Who is the Audience for This Movie?

People who like movies about forbidden love.

What I Liked About This Movie

Seller’s comedic timing is great but during the somewhat tense opening scenes he was perfect. Sellers even has a playful joke where he mentions he is Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick directed Spartacus) while he unknowingly throws a blanket over himself much like a robe from ancient time.

There is some impressively smooth camera movement on display in Lolita. One scene even has two characters conversing while moving up a set of stairs and then has them end up in an upstairs room in one long take.

To sum up the movie in a few words I would say it is uncomfortably funny. The Relationship between the man and the 14 year old is creepy yet it never feels really wrong. What I found was the most uncomfortable thing about the movie is that I found Lolita really hot. Even though I know that was Kubrick’s intent it is a sly move on his part to make you think an underage chick is smoking hot. Some funny touches are littered in numerous scenes that may go right over most people’s heads. For Example: the summer camp Lolita is sent to is called “Camp Climax” and the first time Lolita is on screen (pictured above) her mother mentions “Cherry Pie”.

What Didn’t Work For Me

Lolita feels like a product of it’s time. You can easily tell that many of the undertones had to be suppressed in order to for the movie to even be made. It was released in a time when cinema was quite a bit tamer with fairly strict standards on what you could and could not do. The only other thing that bugged me was that at the end there is a short text epilogue that squelches the mystery of what will happen to the character after the repercussions of his actions hit.

Should You Watch This Movie?

Lolita has an interesting premise that is well executed.

My Rating (Out of 13)