Naked Lunch Poster
67
metacriticBased on 16 Critics
65
Based on 26 Users

Release Date: December 26th, 1991

DVD Release Date: November 11th, 2003

R|1 hr 55 min

Plot Summary
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.

Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Robert A. Silverman

Director: David Cronenberg

Genres: Science fiction

Production Co: Recorded Picture Company (RPC)

Keywords: Wife, New York City, 1950s, Doctor

More on Wikipedia

Watch Online

Cast & Crew

view all

Ratings & Reviews

view all
  • 75
    Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)

    Paradoxically cerebral and primal, reasonable and anti-rational, life- affirming and nihilistic, Naked Lunch is a sensual and intellectual feast. It will not be a meal to everyone's taste, but in its bizarre class, there is nothing classier. [10 Jan 1992]

  • 75
    TV Guide Magazine

    A treat for Cronenberg fans, though this could hardly be called a gripping, or emotionally involving, story; you're more likely to need a can of bug spray than a hanky. show more

  • 100
    Dave KehrChicago Tribune

    Though much of Naked Lunch is flip, hip and hilariously funny, it never wanders far from a profoundly melancholic undertone - Cronenberg's unshakable sense of loneliness, isolation and anxiety. [10 Jan 1992]

See all critic reviews on metacritic.com