"Room 237" - Film Review

About halfway through, Room 237 becomes absolutely mindnumbing. And it’s not because it’s a bad film (in fact, I’d say it’s a very good film), but rather because the theories it’s allowing people to elaborate on about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are totally insane.

At times it’s easy to laugh them off, but other times the theories are so baseless and off-point that it becomes frustrating and painful: people actually believe this nonsense? These obsessive cinephiles have taken semiotics analysis to its most extreme trying to penetrate through the exacting perfectionism of Kubrick's vision. The perectionism that has them convinced that every little detail was purposely placed (and even has implications about the staging of the moon landing, the Holocaust, and the slaughter of the American Indians).

 

Like a horror movie that crawls under your skin, the documentary is unsettling and disturbing because it drags you into the strange and twisted views of people who have read into The Shining way, way too much. 

But the film also never looks down upon or judges its interviewees. It simply presents their arguments and leaves it for us to decide how we feel. In fact, we never actually see any of these indvidual but merely hear their voices. While they often come off as having a few bolts loose, we've all had that experience where we read into a piece of art too much and were convinced our theory was right.

Room 237 systematically unfolds these theories and provides a fascinating window onto an intriguing subject matter. 

Grade: A-