Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (2008)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Powerful

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

To be quite honest, and I say this as a major Kubrick fan, hoping to direct films myself one day, that I learned more about the man from this one documentary than I have any other. It is short, yes, but it describes the genius and eccentricity of Kubrick so well.I really can understand Jon Ronson when he says he was privileged by the experience, going through the so called "kubrick boxes" getting an incredible insight in Kubrick's mind. Also I was relieved when they in the end said that the boxes where now stored in a London film school for preservation and educational purposes.There really isn't anything wrong about this documentary, other than Jon Ronson's bad habit of giving some rather silly and stupid movie references in the middle of interviews and as I said earlier, it was a little short. If Jon Ronson ever decided to make a longer cut of this documentary, I would love too see it.

Of course Kubrick is the best director of all time; this should be obvious even to the most deluded Bunuel-sniffing film student. But I'm not going to sit here and write a sniveling, awe-filled adoration piece, making a god out of a mere mortal. There is quite enough over-the-top idolatry as it is in Paris Hilton's Age Of The Idiot...SKB has a very unusual approach to tackling a dead human subject: by digging through his numerous boxes clues are found as to how insanely perfectionist Kubrick had become post-"Strangelove" (fittingly enough, the weakest movie after "Spartacus" - not counting those early 50s films, naturally).Evidently, Kubrick was a collector, not a thrower, which I can perfectly understand. But unlike the kind of garbage I keep lying around my flat, Kubrick's is rather fascinating and worthwhile.As the documentary gradually drew to a close there was a sense of disappointment because there's enough material in those boxes to make a 10-hour documentary, as opposed to the pitiful 45 minutes we're given here; mere breadcrumbs. Ronson just scratches the surface. There should be a docu series on these boxes, with each episode tackling a specific subject: an entire episode could be easily dedicated to the crank letters, for example. A two-part episode should be about the footage his daughter shot of Kubrick filming "FM Jacket". Another episode could be about his meticulous search for props, yet another could be about the hunt for ideally suitable locations, etc. Unfortunately, Kubrick destroyed all his out-takes (a fact that made me grin a bit), but there's easily a whole episode somewhere in those boxes about screen tests. I even sense that an episode could be made about his numerous pets, and if you think there are no viewers interested in a subject as narrowed-down as that, think again... Kubrick was one of the last true eccentrics of the movie world, and as such he's interesting to non-fans as well. The pet episode could be aired as an Animal Planet special.We're all peeping toms, and what could be more fun than to have such relatively intimate sneaks into the private life of a semi-loon as interesting as Kubrick... So open all of those damn boxes and make more documentaries, frcrissakes! I'm sure the Kubrick estate headed by his widow wouldn't mind.

Documentary from Sundance and Channel 4 about Stanley Kubrick's boxes. The boxes contain all of the research for all of his films from 2001 to Eyes Wide Shut. It's the story of a man who was obsessed with the films he made and all of the tiny little details involved in making them. Its a tribute to the depths that Kubrick would go to to make a film. It also shows why in the later years so few films were made as his planned film on the Holocaust was sidelined when Steven Spielberg planned and shot Schindler's List while Kubrick was still wading through the research. We see the Fan letters, the crank letters, reports on books and scripts as possible subjects (including a pass on the Killing Fields), film of Kubrick shooting films, the odd memos, the stationery, and everything else that Kubrick collected when he made (and tried to make) films. It'a an intriguing portrait of a man, or at least a man's obsessions through his detritus. It's more a side bar portrait to the man rather than a full portrait and actually would make a nice companion piece to the short documentary thats on the Eyes Wide Shut DVD The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut. Worth a look if you've ever wondered about the man and his obsessions which were always oddly reported in the media.

When a man who was as smart - not entirely nuts, there's something of a difference when looking at an artist - as Stanley Kubrick made a film, it became like erecting a skyscraper: lots and lots of planning, researching, more researching, writing and re-writing, very long casting sessions, long (definitively Kubrickian long) shoots, editing, and finally, more often than not, perfect film-making. For those who may on a given day say out loud that Stanley Kubrick is the greatest filmmaker post-silent era (which I myself have uttered on occasion), a documentary like Stanley Kubrick's boxes realizes on this man's obsessions and passions and curiosities and singular attention to detail that it also revealed a tragic flaw: in a career that spanned over 40 years, he directed only 13 feature length films, and in the last 30 years of his life directed 4. One of the things that will endlessly interest me is how a man had such a wealth of knowledge about one thing that if it got turned off or something happened with the project it was like literally losing a child. And, oddly enough for such a (compared to, say, Woody Allen) un-prolific man, he never went on "holiday" or even really recognized what it was to take a holiday.This documentary is essential if only for highlighting this and other parts to Kubrick, the actual man as he was as well as the "mythology" that surrounded him for being so reportedly reclusive and eccentric (the opposite was really the case, as a married man with a bunch of kids and cats and dogs who merely enjoyed privacy and creative independence as earned luxuries), with the aid of so many boxes full of "stuff" that it took the director 4 years to look through it all. As meticulous as he was in his everyday life, so was he in storing everything. We see the stills of various hats tried on for Clockwork Orange. We see the legal paperwork Kubrick fired out over a mid-70s sci-fi show that ripped off 2001. We see a handful of the hundreds of hours of audition footage of the grunts for Full Metal Jacket. Hell, we even get to see one or two "looney" videos from pranksters-cum-stalkers who sent Kubrick videos parodying his films.We also get some touching and funny anecdotes from his family (wife and kids) and those closest to him like his assistants (Leon Vitali has some particularly good ones), all unearthing stories to go along with what's pulled out. Some of it, indeed, comes close to unbelievable. But at the same time it can range from insightful without having anything to do with movies (i.e. long transcripts about how to deal with feline behavior) and the mountains of research dedicated to Napoleon and Louis Begley's Wartime Lies. The real hardcore Kubrick fans might not find a whole lot to look at- not sure who they are as I'm possibly one and didn't bicker much- but everyone else, even casual fans, would do very well to seek this out (it's finally aired in the US on Sundance channel). At the least, we get some stuff for film-buffs to geek out on like super-duper rare behind the scenes footage with FMJ.