10 Must-See Fan Documentaries About The People Who Matter Most

5. Room 237

Few directors have been more discussed by movie fans as the legendary Stanley Kubrick. His films are loaded with multiple meanings, transcending the standard "literal" readings most cinema offers and entering the realm of the symbolic, endlessly open to new interpretations. And few Kubrick films have been as widely discussed as his 1980 loose adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. Rodney Ascher's 2012 documentary Room 237 takes a look at nine Kubrick fans and their deeper readings of The Shining, picking apart every element of the film's production in order to tease out an esoteric meaning - a hidden subtext which they believe was Kubrick's true intention for making the movie. These theories range from the film as an allegory for the genocide of the Native Americans or the genocidal action of the Holocaust, to being a retelling of the mythical story of the minotaur or a confessional movie in which Kubrick is trying to inform the audience about his involvement in the faked footage for the moon landing. The theories offered should, of course, be taken with a pinch of salt - certainly, people who worked with Kubrick on The Shining who have seen Room 237 describe the ideas posited as ludicrous at best - but plausibility issues aren't really the point. Rather, it's a fascinating insight into the obsessive dedication with which some Kubrick fans dedicate themselves to carefully analysing his movies, and in this sense it barely touches the tip of the iceberg - the internet is awash with hundreds of competing theories as to the true meaning of The Shining, with many more taking apart Kubrick's other fantastic movies.