Colour Me Kubrick (2005)

Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Better Late Then Never

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

I really don't know what to say about this film, it's about a con-man that pretends to be Stanley Kubrick, and that's it. Kubrick being in real life quite a recluse (in a sense of the word) gave him a great chance to take his name. No one had seen a Kubrick film in over 10 years, and Kubrick had stayed out of the spotlight since the 60's, so you can at least appreciate the fact that this story is quite plausible. Well it says, based on a true-ish story, not sure what that means.The bad sides however, is it's lack of direction. he basically just goes around scamming people with his various "Kubricks", until he's revealed to be a fraud. And that's about it. Also it uses the soundtracks from various Kubrick films, it's funny at times, but almost feels like a bad attempt to copy the genius of Kubrick films. They even attempt to copy one of his quick edits from A Clockwork Orange, which frankly was just silly.So if you're a Kubrick fan, you might find this an amusing 1 hour 20 minutes film to kill some time one day when you're bored. If you haven't seen a single Kubrick film, this is huge waste of time.So I give this film a 6/10.

COLOR ME KUBRICK: A TRUE…..ISH STORYLife 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

Either DVDs have created too many niche markets, or big time filmmakers have become so disengaged from public tastes that they're willing to come up with anything and shove it in our faces, thinking we will find interest in things that are just not interesting.In recent times, Sean Penn filmed a story about a psychopath who tried to hijack a plane and crash it into Washington D.C. It was based on a true story about a nasty creep who only caused a lot of people trouble and killed some men. Did he rate a motion picture being filmed about his life? No. What was the point, except arrogance on the part of the filmmakers.Colour Me Kubrick is the same type of story, about a nasty little loser who pretends to be someone else because A.) He wants free drinks B.) he's a nasty little loser, or C.) he wants free drinks. That's it. That's the whole story. Funny? No. Interesting? No. Sad? Only in that so much money was wasted on this project.If you're interested in Stanley Kubrick, there is no reason to watch this film, it really has nothing to do with him. The thief who uses his name has no interest in Kubrick or even watches his movies. Generally, the whole thing is a waste of time.

"Color Me Kubrick" will remind you a bit of Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me if You Can," in which Leonardo Di Caprio played a world-class con artist who duped people into believing he was a myriad of Very Important People whom he was really not. In "Colour Me Kubrick," the imposter is a man named Alan Conway who goes about London telling people he is the famed (and famously reclusive) director, Stanley Kubrick, in order to bum rides, free drinks and even sexual favors off of them. I guess it's appropriate that I just happened to catch this film on April 1st of all days.Written by Andrew Frewin and directed by Brian W. Cook, "Color Me Kubrick" is clearly a godsend for its star, John Malkovich, who seems to be having the time of his movie-acting life doing this role. Malkovich tailors his demeanor and accent to fit the audience to whom he is playing, running the gamut from Capote-esquire fey for his gay "clients" (Conway is himself gay) to regular-guy macho for his straight targets. Yet, Malkovich never resorts to mere playacting to create his effect; by fully inhabiting the character, he keeps Conway from descending into a merely clownish figure and allows him to register as a fully fleshed-out human being.Unfortunately, although the screenplay is frequently witty and even downright hilarious at times, the movie itself is never quite as good as Malkovich is in it. Despite its overall originality, there's an innate one-note quality to the setup that the movie cannot completely shake, so that, even at a mere eighty-six minutes, the conceit tends to wear a bit thin after awhile. The filmmakers somewhat make up for that weakness by also showing us the means by which Conway is eventually unmasked for all the world to see. There are also a number of surprisingly poignant moments in the film in which we are shown just how sad, lonely and pathetic an individual Conway really is. The most touching sequence comes when a movie-savvy young man in a bar uncovers Conway's ruse by trapping him with a trick Stanley Kramer question. As Conway slinks away from the scene humiliated and crestfallen, we can clearly see why Malkovich is one of the finest actors of his generation.Beyond the Conway character, the film provides a gently satirical jab at our culture's overwhelming obsession with celebrity and our willingness to suspend critical judgment on a person or a scheme if we can discern a benefit for ourselves by doing so. For, indeed, virtually everyone who allows himself to be duped by this impersonator has starry-eyed dreams of one day making it big in either the entertainment business or the world of corporate financing. Conway has merely come up with a clever way of exploiting that obsession for his own personal benefit.There's also something wryly humorous in the fact that, although Kubrick is universally recognized as being one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, his face was so unfamiliar to both the general populace and even people in the movie industry that Conway was able to pull this ruse off for so long without getting caught. Can anyone imagine an individual trying that same stunt with Spielberg, Tarantino, Scorsese, etc.? This is a slight but endearing comedy that is a must-see for John Malkovich fans.