The Films I Love: Eyes Wide Shut

In 1999 the world lost one of the greatest filmmakers who had ever lived.  His name was Stanley Kubrick.  His dream was to change to face of filmmaking and to change the way we all look at movies.  And for all intents and purposes he succeeded.  This was the man who brought us Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and finally Eyes Wide Shut.  I have a love/hate relationship with Kubrick.  I find his films fascinating and his techniques bizarre and often times brilliant, but his sense of narrative is maddening and many of his films (even those equated as masterpieces) stumble through their long winded third acts.  Kubrick was never content to tell a story the way most filmmakers did.  At times in his films he abandoned conventional narrative altogether to deliver a surreal and otherworldly experience, case in point - 2001.  Many of his films are simply a series of events or set pieces that Kubrick forces the viewer to make sense of.  Sometimes these events seem to have little to do with what has come before in the "story" and the only thing tying them together are the protagonist.  He uses symbolism, long takes, drawn out dialogue, pauses, classical music, and most notably - silence - to make his points.  In a Kubrick film almost nothing is as it seems.  He doesn't know how to be straightforward, which is both his greatest strength and weakness.  

Eyes Wide Shut is a brilliant display of all of Kubrick's gifts as a filmmaker and also his shortcomings.  It is a fitting final piece of the puzzle in his filmography and perhaps even answers many questions about the filmmaker himself.  Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick at his utmost peak as a filmmaker.  Nothing he could have ever done would have topped it.  For me it is the greatest film he has ever made.  Many people would scoff at that.  I wouldn't blame them either because Eyes Wide Shut is a hard film to like or really even care about, but it is fascinating and it paints an interesting picture of the human psyche when it comes to sex, love and relationships.  What makes Eyes Wide Shut so spectacular is it's humanity.  Kubrick has been accused of being a cold and calculated filmmaker with little or no interest in real human emotion. He has been called a man of ideas instead of feeling.  I would argue that he has always been in search of how to best convey humanity through his ideas as a filmmaker.  And here his ideas are fully realized into a picture of disturbing power because of how human it really is.  Eyes Wide Shut represents the sexual passion and urges inside of all of us.  It represents the ultimate human perversity.  It is a scathing statement on how we as people operate on a sexual level.  It's the kind of film that only Kubrick could have made.

From the marketing to the finished product, Kubrick had people fascinated by Eyes Wide Shut. It is his only film to open at Number 1 in the box office.  Part of this had to do with the fact that people wanted to see what the fuss was about.  The film had been shooting for years and spent an entire year in editing.  Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (who were husband and wife at the time) signed a contract that was open ended and stated that they could not leave the project until Kubrick decided to release them, however long that may be.  The trailer for the film was devilishly provocative and yet told you absolutely nothing about the films plot, but everything about what the film was about.   Kubrick had two of the hottest and sexiest stars at his disposal and many thought that Eyes Wide Shut would be a sexually perverse and steamy story about married psychiatrists who sleep with their patients.  This, of course, proved to be false (to be fair that would have been interesting subject matter in Kubricks hands as well).  The speculation was wild and it didn't help that reports were coming out of a supposed orgy scene that had to be digitally altered due to it's graphic nature.  Then people actually saw the movie.  There were many who passed it off and said it was a film about nothing and that it went nowhere.  And there were those who still flocked to the theater because it was Kubrick's last film and the man had died a few short months earlier.  There were those who loved the film and thought that it represented the best of Kubrick.  And even those that despised it wasted a lot of precious ink do denounce the film for either its boringness or obscene content.

The last thing Eyes Wide Shut is, is boring.  From it's opening scene to it's final moments Kubrick drags you along and makes you wonder just what the hell is going on.  He structures the film as a thriller with supposed murder and intrigue along the way.  But in reality he uses this as a device to explore the human psyche.  He is much more interested in the films sexual undercurrents.  But his thriller style does prove to have a point - sexual desire and obsession can be dangerous and deadly.  It represents a thematic destruction of human relationships.  Our bodies are governed by biological needs and Eyes Wide Shut spends most of it's screen time exploring this idea.  What is so interesting though, is that there is very little sex in the film.  There is plenty of implied sex, but the only real sex scene is the orgy itself, which is shown at a distance.  We the audience are the observers in this strange world that Kubrick has painted just as Tom Cruise's character is.  We are seeing through his eyes.  The fact that there is so little sex is what makes the picture truly disturbing.  It doesn't need it.  Cruise gets so close to sex over and over again that each time it becomes more dangerous and sinister.  There is nothing sexy about Eyes Wide Shut.  If anything the film is a denouncement of America's (and perhaps the worlds) fascination with sex.  In the world we have today sex itself has become a dangerous weapon that cannot be wielded lightly.  Eyes Wide Shut is an exploration of what happens to those who do. 

Eyes Wide Shut - The best video clips are right here

Enough cannot be said about the acting, direction, and cinematography.  It is all painstakingly perfect.  Kubrick's perfectionism is right there on the screen for all of us to see.  Kidman and Cruise chemistry ignites the screen.  They are a believable couple and Kubrick was smart by casting people who were actually married in real life.  If the film had anything to do with their marriage deteriorating I do not know, but I can certainly imagine it didn't help.  Eyes Wide Shut explores subjects that most of us don't want to deal with in relationships especially infidelity and desire.  It is a series of vignettes strung together with a loose plot line and underlying meaning.  With Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick took his own formula for filmmaking and perfected it.  At the end of the movie I finally understood what Kubrick was trying to do all those years and why he made so few movies.  His films consumed him and because of that Eyes Wide Shut was a fitting end to his legacy.  It represents everything Kubrick has ever wanted to say about us and the way we live (in my opinion, I will not pretend to know this great man's inner most thoughts and feelings).  He did change the way movies were made and how we see them.  There will never be another Stanley Kubrick and there will never be another Eyes Wide Shut.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Dir. Stanley Kubrick

159 min.

Zero Academy Award Nominations... what a shame.

Review: Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller's new comedy is at times a scathing satire on the Hollywood Movie Industry, at times a vulgar laced gross out comedy, and at other times a politically incorrect commentary, but it is always, if nothing else, ambitious.  In fact, Tropic Thunder is probably the most ambitious comedy to come out of Hollywood in a very long time.  I'm actually pretty amazed that the studio had the balls to release it un-cut considering it rips Hollywood to shreds while managing to offend African Americans, mentally and physically handicapped people, not to mention veterans and Asians. But Tropic Thunder pushes the audience's buttons for a reason - it wants us all to see how ridiculous movie stars, directors, producers, agents, studios, and even the people who pay to go see the movies really are.  Gays, mentally handicapped (or retards as the film so lovingly refers to them), and African Americans are all food for fodder because of how sensitive we always treat these issues and how Hollywood continuously exploits them, consciously or not.  Tropic Thunder doesn't always work, but when it does it's hilariously insightful.  At the midnight screening I went to there were some people getting upset by the films racier material... they clearly were missing the point.  Tropic Thunder is not your typical Hollywood comedy, it's a satire of everything we love and hate about the Industry.

What makes much of Tropic Thunder special is that nobody is trying to steal anyone else's thunder (forgive me).  The cast works especially well as an ensemble, which is hard to believe given the in your face talent involved here including Ben Stiller (the king of camera mugging), Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. (who can steal a movie from almost anyone), Mathew McConaughey, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, and last but not least Tom Cruise.  Yes, you read that right... Tom Cruise.  And what is most surprising is that Tom Cruise ALMOST runs away with the whole movie.  He is genuinely funny and terrifying in his role as a Hollywood executive hidden away in his bunker making and breaking deals.  I've always been a fan of Tom Cruise and what makes this performance so memorable is how he (for the first time in a while) isn't taking himself seriously.  He completely lets go and inhabits this disgusting character and plays against his Hollywood image.  It's the best thing he has done in years and his screen time is just enough that it does not become overbearing.  If the movie had been bad I would have said it was worth it just to see him in this against type extended cameo... but the movie is pretty great.  

The performance everyone has been talking about is Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus, an Aussie method actor who undergoes pigmentation surgery in order to play an African American.  You can believe the hype on this one folks. Downey is as funny as everyone has been saying and he does marvelous things with this controversial and juicy character.  What makes him avoid being a complete caricature is that Lazarus the actor is compelling and it's not that far of a stretch to see someone going to this kind of extreme for a role.  Method actors are praised for their ethic and this film satirizes the kind of love and adoration we bestow upon them.  If you really look deep down at what it is they are doing... it's pretty ridiculous and Downey exhibits this aspect of the character perfectly.  There are great moments when he himself reflects on the fact that he doesn't know why he is still in character.  He does it because he's always done it.  But what makes the performance even funnier is that this supposed great actor, Lazarus, clearly hasn't done any of his homework and instead relies on stereotypes to play an African American.  It's really funny stuff and Downey shines in the role.  He is having one hell of a year with this and Iron Man.  He still has the Soloist coming up toward years end.  I think Heath Ledger has met his biggest competition when it comes Oscar time...

Not everything in Tropic Thunder works despite the great comedic performances.  The humor here is all over the place and some of it just comes off as sophomoric.  Stiller's stint in the jungle by himself is hampered by the actors usual bag of tricks which are very been there done that.  Some of the supporting players over do it and chew through their dialogue rather than just deliver it.  Mathew McConaughey's character in theory is funny and even perhaps on the page, but on screen it just doesn't work as well as it should.  Though his casting is pretty inspired and right on the money.  And the films climax is chaotic and clunky.  But even in the moments when I wasn't really digging what was going on I still couldn't hold it against the film.  Tropic Thunder is wildly ambitious and because of that it is infectious on its audience.  You just cant help but be awed by how audacious it really is.  There were several times when I stared at the screen and thought to myself..."did they really just go there?"  Tropic Thunder "goes there" several times throughout its two hour run time and it is well worth a trip to see it.