By Anastasia Landeros & Gustavo Buenrostro
Cinema: Revisited is a weekly film critique by film podcasters Anastasia Landeros and Gustavo Buenrostro. It’s not, however, just any weekly film critique. Landeros and Buenrostro are reviewing classic films that are critically acclaimed, but haven’t been examined in recent years.
Each time stamp throughout this commentary is a look inside the reviewers’ critique and will conclude in a final award of popcorn. Five out of five popcorn means the duo loved the film. Zero popcorn out of 5 means it didn’t hold up to other great films in its genre.
The first film the duo will explore is Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” Ranked #39 on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of “Top 100 Movies of All Time,” “The Shining” is a psychological thriller adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name.
14:03- Gustavo: The delivery of the lines between the mom, son and nurse seem like they’re waiting for each other’s lines.
Anastasia: I noticed that too. The delivery in this scene just didn’t seem natural or real.
19:37- Gustavo: Great Shot of the mountains in the background.
Anastasia: What a beautiful location. Kubrick is a visual guy, so no surprise that everything looks good. But Jack Nicholson seems uncomfortable here, like he doesn’t know who these people are or that they’re his family.
36:10- Anastasia: Shelley Duvall is just not convincing enough in this role. She started out fair, but the more the film goes on, the less I pay attention to her. Is that intentional?
Gustavo: Nicholson and Duvall have little to no chemistry at all.
1:46:30- Anastasia: Now it’s starting to get good. Why did they wait an hour and 46 minutes in to start acting? But is he possessed or crazy? I’m confused.
Gustavo: Nicholson’s acting is really intimidating. Duvall seems genuinely scared. But I also don’t get whether he is crazy or possessed. It seems even Kubrick doesn’t know.
2:04:19- Anastasia: The famous “Here’s Johnny” scene. Now I know why everyone’s so scared of this movie. Nicholson scares the living daylights out of me.
Gustavo: Now we are getting into the good stuff. Wait, there’s only 18 minutes left? Well, better late than never.
Final Popcorn Count: While the last 30 to 40 minutes of the film picked up and is deserving of praise, the bad acting and the slow pacing in the beginning make it hard for the viewer to get invested. Fantastic cinematography and the suspense-building techniques Kubrick used are a major plus to the film. Kubrick’s lack of focus, however, makes the Shining a confusing and irritating watch.
Two and a half popcorn out of five.
