Color Me Kubrick isn’t for everyone. It was worth viewing for me because of its lens into the London show biz scene and its masterful Malkovich performance. I’d wager the more you know show business the more you’ll like this true show biz story about some nasty funny business. BTW, it’s also very gay.

John Malkovich heads a huge cast that’s listed alphabetically at IMDb, a needlessly unhelpful orientation. Speaking of orientation, Malkovich affects a distinctly homosexual one essaying the real conman who impersonated Stanley Kubrick in the 90s. The great thespian delivers an overtly showy performance as this gay hustler. Was Malkovich guilty about hogging the spotlight, so suggested burying his name in the middle of a 5 page cast list? Who knows.

Alan Conway told eager Londoners he was the famous Stanley Kubrick, yet didn’t look or act like him. They gave him sex, money and other favors in return. Never mind that the real Kubrick was a straight husband and father. He was reclusive so no one knew differently. The worst was said to be when Conway “signed Stanley’s name on a bank loan for a gay club in Soho”.¹

Written by Kubrick’s assistant on Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and directed by the Assistant Director of Eyes Wide Shut amongst other Kubrick pictures, Color Me Kubrick is an intimate account of an only-in-show-biz story.

Brian W. Cook and Anthony Frewin include several homages to their master’s films – music and all.

And now the rest of the story that their movie leaves out.

Alan Conway died in ’98, three months before Kubrick himself. Seven years later came Color Me Kubrick.

¹ Per Wikipedia