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Entertainment_Culture

Nicolas Winding Refn

By Eric Althoff

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The Washington Times
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Thursday, June 23, 2016

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Why, director Nicolas Winding Refn? Just why?
It takes a special kind of movie to be this awful, and indeed, a mindset to have such singular firmness in one’s abilities to create a film that is so far beyond contempt.
To put it another way, I hated, hated, hated “The Neon Demon,” the new film from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, whose 2011 flick “Drive,” unloved by myself but not so by audiences, is a work of absolute genius next to this piece of dire flotsam.
While “The Neon Demon” purports to be a thriller and a quasi-horror film, what it really is is a mean-spirited, misogynistic paean to the value of physical looks above all else. And to those who are not — or believe they are not — as attractive as someone else in their midst, the film’s message is simple and vapid: Beauty is the only thing worth killing for.
Going in, I was expecting, if not high art, at least an enjoyable, stylistic exercise in contemporary horror, a sort of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” for the internet age. It appears I gave Mr. Refn far too much credit.
And yet credit must be given. It’s unkind to unload a barrage of insults without saying anything nice, so I will admit that Mr. Refn’s direction is assured and professional. As much as I dislike the end product, I cannot, in all journalistic honesty, say that “The Neon Demon” is a badly or incompetently made film, for it is neither. Mr. Refn is a professional, and his handling of the “material” is solidly realized. Some of the acting is OK, even if most of it is anything but.
Here my praise ends. If you wish to not have your illusions or your sensibilities tampered with, stop reading now. You’ve been warned.
The plot, such at is, of “The Neon Demon” finds teen runaway Jesse (Elle Fanning) arriving in Los Angeles with big starry dreams in her eyes (is there any other kind?). Since the film is all about looks, I shall here comment that Miss Fanning’s Jesse is made out to look as plain Jane as they come, but she has a certain “something” about her that apparently is Kryptonite for fashionistas anxious to find the next best thing. What that je ne sai quois is we never discover, but Mr. Refn in his screenplay, co-written by Mary Laws and Polly Stenham, forces us into submission that not only is Jesse the “it girl” Hollywood has been looking for, but that all females around her either despise her outright or desire her so.
“I can’t write, I can’t draw, I can’t sing, but I’m pretty,” Jesse says while gazing over that cliched cliff at sprawling L.A., “and I can make money off of pretty.”
Ergo, girls — and boys — forget anything anyone ever told you about your character and what’s on the inside that matters.
It’s certainly not the actress’ fault, as Miss Fanning does her absolute best with what little she is given. Ironically, given the film’s singular obsession with looks, is that we are asked to believe too much at face value, mainly that all characters say precisely what is on their minds and act as if no consequences shall befall them for their actions. And that the world is inhabited by a populace of monsters — all, that is, save for Jesse.
Naturally, she must therefore be debased and destroyed.
Does this plot sound familiar? If so, I entreat you to throw “Showgirls” on your Blu-ray player this weekend and have yourself a laugh-filled evening with a stiff drink. (Better yet, do it in a group, preferably outdoors.) And, unlike, “Neon Demon,” that 1995 camp classic at least had the decency to wash itself in gratuitous sex and nudity. Furthermore, it was rated NC-17, whereas “Neon Demon” gets an R for far, far, far more depraved activity. It is yet another object lesson in how the MPAA must revise its system so that “mature” films are no longer classified in the same league as “adult” material.
Mr. Refn’s film is completely self-satisfied with its own perversity. I felt nauseated during an early scene where a sleazy photographer (Desmond Harrington) entreats Jesse for a photo shoot to remove all of her clothes (no nudity shown) and then shuts off the lights of the studio — to do what, we are never told.
That is the least of the film’s sins of abetting the viewer into being an accessory in degeneracy. Events happen later that I cannot describe even obliquely in a family-oriented newspaper, though at one point during the screening, my colleagues and I exclaimed a collective “oh no!” hoping against hope that Mr. Refn wouldn’t go there but, alas, he did.
I don’t mind art pushing the envelope, nor excessive violence or depravity and its application for cinematic effect, but what “The Neon Demon” ultimately adds up to is a sick fascination with its own excess. It is as if Mr. Refn is trying to make a movie that is a hybrid of David Lynch and Russ Meyer, filmed at the crossroads of his vile inner teenage fantasies of sex and murder.
And the hatred of women. Here is a film where every female character schemes to destroy Jesse in one way or another. Even the normally radiant Christina Hendricks, who appeared in Mr. Refn’s “Drive,” has a thankless bit part as a model agency honcho who must, just because, tear down a young lady in her lobby because reasons.
And Keanu Reeves, who must have owed someone a favor, shows up as a slimy motel manager who enters Jesse’s room one night without her knowledge to … no, I’m sorry, I can’t.
But maybe I’m wrong (it happens sometimes). For at the conclusion of the press screening I attended, I crossed paths with one of my fellow D.C. film critics.
“Oh it was awful,” my colleague said. “I loved it.”
So there, I suppose is the valediction for this dirge of smut. Sometimes, apparently, moviegoers want for something awful. Mr. Refn has given them precisely what they crave.
But just like one of the characters near the film’s conclusion, I challenge you to keep it down once swallowed.
Rated R: Contains profanity galore, disturbing situations, horror violence, some nudity and sexual content, as well as aberrant sexual activity and gruesomeness beyond description.
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com .
Copyright © 2022 The Washington Times, LLC.

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Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

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THE NEON DEMON is a strong stylistic movie with striking sets and lots of glitz, especially in the movie’s fancy photo shoots. These scenes create some beautiful imagery. However, the storyline displays more style than substance. Thus, although THE NEON DEMON presents a provocative critique of modern narcissism and jealousy, it wears out its welcome when the story degenerates into extreme sex, violence and nudity, including necrophilia and lesbian lust. The infrequent foul language is the least of the movie’s moral problems. Ultimately, though, MOVIEGUIDE® can’t commend the abhorrent NEON DEMON.
(HHH, B, HoHoHo, LL, VVV, SSS, NNN, A, D, MMM) Very strong nihilistic humanist worldview with some moral points about the evils of narcissism and jealousy in the modeling world, with very strong immoral themes involving murder, cannibalism and lesbian lust, and a message that life is hopeless unless you have outward beauty; 15 obscenities (including several “f” words) and two light profanities plus some vomiting, including girl vomits up human eyeball she ate; excessive violence with much blood includes woman pushed into empty swimming pool, where she is shown bleeding to death, girl smashes a bathroom mirror, and later another girl cuts her hand on one of the shards of glass, photographer stages a murder tableau with a girl bleeding from her neck and down her arms, implied cannibalism, nude female models wash off blood in shower together after cannibalizing another model of whom they were jealous, girl stabs herself in the stomach after going insane, girl punched, girls with knives chase another girl, fighting, model bathes in blood of another model she murdered, model eats a human eyeball after another model vomits it up and stabs herself to death, woman hears sounds of another woman being attacked in a hotel room next door, and makeup artist for models works in a mortuary making corpses look presentable for funerals; very strong sexual content includes woman makes love to a female corpse while thinking of a 16-year-old girl touching herself in a sensuous ways, woman tries to seduce 16-year-old girl by lying on top of her and trying to kiss her face after kissing her shoulder, but teenage girl throws her off, and she falls to the floor, then leaves, two nude women touch one another in shower while washing blood off their bodies after cannibalizing their female victim, photographer orders young model to take off all her clothes, and then he’s shown sensuously smearing gold paint around her shoulders and neck, nude woman writhes on floor while moon shines into a dark room, crude talk about using sex to advance one’s modeling career, and 16-year-old confesses she’s never been with any one; partial images of full female nudity in about three scenes, upper female nudity in about four scenes, women in underwear in a couple scenes, and 16-year-old pretending to be 19 takes off her clothes at photographer’s request, but the nudity isn’t shown; alcohol use; several people smoke cigarettes; and, very strong miscellaneous immorality including lying, stealing, jealousy, revenge, greed, hate, and extortion.
THE NEON DEMON is a disturbing thriller about the darkness surrounding the modeling industry. Nicely photographed, THE NEON DEMON is fairly cogent analysis about modern narcissism and jealousy, but it goes off the rails in the third act when the filmmakers combine graphic sex and violence, including cannibalism.

When youthful, innocent 16-year-old Jesse moves to Los Angeles to pursue a modeling career, she is in for a shocker when she discovers the path to success is a lonely one, and beauty on the inside is not what counts in the entertainment industry. Jesse doesn’t know anything about the business, the big-named photographers, or what to do to succeed, but a female modeling agent sees a star in her. She instructs her to do as she says and always say she’s 19. The agent lands Jesse a test shoot with a world-famous fashion photographer.

Jesse returns to her rundown motel in Pasadena, the only place she can afford to stay, where her online photographer friend, Dean, is waiting to take her out. He greets her with a handful of pink roses, and they drive to a secluded mountain top. Jesse confesses she’s not good at anything in life, but she’s pretty and being pretty sells. Dean reminds her she is so much more, but she doesn’t see it in herself. Acting like a gentleman because of her age, he takes her back to her motel.

When she returns to her room, she sees something in it, so she gets the seedy manager and his assistant. They discover a mountain lion has gotten into her room because Jesse left the sliding door in the back open.

Back in the world of modeling, Jesse’s star begins to soar. She earns some enemies in Sarah and Gigi because Jesse’s youthful looks are more in demand. However, Sarah and Gigi’s makeup artist friend, Ruby, befriends Jesse. Yet, when Jesse rebuffs Ruby’s lesbian advances, Ruby and her two friends decide to take out some brutal revenge on Jesse.

THE NEON DEMON is nicely photographed. This tale of jealousy, narcissism and revenge also has a captivating sense of moody tension, fueled by some driving and subtle techno music. However, the movie wears out its welcome when the story degenerates into extreme sex, violence and nudity, including necrophilia, cannibalism and lesbian lust. The infrequent foul language is the least of the movie’s moral problems.

Ultimately, NEON DEMON is abhorrent.
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