Lolita

 

            Ladies and gentlemen, we've gone through five films so far, the month of February we're all the male actors are much older looking than their love interests, though granted majority of the ladies looked in a strong older consent age hence, 25 and up. Now we're going to dive deep into the older men stalking VERY, VERY young ladies, and trust me when I say this, you're going to be wanting to rethink your life. Directed by yours truly Stanley Kubrick the master of pushing the limit, Lolita is one of those movies, Like A Clockwork Orange, this is another one of those films that you only need to watch once.

            With the screenplay penned by the author himself, Stanley Kubrick brings Vladimir Nabokov's controversial tale of forbidden love on screen. Professor Humbert (James Mason) is a European educator who relocates to an American Suburb, renting a room from a lonely widow Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters). Humbert marries Charlotte, but only to nurture his obsession with her comely teenager daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon). After Charlotte sudden death has Lolita all to himself -- or does he?

            Now according to sources circa 1958, Kubrick was offered to direct One-Eyed Jacks, starring Marlon Brando, unfortunately either Brando fired him or Kubrick resigned bottom line Brando wanted to focus on Vladimir Nabokov's controversial book about a middle-aged man having an infatuation with a 14-year-old girl. And really when you cast actors and actresses to play high school students, you tend to feel like they’re in their early twenties for which looks unrealistic but with this movie, when Stanley Kubrick cast a teenager he LITERALLY, cast a teenager and when you see Lolita aka Sue Lyon in her first appearance in the film your like OMG that girl is YOUNG! For which is the reason why this film works so well because if this was a woman in her twenties then this wouldn't work at all, it would literally not be so, believable and Sue Lyon strangely enough does a fantastic job playing a girl next door but is a great manipulator in terms of playing with Mason's character moreover I think it's a unique dilemma both horrible people each trying to get what they want. The genius behind Lolita is Kubrick able to balance, the extreme dark topic with comedy furthermore that evil comes in the most unexpected places and sometimes we don't see the evil as well as evil coming in all shapes and sizes moreover you never expect knowing your neighbor or you closest friend could be a sexual predator and that's the scariest part. On the comedy side to the film is simply moments where Mason's character tries so hard to seduce Lolita, it literally becomes sad and pathetic that you can't help but laugh at the man's attempts especially when he's even trying to unfold a bed or must put up with Lolita's mother aka Shelley Winters. Peter Sellers deserves a ton of credit because at first when you see him he's this goofy character but then through the course of the movie you begin to see a scary side to this guy that I literally had to watch the film twice to know that "oh" this guy is a monster, and in fact Kubrick shot a total of 3 camera's at once. And Sellers did the most inspired (ad-libbing) work on the first take, so Kubrick used this technique to get all the angles needed, without losing the spontaneity. Out of all the Kubrick movies I've seen so far and granted I only have two more to go in order to rewatch 2001 and the Shining, I would rate this between six or five of the best movies on Kubrick's filmography, and while A Clockwork Orange is a f**ked up movie where you need to watch that movie only once. Lolita is a film where you need to watch only once but you need to take a long cold shower despite this being a great film with a lot of themes, you by the end of the film feel disgusted in terms of Humbert just staring at Lolita and more importantly just feeling way to uncomfortable watching those scenes. In fact this is probably one of the many reasons why I won't watch Sinners just because I first seen Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit back in 2010 and whenever I watch cut scenes of her talking about Michael B. Jordan sticking his tongue in her "cooze" I just want to take a shower as well as wanting to rethink my life. And with this film this LITERALLY wants you to rethink your life and just question the nature behind how disgusting sexual predators are and sure mid-twenties and thirties for ladies I would make an exception but teens I hit my limit in terms of feeling grossed out. I would highly recommend watching Lolita although this film is only available for renting or buying the movie. But when you finish the movie, you can simply not watch the film again and put the movie in the deepest part of your mind. And this movie alone gets you thinking that Bogart, John Wayne, William Holden and Cary Grant in terms of making out with mid-twenties women was nothing compared to Mason's character staring at a fourteen-year-old though the same goes to Sellers too, though we don't see the implications, but we know.