Even though it sits on a healthy 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut was considered to be a rather disappointing send off for one of cinema's greatest directors. While it may not be as trailblazing as the likes of 2001 or A Clockwork Orange, it shouldn't be overlooked, and stands toe to toe with so many of the filmmaker's other projects.
Coming in at a whopping 2 hours 45 minutes, the erotic drama is certainly difficult to get a grip on, and its winding narrative full of sex cults, hushed conversations between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and the collapse of reality itself is enough to test your patience. However, while it's easy to point at any one of these indulgent elements and rip it to pieces, as a whole they undeniably come together to create a moody drama all about excess and artificiality.
Beyond all that wankery though, Eyes Wide Shut is simply a captivating watch, featuring some of the director's most striking imagery ever put to screen. It's long, perhaps unjustifiably so, but if you've been putting it off and have an afternoon spare, you owe it to yourself to give it a go.
NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far.
A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
