Naked Lunch

R

Released Dec 27, 1991

1h 55m

Sci-Fi

List

72%

Tomatometer

39 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee (Peter Weller) and his dead-eyed wife, Joan (Judy Davis), like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider), Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

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Critics Consensus

Strange, maddening, and at times incomprehensible, Naked Lunch is nonetheless an engrossing experience.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

What emerges is recognizable but fully transformed Burroughs material.

Rated: 4/4

May 26, 2022

Full Review

Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: B+

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

David Ansen

Newsweek

Obviously this is not everybody's cup of weird tea: you must have a taste for the esthetics of disgust. For those up to the dare, it's one clammily compelling movie.

Mar 31, 2008

Full Review

Joe Lipsett

Anatomy of a Scream Podcast Network

A challenging film to engage with if you're unfamiliar with the life and work of William S. Burroughs. Visually it's very surreal and fantastical (the typewriters!), but narratively it doesn't come together in a satisfying way.

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 18, 2024

Full Review

Howard Waldstein

CBR

The book is, in many ways screed against conformity, and an ode to consciousness. The film, which is much easier to follow, is as much a tribute to the author who wrote the book as it is an attempt to make some sense of the slippery narrative.

Jun 27, 2023

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

A remarkably lucid and enjoyable riff on an unfilmable (some say unreadable) book.

Rated: A-

Aug 31, 2022

Full Review

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Gideon L

I hate this movie so much, I love it again.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/22/24

Full Review

Sutil S

Just... seriously. What an amazing film! When I first saw it as a 20 year old film buff kid, in film school I thought it was an ok cool movie that was weird made by a director I liked and a writer I thought I knew and liked but 20 years later I'm 40 and re watched this Masterpiece! And it clicked in so many ways it didn't back then even though I thought I got it... but now it was an amazing experience to see the struggles of a drug addicted writer portrayed on screen as a noir style fantasy mystery... it's just brilliant beyond brilliant... that ending... ooozing of so much meaning

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/25/23

Full Review

KB B

This was such a bizarre, stupid movie. Don't bother with this one.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

12/14/23

Full Review

David W

Bizarre and surreal are apt descriptions of Naked Lunch. It leans into its alternate reality feel well and offers an entertaining story the viewer happily follows. I would watch this again.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/24/24

Full Review

Shaeffer C

Even after I've watched the movie I'm still not sure I've seen it. I'm not sure whether to give it .5 stars or 4.5 stars. You'll either love it or hate it or both.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

04/27/23

Full Review

Bruno M

It's an absolute masterpiece! It's weird, complex, defying, provocative, obscene, hard to swallow. It's a film you'll go back to year after year, just to see if it still has the same effect on you - just to find out that it'll shock you in a different way. I ought to make this straightforward: it's a film dealing with drug addiction and drug trafficking in a very, very metaphorical way. After the protagonist - a junkie - shot his wife - also an unfaithful junkie - under the influence in a pretend William Tell scene, the falls back into a personal world of drug induced delirium and illusion to justify his actions, only to find out that drugs became his life. It's a punch in the stomach. You'll not regret to see it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/06/22

Full Review

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David Cronenberg

Director

Peter Weller

Bill Lee

Judy Davis

Joan Frost

Ian Holm

Tom Frost

Julian Sands

Yves Cloquet

Roy Scheider

Doctor Benway

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Synopsis

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee (Peter Weller) and his dead-eyed wife, Joan (Judy Davis), like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider), Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg, William Lee
Distributor: Criterion Collection, 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Recorded Picture Company (RPC)
Rating: R
Genre: Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 27, 1991, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.2M
Runtime: 1h 55m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo