The Neon Demon
Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu
Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Karl Glusman, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, and
Desmond Harrington
117 Minutes
Amazon Studios
“Beauty is in
the eye of the beholder”. This statement could not be truer for Nicolas Winding
Refn’s new film “The Neon Demon”, a stylish, patient, perplexing, frustrating,
arduous journey into the world of an aspiring 16-year-old model in Los Angeles.
“The Neon Demon” is unlike any other film playing in the theater this summer,
the fact that this film is getting a wide release is fantastic because it
should be seen in the theatrical presentation but it’s also a little
troublesome because this is NOT a film for the everyday film fan. I also don’t
believe that it is a film for every Nicolas Winding Refn fan.
Mr. Refn’s
last film “Only God Forgives” seems to have been a practice run for this film.
And while both films offer some of the best photography and overall design seen
in recent films, they are also equally experiments with varying degrees of
success. And while I completely agree that pushing the boundaries and
challenging the limits of the film form are the only ways to expand the art of
filmmaking, this also comes with a heavy risk. What people connect with from a
film like this, one that requires a fair amount of patience during
extended/slow building scenes, one that portrays topics like cannibalism and
necrophilia as metaphorical and melodramatic, one that shows you the grotesque
side of beauty through the eyes of an underage teenager, these elements all
compose diverse results as displayed by the screening audience that was a mix
of walk-outs, angry Refn fans, confused cinephiles with equal amounts of
positive and negative feedback. The beauty here is clearly found with the
individual.
The story on
the surface is very basic. A young girl named Jesse (Elle Fanning) arrives in
Los Angeles, no detailed backstory or purpose is given, she just arrives in a
big city with aspirations of becoming a model. Like an innocent sheep wandering
alone in dangerous territory the wolves quickly sense her intrusion. Here the
wolves are abundant in the form of an amused makeup artist (Jena Malone), two
established models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee), and an aggressive hotel
manager (Keanu Reeves).
What is this
movie about? The loss of innocence? The corruption of fame? The desire to be
admired? The obsession with image and beauty? A coming-of-age film aimed at the
peak of misguided influences for young woman? Yes, it's about all of that and
more. What Mr. Refn does with "The Neon Demon" is more spectacle and
less story, he looks at obsession through slow motion scenes that are drawn out
to frustrating levels, he blatantly and viscously paints exploitive scenes of sex
and violence influenced by Alejandro Jodoworsky, he dabbles with pacing and
atmosphere in the ways David Lynch has perfected, he would much rather push the
viewer towards annoyance than offer an easy answer for the style and contorted
substance. It achieves moments that are grandiose and grotesque, playing with
film techniques and genre applications with equal parts feeling influenced by a
master of the craft and a student of the form. There were moments when I
absolutely admired what I was watching and times when I strongly questioned why
things were happening.

“The Neon
Demon” is an artistically absurd, stunningly rendered film that will find both
high praise and harsh criticism from those that watch it. Regardless
of the sentiments that it provokes, it is still a daring, bold, and clearly
uncompromised film from a director pushing the limits of the film art form.
Monte’s Rating
3.25 out of 5.00
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