In 1959, "Naked Lunch", a novel by William S. Burroughs, was unleashed on an unsuspecting public. The book follows a nomadic junky and his exploits, most of the book being based on Burroughs' own life experiences. The book itself is written in a barely cohesive form, so that, as Burroughs would say, the chapters could be read in any order, therefore lacking any real narrative flow. Despite this, various film makers, almost as soon as the novel was published, began to try and find a way to bring this unorthodox novel to the big screen. Considering the book's structure, every adaptation, including a proposed musical version, all would fail and lead many to label the book as "unfilmable". In 1991, David Cronenberg would find a way simply by taking a different approach.
Rather than film a direct adaptation of the book, Cronenberg made the film about the writing of it, along with some more direct nods to pivotal moments in Burroughs' life, as well as some just all-around weirdness. The story begins with Bill Lee (Peter Weller), an exterminator who's wife has been using his bug powder as a drug. Lee is also finding himself hallucinating from prolonged exposure to the bug powder, causing him to think he is a secret agent working for a giant bug. The bug informs him that his wife, Joan (Judy Davis), is also a secret agent and that she must be killed. Lee dismisses the whole thing and returns home to find his wife having sex with his two best friends and, inadvertently, he does indeed end up killing her. This leads Lee to leave America for Interzone, where he begins writing what will become "Naked Lunch". Along the way he meets a doctor running a drug ring, a doppelganger of his now dead wife and a couple of typewriters that are actually living creatures helping Lee with his "reports", aka novel. He also finds himself more and more immersed in a drug-addled state, unable to tell reality from hallucination.
Cronenberg's directing style lends itself well to such a mind-fuck of a story, and in my opinion helps to pull this unbelievable movie off believably. So much of the film could easily fall into hokey B-movie territory, from the Mugwumps to the monster typewriters, but everything is filmed and portrayed with a sincerity to it that helps contain the tone throughout. Not to mention that all of the creature effects are superb and exist as a high water mark for all practical effects in film. Add to that a very subdued, but engaging performance by Peter Weller, and you find yourself with an engrossing film that holds you till the very end.
