The Shining

Firstly. It is a 4.75. just not a 5. Now, this film shows a lot more than it tells. The tension hangs in a lot of places like whether it was really a horror or just a man breaking down psychologically. Whose the real evil here? What or why were those two sisters. Is the wife mentally ill? And why was a dog blowing a man in a room there? That's very notorious of Kubrick. The cinematography must and must be praised like holy crap how well he used the reverse zoom and zoom was absolutely so fabulous it took my breathe out. The color grading was so smooth and flawless. A lot of themes to talk about but hands down to Kubrick that he executed the film so well. Well, here's why it's NOT a 5 for me. The pacing drags in the middle third. Once the family is snowed in, there's a stretch of repetitive hallway wandering and slow-build dread that's atmospheric but doesn't always earn its runtime. Shelley Duvall's performance is divisive by design, and not always in a good way. As she was LITERALLY tormented bt Kubrick to get the performance raw, long stretches Wendy reads as one-note shrieking rather than a fully realized person. Compare her to Jack, who gets a whole psychological arc, and Wendy feels underwritten by comparison. That's a real structural imbalance, not just a performance choice. Jack Nicholson is arguably too unhinged too early. And that's prolly it. Kubrick put in a lot of work in it. And all work and no play, makes Kubrick a dull boy. So take some rest Kubrick.