Pies Wide Shut

14 min., iFilm.com

Any filmmaker with the audacity to lampoon one of cinema's great auteurs deserves credit just for trying, but "Pies Wide Shut" director Robert Ritger succeeds with flying colors in this hysterical parody of Mr. Kubrick's irritatingly self-important final film. Ritger and co-star Chelsea McInnis play Phil and Alicia, a married couple whose sexual life is sent into overdrive when Phil confesses his lust for pies and other baked goods. ("Do you want to fuck pies or don't you?" Alicia pants after Phil's confessional.) Mocking everything from Eyes' solitary piano chime to its showboating acting style, the film hits all the right notes with swift assuredness, leaving no base uncovered. The highlight, however, comes just minutes into the film as Alicia, buzzed on Zima, confesses a secret fantasy about, as she puts it, "the most gorgeous cucumber I've ever laid my eyes on." Anyone who had trouble buying Nicole Kidman's performance as a stoned floosy will appreciate McInnis' sendup, an inspired bit of humor that sucks the air right out of Kidman's overblown sail. Currently No. 6 on iFilm.com's "most viewed" list.