Color Me Kubrick

COLOR ME KUBRICK: A TRUE…..ISH STORY Life falsely imitates art truly (ok, oxymoron rampage) in the hilarious outlandish "Color Me Kubrick: A True….Ish Story". John Malkovich stars as Alan Conway, a flamboyant witty conman who truly impersonated the legendary Stanley Kubrick in London during the 90's. What was so surreal or unreal in this matter is that his schemes worked. Since Kubrick was considered a recluse in his London home and studio, many Londoners actually fell for Conway's manipulation and handed over lavish gifts & dollars to Stanley Kubrick, I mean, Alan Conway himself! See what I mean! His manipulative ploys worked like "Clockwork" and it was a strange "Odyssey" that had the light "Shining" on Conway and these poor fools did not know how much their "Eyes Wide Shut" vision had them looking like rubbish victims; I thought I would color Kubrick myself with that homage. John Malkovich's eccentric & masterful performance is in the elite class of the year. Hey, he is a superb actor; he was just being his usual John Malkovich grand auteur self. Writer Anthony Ferwin, a longtime Kubrick collaborator, colored the film with comical ingredients with his trueish screenplay. Director Brian Cook spiced up this true story adaptation with meaty experimental direction; just like the master Stanley. Cook, who also was a Kubrick Assistant Director, did learn to cook up film direction from Kubrick himself. So I feed you no bull...it when I say that "Color Me Kubrick: A True….ish Story" paints a pretty comical picture for the movie public. ***** Excellent

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source: Color Me Kubrick

Having just seen this movie, the most striking thing for me was how impressive Malcovich's performance was... that man can act. his accents were hilarious, his comic timing was impeccable, his blatant homosexuality was wonderful. it's really of this which carries the movie through, as the plot itself doesn't really have much substance to it. the entire film revolves around one character, and it is only really malcovich's character which gains any development at all, so it's just as well he does it well. personally, i enjoyed the film immensely, but came away with a great appreciation of malkovich, rather than for the film itself.

I went to this picture with the hope that -- if nothing else -- watching John Malkovich play a highly troubled delusional queen with a genius for manipulation and an obscene fashion sense would be enough to keep me entertained for an hour and change. It wasn't. The flick's barely worth analyzing; it's simply a mess, handled so poorly that Malkovich's moments of comic mastery are lost in a sea of poorly executed photography, tepid writing and haphazard form. While director/prod Brian Cook was one of Kubrick's assistant directors we see that little to no talent ever rubbed off - things get so bad that one clings to the often forced and clumsy musical/visual homage's to the genius' work to at least quell that nagging voice that won't stop whispering "you spent eleven dollars on this...you spend eleven dollars on this..." To say nothing about the quality of acting, photography, writing, form, pace, etc., one can credit Color Me Kubrick as a charming premise, but one gone sodden and awry with mediocre film-making.

John Malkovich plays Alan Conway who pretends he is reclusive director Stanley Kubrick. Despite not resembling Kubrick in any way whatsoever, Conway succeeds in siphoning money from innocent gawkers, as well as never ever paying for bills, dinner or even writing cheques. Malkovich's performance is so over the top and flamboyant that it is fascinating and annoying at the same time. He changes not only his appearance each time (obviously Conway assumes Kubrick wears flamboyant clothes and hats) but also his accents, ranging from British to a mixture of other dialects. And all this, in just 86 minutes- which goes to prove what I always believe, that films should ideally run no more than 90 minutes. Some lovely in joke references to Kubrick's film, but ultimately where this films falls down is that after one or two con-jobs by Conway, we basically get more of the same throughout the film. It would have been better to expand on the subplot of those trying to track him down, to give this film more strength. http://rhettrospective.blogspot.com

Before I saw "Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story", I had never heard of this guy who pretended to be Stanley Kubrick. I thought that it was a pretty interesting movie. They set it up so that many scenes look like scenes from Kubrick's films. For example, the opening scene gives the impression of "A Clockwork Orange". John Malkovich plays the impostor (and at one point, he even talks about trying to hire John Malkovich!). I gotta wonder how this guy got so many people to believe his lies, as he neither resembled the director nor knew too much about him. But he clearly convinced some people. Anyway, I found it a fairly eye-opening story about the obsession with fame, if nothing else. Worth seeing. This must be only movie besides "The Shining" to feature the song "Midnight, the Stars and You".

i went into this expecting a documentary, or a biopic, or at least a drama that examined the events that occurred around this guy. what i got was a crappy comedy that played like a rip-off of catch me if you can. it seemed to me like they filmed several separate "incidents" that they found funny, then remembered that films are supposed to have plots, so they threw in one scene introducing his roommate as some guy smoking pot on his couch, and then we were expected to have an emotional reaction later on in the hospital scene when he's there and malkovich is pretending not to recognize him? the subplot with the escort service went nowhere and neither did the newspaper one. this director needs some practice.

I have to say, after years of seeing Malkovich receive critical acclaim for acting roles in which he seemed to do little more than portray himself, I had pretty much written him off as another one of those American actors whose sole talent lay in having a charismatic persona. I gained renewed respect for him when I saw the priceless, "Being John Malkovich" - which, although not a film to challenge the former accusation, certainly showed that he had a sense of humour about himself and his established "persona". But with "Colour me Kubrick", he deserves full credit - both for allowing himself to appear absolutely ridiculous on film, and for a performance in which he truly transforms himself (multiple times) to portray the grotesque, yet strangely endearing character of Alan Conway. It's a fantastic performance that renews my belief in his skill as an actor. The film itself is cleverly written and well-executed, with excellent performances by all supporting characters. If it weren't for the many, hilarious sub-plots, involving Conway/Kubrick's hapless victims (all of whom, in some way, deserve what they get), the main plot - which is indeed a rather thin premise on which to base an entire film - would have grown tiresome quickly. As it is, the film probably couldn't have stood to be five minutes longer, and ended rather weakly. However, for what it was, it was very entertaining. As a small footnote: very surprising is the - totally uncharacteristic, and as a consequence, quite enjoyable - soundtrack work by Bryan Adams, usually known for his cheezy, lighter-waving, nausea-inducing rock-ballads. Since when does he make music like this?

This is an ugly little film in every respect. Story and character, execution and performance are all unpleasantly displayed in a film that remains leaden from start to finish. It opens abruptly with Alan Conway, an alcoholic, fashion challenged gay man assuming the identity of uber famous but reclusive director Stanley Kubrick. This masquerade manages to induce drink, entry, money and sex from awestruck strangers. He's fortunate most of the time not to be exposed since he's done little research to pull off his deceptions and in one instance is unmasked when he accepts credit for a film most people know he didn't make. As the dissolute Conway, John Malkovich is too affected to be effective. His over the top flaming performance borders on a nauseating stereotype. It's as if he is an outrageously gay man being John Malkovich. The one lone conceit that shows a semblance of some wit in this film is the utilization of Kubrick's famous scores to accompany Conway on his journey. It's fun, a moment of light parody that is quickly buried under the mean spirited actions of the lead and misery of his powerless victims that permeates this unctuous work.