Bizarro, pleasantly bizarro, but bizarro nonetheless...

It's a pretty amazing mix of the novel and Burroughs' life story, with a healthy dose of Cronenberg's usual fetishes thrown in for good measure. It treats its outlandish subject matter with dead seriousness, which makes it even funnier, as if talking bug typewriters weren't funny enough. This dry sense of humour is complimented perfectly by the straight-laced performances, and the wondrously strange visual spectacles only heighten this. Furthermore, all of the strange stuff it presents make sense within the context of the film, so the film is really never that confusing. Dark and bizarre, but never confusing. This may just be Cronenberg's best work.