Review: Room 237 (2012)
Director: Rodney Ascher
Country: USA
Genre: Documentary
Official Trailer: Here
Editor’s Notes: Room 237 opens in limited release on Friday, March 29th. If you’ve already seen the film we’d love to hear your thoughts on it, or if you’re looking forward to seeing it this weekend, please tell us in the comments section below or in our new Next Projection Forums.
For every film fan, there is that one movie—one, at least—for which no analysis is too much, for which the tiniest little detail can be of the utmost importance, for which countless rewatches are warranted by that crucial quest to uncover the elusive meaning of the material. Like any fixation—any obsession, any addiction, even—cinephilia has the power to engulf the mind and overwhelm the senses with its selfish thirst. With his first feature documentary Room 237, Rodney Ascher explores the startling extremities of film fandom by way of The Shining, grouping five acolytes of Kubrick’s 1980 horror and expounding—by way of voiceover, animation, and a remarkable wealth of material from Kubrick’s filmography and more—their respective beliefs as to the message it presents.
Taking full advantage of “fair use”, the copyright law exception that allows usage of material for critical purposes, he supplements each claim with audiovisual backing not only from The Shining but from an array of sources beyond it too, giving his chosen subjects fair and ample opportunity to convince with their own personal takes on Kubrick’s intended meaning.
Could there be a better movie with which to explore the phenomenon of filmic obsession than The Shining? An esteemed great from a director commonly recognised among the finest to ever work within the medium, it carries the dual benefit of fitting comfortably within the ethereal purview of Kubrick’s thematic discursion and the familiar boundaries of narrative storytelling. At once more accessible than 2001 and yet just as open to interpretation, it constitutes a fascinating confluence of the notoriously fastidious director’s innovative reworking of generic formulae and his remarkable ability to attune the peculiarities of cinema to an examination of pertinent issues. Its richness is attested by the passion with which these theories are evinced, the voices of the five witnesses Ascher calls to this cinematic bench—never do we see their faces—cracking with excitement as they offer their evidence with the utmost conviction.
That evidence—be it repeated motifs throughout the film; blatant continuity errors that, Kubrick’s perfectionism considered, must surely be intentional; spatial inconsistencies of the set design; overlapping shapes of the film when projected over itself in reverse (no, really)—is presented tirelessly by Ascher, who is as a wordless assistant to these incorporeal theorists. Taking full advantage of “fair use”, the copyright law exception that allows usage of material for critical purposes, he supplements each claim with audiovisual backing not only from The Shining but from an array of sources beyond it too, giving his chosen subjects fair and ample opportunity to convince with their own personal takes on Kubrick’s intended meaning. The grand, unseen orchestrator behind this multifaceted discourse, Ascher makes his impact chiefly as editor, his brilliant interweaving of so many different sources always clear and coherent.
Ascher’s presentation of these theories in his film does not amount to an agreement with them; indeed, there’s a subtly scabrous wit to his cutting that specifically discounts their unabashed silliness.
It’s not just in his organisation of this material that Ascher displays a vast editorial talent, though, but also—arguably more so—in the deadpan comedy of his juxtapositions. As with Zero Dark Thirty last year, all too many viewers of Room 237 have confused depiction with endorsement: Ascher’s presentation of these theories in his film does not amount to an agreement with them; indeed, there’s a subtly scabrous wit to his cutting that specifically discounts their unabashed silliness. As one theorist insists The Shining is tantamount to Kubrick’s confession to having staged the moon landing, Ascher cuts to the young Danny clasping his hands over his face, the original horror of the gesture ironically skewed to now represent a wearied wince at the straw-clutching desperation of this thematic extrapolation. More explicit still is the humorous scepticism when, in response to one of the subject’s more credibility-defying claims—and they do get wackier—Ascher cuts to Jack as he says, his face barely containing his own rising laughter, “Whatever you say, Lloyd, whatever you say.”
For all his sniggering, and his invitation of his audience to do the same, what’s truly refreshing about Ascher’s approach is its complete lack of cynicism. Much as he may laugh at these people for the unbridled lunacy of their theories, much as he may find comedy in the strange depth of their fascination with this film, he never does so with malicious intent; his amusement never precludes a certain amount of respect for the unyielding adoration that facilitates such in-depth readings. After all, no matter the firmness with which his tongue is planted in his cheek, Ascher is here himself indulging in the excesses of film fandom, giving his time to the creation of a documentary about these crackpot theories. And we ourselves, sat there happy to listen to others wax lyrical on the potential meanings of Kubrick’s images, are just as much a part of this culture as those disembodied voices who find such significance in every shot. In the end, Room 237 is as much a celebration of this obsession as it is a comedy about it: despite the laughs, Ascher makes of his documentary a loving tribute to this strange thing we call cinephilia.
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