Colour Me Kubrick

France, UK, 2005, 86 min, 35mm
Directed By: Brian Cook
EXEC PRODS: Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Steve Christian, Donald A. Starr, Daniel J.B. Taylor, Colin Leventhal
PRODS: Brian Cook, Michael Fitzgerald
SCR: Anthony Frewin
CAM: Howard Atherton
ED: Alan Strachan
MUS: Bryan Adams
Cast: John Malkovich, Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Luke Mably, Terence Rigby

Last night I went to the Canadian Premiere of Colour Me Kubrick, which was being showed in the 25th edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival. This is the true (-ish) story of British conman Alan Conway (John Malcovich), who in the late 90's went around London posing as Stanley Kubrick. During these years, Conway was very successful at getting a lot while giving nothing in return from people who believed he was the famed director and believed his promises of fame.

While Malkovich is fantastic in his role, the story itself falls a little flat. There is humour, impossible wardrobe and situations, but virtually no plot. The sole purpose of the movie is to show what Conway did, but because he pretty much gets away with it all, there is no set dénoument or conclusion. One can not even say that the movie is about character development. But Malkovich makes up for a lot of it, and the costume department did the rest by putting together some of the worst outfits in history (and yes, that's a good thing).

Overall, this is a good arthouse movie and an enjoyable one too. But it is easy to understand why this movie will not get a wide release and why it will probably only run in smaller theatres - it doesn't stick to the Hollywood conventions structure wise, which can be seen as a good thing by some) and the layout of the story makes it hard for us to care enough about the characters.