The Neon Demon: Or America's Next Top Model Acid Trip

There's a word I'm trying to think of to describe The Neon Demon, narcissist extraordinaire Nicolas Winding Refn's newest movie.  About two thirds through the movie, I reached the point where nothing really surprised me anymore and I found myself just saying "Sure, why not?" as the film continually tries to one up itself in weirdness and violence. At least until the credits came up and I found myself groaning and swearing aloud because of what I had just put myself through. Ah, I thought of the word to describe this pretentious ordeal, and to quote one of the film's characters, a fashion guru unimpressed with a model's artificial beauty, this movie is: "fine."

The movie is the story of Jesse (a miscast Elle Fanning) who moves to Los Angles to become a model where she quickly finds success because she has - as one character puts it, "that...thing." She soon brings out the ire and jealousy in models Sarah and Gigi and attracts the friendship of Ruby (a scene stealing Jena Malone) who is not what she seems. Jesse has a boyfriend of sorts, a photographer named Dean, who is the closest thing the film has to a character resembling an actual human being (or "real human being" for the Drive fans out there). Jesse also stays in a seedy motel run by Hank, a total creep who belongs in a Bret Easton Ellis novel, who, naturally is played by Keanu Reeves. The only other characters who are worth mentioning are a cheeky mustached fashion designer and a scene stealing Christina Hendricks, a casting director who is one of the first to tell Jesse she'll be a success; "They're all good, but you, you're going to be great."

"Congratulations, Elle Fanning, you're on your way to becoming America's Next Top Model."

And here's where some of the problems arise: Elle Fanning just isn't believable as a stunning beauty who literally everyone is in awe of, and is the object of everyone's jealousy. The clunky, oh-so-unsubtle dialogue ("You're like the sun in the winter," Beauty isn't everything, it's the only thing") sure doesn't help. While it sounds harsh to say "She isn't pretty enough for this," when it's the character trait for Jesse, a more believable (and pretty) actress was needed for this factor to not be distracting.

When Jesse becomes so narcissistic and full of herself due to the admiration she gets based off her looks, it's hard to root for her during her inevitable downfall. And when we get to that point, that's where shit gets crazy. Necrophilia, cannibalism, murder, Keanu Reeves, throwing up eyeballs, and I'm pretty sure some devil worship? Is some of this problematic? You bet! I wasn't bored though. It doesn't make a lot of sense and I found myself shaking my head in disbelief basically the whole last 25 minutes.

"Okay, Keanu, if you take the blue pill, you'll wake up and that'll be it. If you take the red pill, you'll wake up in a neon drenched nightmare world where you're a borderline serial killer motel owner and Elle Fanning is the most sought after human in the world."

What else can I say after probably devil worship? It wasn't badly paced, however Refn is clearly so in love with some of the shots in the movie that he drags out shots and sequences as long as he possibly can (However, it really does look great) The soundtrack is especially great, a synth techno score as eerie as it is groovy. And the movie closes with a Sia song written just for the movie and that's always a nice touch.

Overall, if this isn't your cup of tea, then that's very reasonable, but if it is your type of thing, be sure to check it out. On that note, this movie was dedicated to the director's wife, complete with a title and a Microsoft Word heart emoji before the titles start to roll, and I feel like that's an insult as painful as bloody retribution by a band of jealous models.

The Triple-Dog-Dare of Movie Viewings: A Serbian Film

The Triple-Dog-Dare of Movie Viewings:

A Serbian Film

Milos (Srđan Todorović) in one of the only appropriate pictures from the film to be found on Google images.

           

True story: once I finished watching A Serbian Film, I took a twenty minute shower.  I needed to feel clean. That’s the feeling you’ll get if you watch A Serbian Film, a film that has been banned in Spain, Norway, and Brazil among other countries. The film features rape, child molestation, murder, incest, and necrophilia, just to name a few perversions. Not surprisingly, this is why it has been so heavily banned and censored throughout the world. In 2010, in the United Kingdom, the BBFC cut four minutes and eleven seconds of content from the film, making it the most heavily cut film in sixteen years there. The BBFC also stated that it rarely makes cuts this drastic. Trying to ride the fine line between social commentary and exploitation film, A Serbian Film ends up just being gross and unpleasant.

One of the admittedly good things about the film is its interesting premise. Milos (Srđan Todorović) is a down on his luck porn star that has retired from the business. He has a wife (Jelena Gavrilović) and a young son (Luka Mijatović). Milos also has a brother (Slobodan Beštić) that is attracted to his Milos’ wife and jealous of his sexual vigor. Milos is approached by an independent filmmaker Vukmir (Sergej Trifunović) who asks him to star in his latest film. Wanting financial security for his family, Milos agrees, despite not knowing what will be asked of him. Vukmir’s movie, however, is the most sexually violent and perverted snuff film ever conceived.

Much like how Vukmir’s film challenges Milos and his sensibilities, so does A Serbian Film with audiences. Aside from an interesting premise and high stylization, this film has nothing to offer the general masses aside from misery and pretend political messages, but I’ll get to that. First, the strengths: you cannot say that the film “where the former porn star gets tricked into making a hyper violent snuff film” is not an interesting premise. The premise is expanded upon, but if you’re looking for some real thought provoking substance, you are out of luck. If you’re looking for some real gritty nastiness that makes you feel dirty, then look no further!  The stylization of the sequences is very noteworthy. The film is shot in such a visually stylized way that some images are extremely hard to get forget. The movie’s cinematagrophy is first rate. Unfortunately, you might really want to forget everything you’ve seen once you’ve watched A Serbian Film. 

The director has stated that the whole film is a social commentary meant to represent the mistreatment of Serbian people by the government. That’s a bit of a stretch, but if sexually-violent metaphors about the cruelty of the Serbian Government are your cup of tea, then maybe this film is for you! Ultimately, this is a film that fans of disturbing and controversial movies will enjoy, if that’s the right word for it. I didn’t particularly “enjoy” this film. In fact, I was constantly wondering why I was watching it. It’s gross and disturbing for the sake of being gross and disturbing. The film is also incredibly misogynistic. Terrible things happen to women throughout this film. It really stuck out to me just how much the director seemed to hate women. They cannot get a break in this movie. This is not to say that terrible things don’t happen to men in the film either. The director has horrific things happen to men and women and children. No one is spared in this disgusting, violent “social commentary.” 

A Serbian Film was Srdjan Spasojevic’s debut feature. He has only made a short film in the horror anthology The ABCs of Death since. To be perfectly frank, I would be perfectly happy never seeing another one of his films again. I have a feeling that he won’t be able to top the sheer repulsiveness and misogyny of A Serbian Film, but I could be proven wrong. Ultimately, these disturbing, gross-out films are made so people can dare each other to go see them; reminiscent of a schoolyard dare to eat a worm or some kind of insect. A Serbian Film is the kind of film you would triple-dog-dare someone to see. However, just because someone dares you to do it, that doesn’t mean you should eat the worm.