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The great Stanley Kubrick is often lauded as the greatest filmmaker to ever live, and even those who disagree have to admit that the way he made movies was (and still is) without equal.
Interesting themes, patterns, and images plague Kubrick’s filmography, and there have been many movies throughout the years that (whether intentionally or not) emulate some of those qualities. Sadly, some of those films, like One Hour Photo and Moon, don’t receive nearly as much praise as they deserve. But if anyone is likely to enjoy them, it’s Kubrick fans.
Robin Williams’s Most Disturbing Performance — ‘One Hour Photo’ (2002)
In this unsettling dramatic thriller, a “photo guy” called Sy has been developing photos for a family since their son was a baby. Eventually, as he becomes lonelier, Sy begins to believe that he’s part of their family.
Kubrick liked protagonists who were lonely, obsessed, and dark but sympathetic. Sy is one such protagonist, especially thanks to one of Robin Williams‘s most distinct and memorable performances. One Hour Photo is a disturbing slow-burner, one that’s definitely worthy of more attention than it gets.
Some Movies Stay With You Forever… And Ever… And Ever — ‘Room 237’ (2012)
The subjective documentary Room 237 is a love letter to Kubrick, exploring many theories about hidden meanings in his cult classic horror film The Shining.
Room 237 is a rather niche documentary, in that you pretty much need to be a die-hard fan of The Shining in order to fully appreciate it and enjoy it. But since it’s one of the most beloved films of the horror genre, that shouldn’t be too hard a requirement. As it is, it’s a film that very interestingly presents many theories of varying levels of sanity.
A Dark Addiction Addressed With Sensitivity — ‘Shame’ (2011)
This poignant drama by Steve McQueen follows Brandon, a thirty-something New York man with a compulsive addiction to sex and a tendency to elude intimacy with women.
Shame is a character study with some striking similarities to Eyes Wide Shut, examining its protagonist carefully and with sympathy, but with an enrapturingly dark tone. It’s a movie with a stunning screenplay and amazing directing, as well as with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan offering the best performances of their respective careers.
In the Kremlin, No One Can Hear You Scheme — ‘The Death of Stalin’ (2017)
This British historical comedy is political satire at its sharpest, a movie about Josef Stalin’s parasitic cronies fought to become the next Soviet leader after Stalin’s sudden death.
Kubrick, who made with Dr. Strangelove what’s perhaps the funniest political satire to ever hit the silver screen, surely would have loved The Death of Stalin. Equal parts laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly dark and cynical, it’s definitely one of the most underappreciated comedies of the 2010s.
Time Shares Are A Cult — ‘Time Share’ (2018)
Time Share is one of the best Mexican movies of the 21st century so far, a surreal thriller comedy about a man called Pedro, who, when taking his family to a tropical resort, becomes convinced that the American company running it has plans to take away his loved ones.
Kubrick was drawn to telling stories about protagonists slowly losing their mind, and such is the case with the protagonist of Time Share. The line between reality and paranoia is often blurred, and watching Pedro go through misadventure after misadventure is as strangely funny as it is uncomfortably frustrating.
The Last Place You’d Expect to Find Yourself — ‘Moon’ (2009)
Moon is a sci-fi drama full of mystery and humanistic introspection, about an astronaut who’s the only occupant of a Moon-based facility. But after an accident, he wakes up to find that he’s not alone.
The tone and atmosphere of the film are terrifically constructed, which makes Moon an enveloping experience that’s hard to take one’s eyes off of. With its aura of mystery and paranoia, and the patient exploration of its complex themes, the film bears some resemblance with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Oddyssey, like a slow pacing and an abstract villain.
Journey Into the Heart of Darkness — ‘Aguirre: The Wrath of God’ (1972)
Some say that the best film by legendary German director Werner Herzog is Aguirre: The Wrath of God, about a Spanish expedition going down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth.
Herzog and Kubrick’s directing styles are vastly different, but they both tend to be drawn to obsessive protagonists chasing very specific goals. There aren’t many movie protagonists more obsessive than Lope de Aguirre, played brilliantly by Klaus Kinski, a man whose ambitions lead him to slowly descend into madness.
The Pressing Need for a Legacy — ‘Synecdoche, New York’ (2008)
Writer-director Charlie Kaufman‘s directing debut was Synecdoche, New York, a drama about a theater director struggling with his creativity who sets out to create a life-size replica of New York as part of his new play.
If this titanic endeavor isn’t Kubrickian obsession, what is? But Kaufman goes much, much deeper than just that. Synecdoche is a sprawling existentialist masterpiece, with a nuanced and fascinating main character, countless humanistic themes that are hard to pin down, and a rather confusing structure not too dissimilar from the ending of 2001.
How Death and Life Interconnect — ‘Wild Strawberries’ (1957)
Kubrick is not, of course, the only filmmaker to be considered among the best ever. Another person in that list is Ingmar Bergman, perhaps the greatest Swedish filmmaker of all time, who Stanley actually had great admiration for. In fact, Wild Strawberries, one of Bergman’s best works, was one of Kubrick’s favorite films ever.
Bergman was a master of depicting existentialism and discontent on screen with his unique blend of filmmaking abilities, and this masterpiece is no exception. It’s fascinating to see how the vast themes and intelligent characterization influenced Kubrick’s own way of telling stories.
Tarkovsky’s Response to ‘2001’? — ‘Solaris’ (1972)
Soviet auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, perhaps cinema’s greatest poet, wasn’t fond of Kubrick’s way of exploring the story of 2001. In fact, he actively disliked it. His outer-space masterpiece Solaris, about a psychologist sent to a space station to investigate a mysterious death, is a vastly different movie.
The amount of analysis and introspection that one can draw from Solaris is endless. It’s a movie that ponders on the meaning of humanity, the value of connections, and the nature of love, and does so with an enrapturing style. If only to draw comparisons to A Space Oddyssey, every fan of Stanley Kubrick absolutely must watch Tarkovsky’s Solaris.
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