Room 237

Director: Rodney Ascher
Language: English
Theatrical Release Date: Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival
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Tagline: Some movies stay with you forever... and ever... and ever.

Synopsis: The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is largely seen as an allegory on McCarthyism, Matrix is replete with Christian symbolism, while Godzilla can only be an evocation of the ravages of the atomic bomb.  But one film more than any other, has generated analyses, interpretations and arguments about it really meaning: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.  Room 237 explores numerous these theories about the true if often hidden meanings of Kubrick’s 1980 'Masterpiece of Modern Horror'. Born out of countless conversations with producer Tim Kirk, Rodney Ascher’s film gives voice to the thoughts of five thoroughly obsessed Shining devotees. [Synopsis courtesy of Cannes - Directors' Fortnight 2012]

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Reviews

The Playlist News

Watch: Clever Trailer For Doc 'Room 237' Pays Homage To The Original 'The Shining' Teaser

There are few films in the horror genre -- or even the general history of cinema -- that have continued to spur the kind of obsession, fascination and discussion decades after its release that Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" has. Indeed, the last few weeks have seen the script pages fo...
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The Playlist News

Check Into 'The Shining' Documentary 'Room 237' On March 29th

Premiering last year at the Sundance Film Festival, and making its way around the world with stops in Cannes, Moscow, Locarno, Deauville, Austin and more, the obsessive documentary “Room 237” finally has an official North American release date. So put your “Apollo 11” sweater...
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The Playlist News

Watch: Trailer For 'Room 237,' Rodney Ascher's Look Into Obsession & 'The Shining'

Representing a labyrinthine nightmare both in terms of subject matter and also fair rights usage, Rodney Ascher's documentary “Room 237” delves into “The Shining” and Stanley Kubrick's themes and meanings like never before. Using source material from Mario Bava films ...
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The Playlist News

'The Paperboy,' 'The Shining' Doc 'Room 237' Plus Special Screening Of 'Lawrence Of Arabia' & More Added To NYFF

With TIFF capping off their lineup earlier today, their colleagues over at the New York Film Festival continue to roll out their slate, and a few more announcements have surfaced, so strap in.
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Indiewire Reviews

102 Reviews From the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival continues through next weekend, but Indiewire has already reviewed a significant portion of the program at various other festivals over the past year.
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Indiewire Reviews

TIFF Capsule Review: 'Room 237'

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 Stephen King adaptation "The Shining" endures for many reasons -- from its supremely horrific mood to the technical feats used to create it. However, the lively voices in "Room 237" take that admiration to an entirely new plane of awareness. A search for deeper meanings in Kubrick's movie, Rodney Ascher's film is a brilliant collage of interviews with academics and other experts in the art of textual analysis. Jazzing up a process usually reserved for scholarly pursuits, Ascher combines reasonable interpretations of "The Shining" with hilariously extreme conclusions -- but ...
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The Playlist Reviews

Cannes Review: 'Room 237' An Outstanding, Fascinating & Funny Exploration & Celebration Of 'The Shining'

Is "The Shining" just a horror movie about a guy who goes berserk in a hotel, or is it subversively about the history of American genocide? Why did Stanley Kubrick use cans of Calumet and Tang in the hotel's storeroom? Were these just random products, or were they each chosen and framed in the camer...
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Indiewire Reviews

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Every year, Cannes Film Festival hype suggests a cinephile's heaven on earth. There's some truth to that, but the reality is more complicated.
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Indiewire Reviews

Critical Consensus: Karina Longworth and Mark Olsen Discuss Sundance 2012

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