| By Glenn Gaslin Directed by Brian Cook. Starring John Malkovich. Released by Magnolia. This isn't a film by Stanley Kubrick, nor is it a movie about Stanley Kubrick. In a roundabout way, though, this basically true story about a serial Kubrick impersonator is a little bit of both. In the early '90s, a London travel agent went around town - hitting parties, propositioning actors, facing people who knew Kubrick - telling everyone he was, in fact, the reclusive director. As interpreted vaguely by John Malkovich, the sad antics of Alan Conway here become a sly meditation on celebrity and identity, on how a genius can step off the world, allowing a playful nutjob to inhabit his life - or invent an entirely new one. Funny little touches - well, maybe music from Clockwork Orange is more disturbing than funny - add to the joy, not only of studying Kubrick but also Malkovich, a brilliant goofball actor sinking into a role. Just the way Stanley would have had him do it. For more on Stanley Kubrick, see MPM's OffScreen article "Stanley Kubrick: Still Provocative and Surprisingly Personal" from the Icons issue, June/July 2006. |
