Movie: The Neon Demon (2016)

[LoathedVermin72]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

[epilogue]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Still haven't seen Bronson. I've been putting it off for some reason. But this made me really want to watch it. Hopefully, I can get to it at some point this week.

[epilogue]

You know, I hadn't even heard of this movie until last week and now I read this:

Spoiler: show

I just saw the movie.

The whole theater was laughing by the end at what I can only presume should have been a sequence of shocking moments. I liked (or at least appreciated) Only God Forgives but...my...GOD this was terrible. There were a few (disappointingly few, to be honest) really pretty scenes in there and the soundtrack was amazing but 90% of the movie is people freaking out about how Ellie Fanning is literally the most beautiful thing ever to walk the earth, while she silently stands there, being...cute, I guess? I'm pretty sure one fashion designer had an orgasm when he saw her walk?

The whole last fourth of the movie is so incredibly cheesy and on the nose, I honstely felt like I was watching a freaking Eli Roth movie. Actually, no. It seemed like a Eli Roth movie if Eli Roth suddenly thought himself to be an artist who has something really important to say. That's what The Neon Demon is. A worse, more pretentious (and I mean that in the true sense of the word, not in the inflammatory way it gets thrown around) Eli Roth movie. Can't believe I'm saying that about a goddamnit Refn flick :/

It's actually hard to believe how bad the last third/fourth of the movie is if you don't know what happens, so, if you don't care for spoilers, here we go, this is what happens. I just really have to get this out of my system:

Spoiler: show

- Elle Fanning has a dream/hallucinatory sequence during her first big gig in which she kisses her own evil self on two mirrors, basically turning evil for the rest of the movie
- She ditches her quasi-boyfriend, falls asleep in her sleazy hotel were Keanu Reeves sneaks in, puts his knife in her mouth, wakes her up with it and continues to push it down further into her throat slowly. Elle keeps gagging, Keanu keeps saying "Deeper..."
- Elle wakes up on the floor, so it's possible that last sequence was a dream maybe? But probably not since Keanu Reeves now tries to break into her room yet again, fails to do so and instead rapes and possibly kills the 13-year-old "lolita type", as he described her earlier, child next door, while Elle puts her ears on the wall and listens (and so do we as the audience! Yay!)
- Elle calls her friend Ruby who did her make-up in the past and seemed to be the one nice person other than her quasi-boyfriend and then spends the night in her house.
- Ruby instantly tries to rape Elle, because goddamn that girl is so fucking pretty you just can't help it I guess
- Elle pushes her away. In what I can only describe as the biggest display of subtlety I ever had the chance of witnessing, Ruby spends about 5 minutes drawing a face with two crossed-out eyes on a mirror next door. The movie would really like you to be incredibly shocked by this for reasons
- Ruby goes to work the next morning, she does the make-up for dead people in the morgue as a second job. Thing is, Elle Fanning is so goddamn beautiful that she instead decides to have sex with the corpse, intercut with scenes of Elle Fanning caressing her own body. This goes on for way to long. Firmly into Eli Roth territory here.
- Ruby comes back home, Elle has a big speech on how she is really dangerous and everyone wants to be as pretty as her. Thing is: Ruby brought two models we saw throughout the movie who really hate Elle.
- Two models with knifes hunt Elle through the mansion. This is all very silly.
- They end up at a pool outside. Ruby pushes Elle in, basically breaking every bone in her body. We see the three of them approaching gasping Elle, movie cuts away tooooooooooo
- Ruby in a goddamn Bathtub filled with blood watching the models showering and erotically smearing blood all over their bodies. Yes. This is basically a mix of the opening scenes of Hostel 2 and Blade only with more naked chicks and a LOT more pretension. Eli Roth only dreams of being able to be this blatant.
- Ruby lays on the floor naked, spreads her legs. The camera slowly approaches her vagina, when liters and liters of blood starts pouring out of it. This is all very symbolical and deep and I had a really tough time not bursting out in laughter ever since I saw the fucking blood-filled bathtub
- Cut to a modeling job of the two other models. One of them cant stop gagging. This goes on for, what 7 minutes? Just her gagging in the most hilarious fashion possible. She runs to the toilet. She gags some more. I really, really, REALLY hoped for her to spit out a complete foot or, I don't know, ALL of Elle Fanning but no, instead she just pukes up an eye. Like, a whole eye. They didn't even cut it up or anything. She then screams "I HAVE TO GET HER OUT OF ME" and cuts her own belly open.
- The other model calmly looks at her while all of this is happening, then picks up the eye and eats it. When the other girl first puked up the eye the whole theater already burst out laughing, this is basically when we completely lost it.
- She puts up her sunglasses and walks out. The End!

All of this is preceeded by 90 minutes of people telling Elle that she is really pretty. I feel like Cabin Fever is a calm and subtle analysis of modern youth in comparison to this schlock.

Those spoiler quotes are precious.

[epilogue]

I think I have a new understanding for how verm feels a lot of the time.

[VinylGuy]

This is far and away the best of the three NWR films I've seen. Perhaps its a tad on the nose when it comes to visualizing its themes, but I don't give a shit. Everything that's good about this movie (and there is a ton of good) so far outweighs the bad (and none of it is bad, just clunky or obvious or perhaps trying a bit too hard) that its hardly worth contemplating those negatives for very long.

Excellent, excellent film.

[epilogue]

I'm not sure I'd classify this as a horror film. It's interesting to me that that is how even Refn refers to the film; a sort fairy tale horror film. I totally get the fairy tale and/or fantasia classification. What do you guys think about calling this a horror film, though?

[LoathedVermin72]

I don't see it as horror either.

[epilogue]

Cool. That makes me feel better. Especially coming from someone who is a big NWR fan as well as big fan of the horror genre.

[VinylGuy]

I can see it as a horror movie yeah, but feels more like a thriller.

[melonhead4]

Watching this tonight looks like the DA BOMB

[melonhead4]

I gotta rewatch Bronson too

[melonhead4]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Its better than Drive?

[Dev]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Its better than Drive?

Completely different.

[E.H. Ruddock]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Its better than Drive?

Anything is better than that turd

[LoathedVermin72]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Its better than Drive?

I love Drive but I'd rank it somewhere near the middle of Refn's filmography.

[epilogue]

I think this might be my second favorite after Bronson.

Its better than Drive?

I love Drive but I'd rank it somewhere near the middle of Refn's filmography.

I'd rank it exactly in the middle. But I've only seen three of his films.

[epilogue]

And yes, Neon Demon is leagues better than Drive.

[LoathedVermin72]

YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS

Bronson
Valhalla Rising
The Neon Demon
Only God Forgives
Bleeder
Pusher
Drive
Pusher III
Pusher II
Fear X

Some of these are a toss-up. I love almost all of these movies intensely.

[E.H. Ruddock]

sigh

[epilogue]

Have you seen Neon Demon yet, Ruddo?