Dir: David Cronenberg
Year: 2014
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson
Genre: Drama/Fantasy/Satire
Cert: 18
David Cronenberg returns to the world of thoroughly unlikable and emotionless people with this surreal and satirical look at Hollywood folk. It follows the four interlocking stories of a mysterious girl, played by Mia Wasikowska, who was burned in an accident as a child, a struggling actor/writer who works as a limousine driver played by the increasingly likable, Robert Pattinson, a damaged, pill-popping, slightly insane award winning actress who is on her way out of business and desperately trying to get a role playing her own abusive mother, played somewhat Lindsay Lohan-esque by Julianne Moore & a successful, detestable child star in his early teens, played by fairly newcomer, Evan Bird, who is returning to the acting world after being rehabilitated for drugs. John Cusack plays a type of health guru who helps Julianne Moore get over her childhood abuse through a weird mixture of massage and extreme verbal abuse, he also happens to be the child star's father. In a surreal fashion we delve into the world of Hollywood fame, greed and the film industry as well as the psychological results of childhood trauma and incest.
I still don't even quite know what I think about this film... it's without a doubt one of the strangest films of the year, if not THE strangest, and that says a lot considering Under The Skin was released earlier this year. Story wise it does make sense but is somehow really convoluted and messy. There are moments of hallucinations which almost make it feel like a horror film but don't really pack the punch they maybe should have and I think that's down to the wooden acting from everyone on board, which is oddly enough, a stylistic thing Cronenberg is doing. He also did it with Cosmopolis and it didn't help that...
Acting wise I think it's strong in some ways and weak in others, mainly due to the whole, emotionless acting thing. It's difficult to get into because everyone in this is an absolute shite-bag in some way, which is actually quite interesting because it leaves you wondering if you should be rooting for any of these people. Pattinson was great even though he doesn't do anything very extravagant, Mia is almost like a quirky indie character, she's quite good, Cusack as always is great to watch and Julianne Moore was terrifically bad... By that I mean she was brilliant in some scenes and shite in others, especially during any hallucinations, it seems so forced, and of course, because her character is such a fucking diva, it's hard to take her seriously.
People don't seem to react to anything in this film like a normal person, especially scenes with Evan Bird, him and his friends play the cool kid socialites who are just stinking rich and talk in the most immature fashion. Which brings me to the offbeat toilet humour throughout; I know these are meant to be teenagers and they often talk this way, but it really sounded like an adult writing teenage dialogue, which it is, but it's not meant to feel this way! All their conversations were about selling shit online. And I mean, SHIT.
It's difficult to comment on this film because it's left me so confused, but not in the way a normal film would where you would wonder what something meant or just something plot wise that didn't really click. This is different, it just makes me wonder what was the point of it all? Cosmopolis was a truly pointless film and I hated it, but this I somehow enjoyed in a lot of ways. Even with the wooden acting from everyone and strange atmosphere throughout, I was in no way bored with the film and actually enjoyed watching it. There are a couple moments where I was even shocked too, which is rare... I was genuinely interested to see where the stories would go and despite loathing pretty much all of the characters, I enjoyed watching them.
Stuff I liked:
Cusack and Moore's performances were stand out I think, Mia too was great. I wasn't expecting the emotionless shit when I watched it so maybe going in with that in mind, it'll come across on screen better.
Some of the parodies of celebrity and attitudes they have is hilarious. Seeing Evan's character as the jealous, cool kid who hates even a little kid stealing his thunder and treating his manager like dogshit was great to see, it's a blatant piss take of that sack of puss, Justin Bieber.
Moore living a parodied downfall life of an older Lindsay Lohan with drug use and constantly buying expensive clothes she doesn't need, was quite funny too, even though this is played as a drama, it's most definitely satirical.
A weirdly eerie and gripping atmosphere of impending doom.
Freaky Hollywood threesomes.
Stuff I Didn't Like:
Emotionless acting... I know I've mentioned it so many times and I literally just said I enjoyed the acting but this was the only part of it I didn't like. It's bizarre and doesn't really work.
Offbeat toilet humour - It's the kind of dialogue that would have worked brilliantly in This Is The End, I can imagine James Franco's character saying pretty much all of the dialogue, but for this it didn't work here.
A pointless scene of gun violence that was like watching a really bad college film that was supposed to be edgy.
The fucking worst CGI fire effects I've ever seen - Even worse than the flaming bad guy in The Expendables, which was just fucking abysmal. The scene in question I THINK is meant to be serious and ends up like slapstick comedy.
Overall despite it's obvious problems. I liked it. It's absolutely MILES from perfect but it's still good. I think it's a somewhat important watch too, to get a real, gritty look at Hollywood living, even if it is the lives of the already famous. I do however think Cronenberg is rapidly declining. He hasn't done a REALLY good film since Eastern Promises in 2007 and as much as I'd love to see him go back to his body horror roots, I don't think it's likely.
Hopefully his next feature will be another crime thriller, he can do them excellently. Enough of the strange, unlikable character studies of people who seem like they're aliens that don't understand the human race!
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