Kubrick stare

[4] The term was coined by cinematographer Douglas Milsome to describe one of Alex's facial expressions in the Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange (1971).

[12] Drawing on Lacanian scholarship about cinematic gaze, Far Out writer Aimee Ferrier argues that the Kubrick stare breaks down the barrier between the fictional world and that of the viewers, causing the audience to become further invested in the media.

[1] Similarly, researcher Matthew Melia notes that an actor performing the stare will give the impression that they are looking past the fourth wall and directly at the audience.

[4] In analyzing Private Pyle's Kubrick stare from Full Metal Jacket, Jens Kjelgaard-Christiansen, who studies communication and culture,[14] notes that the character's lowered eyebrows and smiling mouth seem to contradict one another, indicating both anger and joy at the same time.

[2] Robbie Collin, writing in The Daily Telegraph, opines that only actors with an innate "coiled menace" in their facial structures are able to perform a Kubrick stare well, regardless of acting ability.

[6] He comments that Jack Nicholson appears to constantly look as if he were giving a Kubrick stare,[4] due to the "hunch of his eyebrows and curl of his lip".

[6] Manohla Dargis, reviewing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), comments that Anya Taylor-Joy is suited to perform a Kubrick stare as she has large eyes, whose whites are accentuated when she looks up.

[16] He also criticizes Kubrick for using the technique in a review of Full Metal Jacket, stating that it "promises exactly what happens and spoils some of the suspense.