Why I Love... Doctor Sleep
I imagine how much you’ll enjoy DOCTOR SLEEP (2019) will rest a lot on how familiar you are, and how you feel about, Stanley Kubrick’s infamous adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, THE SHINING (1980). Personally, I am not a fan of Kubrick’s film. While I will be the first to hold it up as a marvel of production design and exalt its technical brilliance, the film itself has always left me cold. I won’t dwell too much on what I consider to be the failings of such a universally acclaimed piece of cinema but for my viewing experience, the fundamental flaw is the film’s treatment of its central characters. Kubrick’s depiction of Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance results in, for this viewer, some of the least likeable or interesting characters in horror cinema history. Jack Nicholson is typically excellent in the lead role, but the choice to depict Jack Torrance as so thoroughly resentful of his familial obligations from the very beginning shifts a lot of the emotional weight of the film onto ...