Straight from the so-strange-it-must-be-true bin, "Color Me Kubrick" splatters its cinematic canvas with comic ingenuity.

The story is based on the true account of a British travel agent who passed himself off as the famed, reclusive director Stanley Kubrick through much of the '90s. Partly because he sought sexual favors, money and booze, and partly because he was so deeply unhappy with the person he really was, the confident Alan Conway convinced dozens of people he was Kubrick, and took advantage of many of them.

"Color Me Kubrick" is directed and produced by people who knew Kubrick very well and were working with the late cinematic genius when Kubrick became aware of Conway's scams. Rather than deal us a complex psychological drama concerning Conway, the "Color Me Kubrick" filmmakers have gone for mostly laughs, with John Malkovich turning it loose and then some as Conway pretending he is Kubrick.

Using the wide variety of ever-changing (even in midsentence) accents that Conway employed as Kubrick, Malkovich is joyous in his over-the-top depiction of Conway, painting him as part nut job, part genius. How else to explain the success of an impostor who had never seen any of Kubrick's films, and bothered to do no research? So when those fooled asked Conway about such Kubrick gems as "Spartacus," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Dr. Strangelove," "The Shining" or "A Clockwork Orange," Conway simply mimicked the remarks of others he had tricked. Malkovich captures such quick thinking.

The result is a sort of grand farce, and even if deeper meaning and some final lesson are mostly lost in the silly soup, "Color Me Kubrick" becomes an entertaining blast of fake hot air and bluster.