The conman who passed himself off as Kubrick

Woodyanders

Shrewd and shameless conman Alan Conway (a terrific performance by John Malkovich) impersonates famously reclusive director Stanley Kubrick as a means of acquiring money and various expensive amenities from others during the last decade of Kubrick's life.

Director Brian W. Cook and writer Anthony Frewin offers a pleasingly quirky, witty, and often funny meditation on people's obsession with celebrity, how everyday folks try to use celebrities to further their own careers, and the general gullibility of the celebrity-obsessed public. Moreover, Cook keeps the movie zipping along at a snappy pace and maintains an amiable lighthearted tone throughout as well as tosses in several nice nods to various Kubrick films and makes inspired use of classical music to boot. Malkovich brings a certain sly rascally charm and surprising pathos to the juicy part of brazen and conniving hustler Conway; it's a riot to see Conway pull the wool over assorted people's eyes. Plus there are spot-on cameos by such people as Honor Blackman, Ken Russell, Peter Sallis, Robert Powell, Marisa Berenson, and William Hootkins (in his last film role as New York Times drama critic Frank Rich). A total hoot.

score 8/10

Woodyanders 13 September 2020

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6089852/