theories seriously, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 4, 2013
I found most of what's actually put forth in the film interpretively ridiculous. But I'm just one theorist among millions, and the film worked for me anyway. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 13, 2013
The documentary Room 237 is an ostensibly thoughtful deep reading, a deconstruction of Stanley Kubrick’s film of Stephen King’s 1980 novel “The Shining.” What it really is, is a bunch of obsessives obsessing about an obsessive movie maker’s obsessive movie. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 10, 2013
Room 237 becomes not a film about "The Shining" or even a film about film. Rather, it is an examination of the nature of obsession, about how we are capable of convincing ourselves — and possibly others — that just about anything might be true. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenMay 10, 2013
Are these enlightened critics or dark nutcases themselves? Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesJim EmersonApr 3, 2013
Trouble is, the Room 237 conspirators — er, contributors — don't seem to realize that those meanings are either not hidden, not meanings or not remotely supported by the secret evidence they think they've uncovered. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 1, 2013
As amusing as the movie is, I think in the end that Ascher misses the labyrinth for the trees. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 30, 2013
What Room 237 is really about is how movies inspire passion. Which is a great thing, even if it comes out in wack-job ways. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 3, 2013
There are no hard answers in Room 237, a feature-length, sporadically engaging exploration of the latter (The Shining). Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithMar 28, 2013
I’m probably more intrigued than 99.3 percent of the American public by the idea of deconstructing the hidden symbols in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” but the theories proposed in the doc Room 237 aren’t eye-opening. They’re laughable. Read full review
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