Naked Lunch (1991)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Michael Zelniker, Nicholas Campbell, Joseph Scorsiani, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, (voice) Peter Boretski. (R)

Any adaptation of William S. Boroughs’ 1959 novel was bound to be a polarizing potential disaster, but writer/director Cronenberg managed to construct actual form and discipline, using the source as more of a vague pipeline of character and attitude (heavy on the meta-referential), and even incorporating bits and pieces from other Burroughs works and the writer’s own life. Exterminator William Lee (a dour and deadpan Weller, rarely more perfectly cast) becomes addicted to bug powder; kills his junkie wife (Davis); travels to the mysterious, Casablanca-esque Interzone; gets involved with black marketers, gay lovers and enemies, a doppelgänger of his dead wife (also played by Davis), and talking typewriter insects (voiced by Boretski, sounding a little like Willem Dafoe). Very weird, even by Cronenberg’s standards, but almost hypnotic in an am-I-on-hallucinogenics way, despite the repulsiveness of its subtextual outlook. If the description sounds intriguing, and there’s no opposition to the sight of monstrous beings that would fit right in with John Carpenter’s The Thing and giant centipedes being illegally harvested for “black meat,” it may very well work for you (but don’t say you weren’t warned).

76/100