A study in exploitation The Neon Demon (R18)
118 mins I don’t normally give a lot of personal context around viewing a film, but sometimes it can affect your response. Watching Nocturnal Animals on the same evening as Trump slithered to shocking victory, I found myself incensed by the injustice and cruelty shown on screen and felt the movie more viscerally than I might have on a happier day (sadly we’ll never know).
In contrast, I saw The Neon Demon with lots of positive context in play: I was on my honeymoon in Paris, City of Light/Love/Culture. I could chill out without scrawling notes in a critics’ screening. And perhaps most importantly, I love Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (the film where a charming Ryan Gosling stomps a man to death in an elevator). We had high hopes for an evening of cinematic ecstasy with the director’s latest offering. Alas.
Promoting the unrevelatory message that beauty is only skin-deep, and that those fixated on perfection are morally corrupt, this story of a naive, aspiring model touting her wares in Los Angeles is initially impressive, with stunning costumes, effective lighting and pounding music.
It is rapidly ruined by a higher proportion of dreadful performances (a grossly overplayed Jena Malone and an unironically ludicrous Keanu Reeves) than good (a creditable attempt by young Elle Fanning to portray her victimised ingenue with pathos).
Worse still, there is exploitation in droves. An unsympathetically portrayed lesbian romance; a necrophilia scene which is more disgusting than shocking; the sleazy photographer who uncomfortably evokes accused sexual predator Terry Richardson.
I don’t care if some argue it’s all deliberate and ironic – every scene is so in-your-face that the lack of subtlety makes it doubtful. I balked and yet wanted to see it through to the end. Refn rewarded me with a literally guttwisting final act, which descends into laughable farce, before making you want to throw up.
But to be fair, The Neon Demon‘s nominations at Cannes and some positive reviews show not everyone will feel this way. Refn followed up the brilliant Drive with the polarising Only God Forgives, in which Kristin Scott Thomas swore and lusted her way through the tale of a mother inciting her son to commit murder.
Beautifully photographed, with stunning wallpaper and a blooddrenched, high-intensity plot, it, too, was a love-or-hate affair for viewers.
So perhaps if you found that film more palatable than pretentious, The Neon Demon will impress for you, too. – Sarah Watt