MISTRYMAN REVIEWS / WATCH GUIDE
Where to Start With Stanley Kubrick: Four Films, Four Different Worlds
A heist, a haunted hotel, a war room and a trip into space.
Kubrick can feel like a filmmaker you need homework for. You don’t. Start with the mood you’re after, then see how his obsession with control plays out in four wildly different worlds.
The Killing · 1956
Start here if you want a tight crime story. A racetrack robbery brings a group together, and the plan starts to look a lot less tidy once people get involved. Watch how the shifting timeline pieces the job together.
Dr. Strangelove · 1964
Next, a war room full of people trying to manage an impossible situation. It is absurd and funny, but the joke gets darker the longer you sit with what is at stake.
2001: A Space Odyssey · 1968
This is the one to put on when you have time to settle in. The scale, the music and those long stretches of silence give you room to look around and make your own mind up.
The Shining · 1980
For a colder night, head to the Overlook. The hotel’s corridors and empty rooms make the place feel unsettling before anything needs to jump out at you.
The thread connecting them
A robbery, a crisis, a spacecraft and a hotel: very different setups, but each puts people inside a system they think they understand. Pick the film that sounds most like your night and work outwards.