Post by Dracula on Jun 26, 2022 10:45:53 GMT -5
Crimes of the Future(6/4/2022)
I really love that David Cronenberg is still making movies… in theory. I certainly like that he gets a king’s welcome at Cannes and that he can still continue working while a new generation of filmmakers (including his own offspring) are also flaunting his influence. However, if I’m being honest the truth is that I didn’t really like either of Cronenberg’s last two films and haven’t really been all that jazzed by his work since he made Eastern Promises in 2007. I had hoped that this would be a triumphant comeback given that it’s clearly a return to making “extreme” cinema but unfortunately I think it suffers from a lot of the pacing deficiencies that befell a lot of his other recent work for me. The film is set in a future world where, for unclear reasons, human bodies have rapidly evolved to no longer feel pain and some people have begun growing redundant and unneeded organs and this has led to a boom in performance art involving live surgeries and the like.
That’s a pretty outrageous concept and yet this is not really the walkout inducing shocker that the stories about its Cannes premiere would suggest and it’s actually rather coldly clinical in its “shocking imagery,” which is certainly in line with Cronenberg’s M.O. but which feels almost excessive here. Cronenberg was at his best in the 80s and 90s, and the tools of cinema in that time served him well, particularly the 35mm film and practical effects. Digital photography doesn't really serves him well and I’m also not sure that modern actors quite feel right in his work. More importantly I think he’s a guy who, like Terry Gilliam, might be at his best when he’s fighting it out with studios and under some obligation to meet commercial demands. When left to his own devices he makes these movies that really lack forward momentum and are almost annoyingly quiet and uncompromisingly weird, but not in ways that feel particularly innovative anymore. That’s not to say there aren't interesting ideas to be found in Crimes of the Future, there are, but the film doesn’t really have the budget or scope to really explore the full extent of them and probably wouldn’t try even if it did. Those ideas are probably enough for me to give the movie something of a “gentleman’s C-” but for a movie that features a dude with multiple ears all over his body and his mouth stitched shut the whole thing was just kind of oddly boring.
**1/2 out of Five
I really love that David Cronenberg is still making movies… in theory. I certainly like that he gets a king’s welcome at Cannes and that he can still continue working while a new generation of filmmakers (including his own offspring) are also flaunting his influence. However, if I’m being honest the truth is that I didn’t really like either of Cronenberg’s last two films and haven’t really been all that jazzed by his work since he made Eastern Promises in 2007. I had hoped that this would be a triumphant comeback given that it’s clearly a return to making “extreme” cinema but unfortunately I think it suffers from a lot of the pacing deficiencies that befell a lot of his other recent work for me. The film is set in a future world where, for unclear reasons, human bodies have rapidly evolved to no longer feel pain and some people have begun growing redundant and unneeded organs and this has led to a boom in performance art involving live surgeries and the like.
That’s a pretty outrageous concept and yet this is not really the walkout inducing shocker that the stories about its Cannes premiere would suggest and it’s actually rather coldly clinical in its “shocking imagery,” which is certainly in line with Cronenberg’s M.O. but which feels almost excessive here. Cronenberg was at his best in the 80s and 90s, and the tools of cinema in that time served him well, particularly the 35mm film and practical effects. Digital photography doesn't really serves him well and I’m also not sure that modern actors quite feel right in his work. More importantly I think he’s a guy who, like Terry Gilliam, might be at his best when he’s fighting it out with studios and under some obligation to meet commercial demands. When left to his own devices he makes these movies that really lack forward momentum and are almost annoyingly quiet and uncompromisingly weird, but not in ways that feel particularly innovative anymore. That’s not to say there aren't interesting ideas to be found in Crimes of the Future, there are, but the film doesn’t really have the budget or scope to really explore the full extent of them and probably wouldn’t try even if it did. Those ideas are probably enough for me to give the movie something of a “gentleman’s C-” but for a movie that features a dude with multiple ears all over his body and his mouth stitched shut the whole thing was just kind of oddly boring.
**1/2 out of Five
