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The Neon Demon

10/30/2019

2 Comments

 

C-
1.67

A model takes the LA fashion scene by storm, attracting unsavory characters.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, and Bella Heathcoate
Review by Jon Kissel

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Nicolas Winding Refn works at two opposite poles, with raw crime stories at one end and deliberately frosty exercises in audience estrangement at the other.  Whether he’s making Drive or Valhalla Rising, there’s always going to be a mostly silent protagonist surrounded by people Refn largely doesn’t like and a lot of red, both in the lighting or as an aftereffect from some grotesque act of violence.  For the Danish director’s 10th film, The Neon Demon is a balanced medium between what makes him compelling and frustrating.  It tells a coherent story with recognizable people in it, but it also contains surrealist touches that are included because why the hell not.  A film set in fashion and modeling is going to have the requisite amount of style and misanthropy, because making fun of the fashion world is low hanging fruit.  That I can describe a film with corpse fondling and cannibalism as middle-of-the-road suggests what kind of filmmaker Refn is.

The Neon Demon is a fitting follow-up to Black Swan and what nagged at me about Darren Aronofsky’s female-led film.  Where Black Swan had no female creative input behind the camera or on the page, Refn sought out female writers to help him because he didn’t feel comfortable writing women.  Mary Laws and Polly Stenham write the script with Refn, and the result is a film that has the feel of authenticity, though it’s certainly an elevated form of it.  The Neon Demon starts on the well-trod path of timid newcomer getting more and more entwined in a business before undergoing a transformation that renders her unrecognizable to her more innocent self, but her corruption is purely female-driven.  Men are the gatekeepers in the modeling world, but it’s the women fighting to get through that gate that prove to be Elle Fanning’s Jesse’s undoing.  That kind of subversion might come off as merely catty without the nuance that Refn’s cowriters may have supplied, especially because I don’t imagine Only God Forgives and think ‘nuance.’
​
The level of villainy on display here sneaks up on the viewer based on how the film subverts expectations.  Makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) asks to be in the room with Jesse during a photo shoot, and based on the photographer’s intensity, the viewer thinks she’s doing this for Jesse’s protection.  Ruby’s true aims are revealed to be more jealous and lascivious, and the photographer never crosses a line, at least based on his limited knowledge.  Ruby’s model friends Gigi (Bella Heathcoate) and Sarah (Abbey Lee) come off as arrogant at first, but Refn and the two actors do the work to potentially make their standoffishness a defense mechanism against the cruelties of their chosen profession.  It’s an accomplishment that a woman as beautiful as Bella Heathcoate can ask Jesse about what it’s like to be noticed, and this can come across as earnest instead of absurd.  These characters constantly live around beauty, and they know how to evaluate it, and they know when they’re being outdone.

Of course, for what allowances I was willing to grant them, Gigi and Sarah turn out to be cannibals in the service of Ruby, a witch, making The Neon Demon a dark fairy tale about the Fairest of Them All who ends up eaten by the evil queen.  As the focus of this anti-Snow White, Fanning embodies an ingenue role, gradually draining her innocence bar until she’s ready to be consumed.  Multiple characters tell her that her doe-eyed charm and suggestible nature are assets, like the more confidence she gains, the less valuable she becomes.  When she reaches full confidence, discarding the nice but out of his league Dean (Karl Glusman) and having the sense to move out of a motel she never should’ve stayed at in the first place, she’s ready for the slaughter.  If she had stayed compliant and submitted to Ruby’s aggressive sexual advances, she probably would’ve stayed alive longer.  The Neon Demon’s saying something here within the confines of an industry that by its nature puts sell-by dates on humans.  A model is only worth so much until she stops taking orders.

Refn’s signature visual touches are all over The Neon Demon, and what’s missing, i.e. long shots of characters strolling or impassively thinking, serves to further boost the film.  He immediately announces how striking the film is going to look with that first smash cut to Jesse looking dead and bloodied.  Color plays its usual role, with Jesse frequently the only character clad in white, and red strobes taking over the club where she first meets Gigi and Sarah.  The incredible polished white of a photo shoot, so white that the viewer can’t see the contours of the room, is breathtaking.  Is there weird shit in Refn film?  Between cougar break-ins, vomited eyeballs, knife-as-penis metaphors, and the aforementioned corpse sex, of course there is, but what’s great balances the over-the-top stuff and often accentuates it. 

The Neon Demon is ranked high in Refn’s filmography, but only because his work is so hit and miss for me.  What I’ve liked best from him (Drive, Pusher 2, Pusher 3) isn’t as confrontational, meaning the choices being made can be understood on some level.  With some exceptions, things make sense in The Neon Demon, and that level of understanding allows me to take in the stunning visuals and Cliff Martinez’s score more comfortably.  When Refn is daring the viewer to fast forward, or turn the movie off, like in Valhalla Rising or Only God Forgives, I’m happy to oblige him.  The Neon Demon is instead seductive, and I’m happy to be drawn along for the ride.  B
2 Comments
Sean
10/30/2019 11:19:29 am

Copy and paste from my side-piece. On rewatch I am still at a C-.


THE NEON DEMON
12/8/20160 Comments

C-
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
​
Starring Elle Fanning and Christina Hendricks

Review by Sean Riley
Picture
Some movies you watch knowing you aren’t going to enjoy but you just can’t help it. I remember first seeing a trailer for The Neon Demon and thinking it looked really interesting. I googled and saw it was from Nicholas Winding Refn who we at the MMC remember from Only God Forgives and it’s 1.1 group GPA (despite the B+ Joe gave it) and the famously overrated Drive. NWR serves as writer/director on The Neon Demon just as in Only God Forgives while only directing Drive and the similar not so subtleties of sexual predation are evident.
If The Neon Demon is anything it is an assault on your senses. The opening shot of the movie is one of 16 year old model Jesse (Elle Fanning) motionless, covered in blood on a couch for a photo shoot. After the shoot Jesse meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who takes her to a party so washed in color and flashing light this movie should have had a warning for viewers suffering from epilepsy. More than once I had to shift my focus off the television screen. At the party we meet fellow models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee). Gigi proudly discusses her numerous surgeries from Dr Andrew that keep her the perfect model and Sarah is clearly intimidated and threatened by Jesse’s pure, fresh look. As fellow MMCer Jon Kissel repeatedly calls on directors to show not tell Refn takes it to extremes with the color palette to describe his characters. Jesse is frequently shown with blues representing her beauty, purity, virginity; while Ruby is not only named fucking Ruby every time she appears on screen the color washes to reds foreshadowing the danger she brings. Much like in Only God Forgives I think Refn goes a bit to the extreme on the color wash, we get it Ruby is trouble and Jesse is a virginal goddess what else you got.

As the story unfolds and Jesse’s star begins to rise we see how it affects her and her fellow models. Initially she is a shy small town girl who expresses that she has no talents but knows she is pretty and that’s why she moved to LA for modeling, she has a nice first date with Dean that ends with her shyly rebuking a kiss but eagerly wanting a 2nd date to rudely dismissing Dean after she has become the personification of natural beauty to the fashion designer. Refn surprisingly offers a talented parallel to the Greek Narcissus. After learning she is headlining the fashion show Jesse has a bizarre dreamlike sequence with triangles and she’s bathed in blue and looking nervous and timid before ultimately galling for herself and her own beauty kissing her reflection and turning to red. Once red her gaze is no longer fearful, her eyes are sharper and she has become Narcissus doomed by her own beauty. Soon after she escapes from her dreary motel (does she not get paid for her modeling) managed by sleezy predator Keanu Reeves (really odd casting, he seems out of place, probably just a fan of Refn and said ok) to a mansion where Ruby is housesitting. Ruby tries to get some but is turned down, then because Refn needs to offend the most people possible, we get a weird necrophilia scene (Ruby also does makeup for dead people) When Ruby returns to Jesse at the mansion Jesse has gone further into Narcissus and is even peering into an empty pool referring to herself as dangerous and forebodingly saying people would kill to look like me. Fitting that is where she ultimately is killed, mutilated and consumed by her friends. Here Refn borrows from South and Meso-American history of human sacrifice and cannibalism. By eating Jesse, Gigi and Sarah hope to gain her beauty. Gigi who had been obsessed with perfection through surgery cannot handle it while Sarah has regained her confidence and her allure. Ruby’s response is through a fairly overt and explicit menstration scene. Rebirth might not be the best word to describe her response but I’m not sure what is.

​NWR has described The Neon Demon as a film about beauty, he dedicated the movie to his wife. They must have a weird relationship because it wasn’t the type of I love you honey movie you expect in a dedication. Ultimately NWR is a talented director and cinematographer and at best a mediocre story teller. The Neon Demon is a classic example of film as art over film as entertainment. Viewers who watch as art will appreciate it more. C- for me I’m more into entertainment but I recognize good qualities in The Neon Demon. If Drew reads this he will undoubtedly accuse me of grading on a curve.

Reply
Sean
10/30/2019 11:25:22 am

I nailed that film as art over entertainment line. I was a better writer 3 years ago.Review of the year for me.

Reply



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