The Neon Demon

I see far fewer new movies in the theater than I used to. Career focus, readjusted life priorities – but mostly, I can call the shots of damn near every new movie I see. And as I get older, that notion alone makes buying a movie ticket less alluring. I know people take comfort in the boy getting the girl, the superheroes winning the day, the social justice warriors implanting their message, but for $18 a ticket, it’s simply not for me anymore. And yeah okay, nothing new – the movie freak bitching about the current piss poor state of film. But here’s my point: though I do feel the general quality of most movies is digressing, good films are made every year, and The Neon Demon is chief among them this year.

The initial (and ultimately lasting) intrigue of The Neon Demon is that I had no idea where it was going. Scene-by-scene, shot-by-shot, word-by-word – not a fucking clue. And that, for better or worse, excites me. I love that The Neon Demon kept me guessing. I love that, during the film’s climax, some people walked out and others screamed aloud. Hell, the dude sitting directly in front of me almost puked into the aisle. No kidding, dry heaves and everything. The Neon Demon isn’t a film designed to appeal to mass audiences. It is challenging and relentless; an insane, beautiful, macabre mindfuck of a film.

Shortly after a young, innocent model named Jesse (Elle Fanning, her best work) moves to Los Angeles, she discovers how seedy (or dangerous, or sordid, or grotesque) the modeling industry is, and how ruthless the people who fill it truly are. Along Jesse’s journey, she’s studied by mysterious make-up artist, Ruby (Jena Malone, perfect), and two “aging” models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee, both showing immaculate disdain). She meets a boy who fancies her (Karl Glusman, from Gaspar Noé’s Love), a motel manager who terrifies her (Keanu Reeves, chewing it up), and countless photographers, designers, and models.

Plot outlines for the film are best left thin, because The Neon Demon is a fresh and daring experience you should discover for yourself. The main draw of the film is that it is directed and co-written by neon-tech style-funk bad-boy, Nicolas Winding Refn. If you’ve seen a Refn film (like Bronson, Valhalla Rising, Drive or Only God Forgives), you understand that Refn lends next to none of his creative process to mass marketability. He tells challenging tales exactly the way he wants to tell them, consistently garnering polarizing results.

For my money, The Neon Demon is Refn’s most accomplished film yet. Shot on a budget of just $7 million (Refn always keeps his costs extremely low), The Neon Demon looks better than most movies (of any budget) made today. Natasha Braier’s cinematography is, in no uncertain terms, some of the finest work I have seen committed to a film camera in quite some time. The neon-infused palette, the gorgeous compositions, the patient framing – it’s next-level work, a miraculous achievement. As is Cliff Martinez’s electronic score. After drumming for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Martinez moved to films, scoring some of Steven Soderbergh’s best work (The Limey, Traffic, Solaris, The Knick), as well as Spring Breakers, Drive, Only God Forgives, and much more. His work for The Neon Demon rivals the best score Martinez has delivered yet. Many sequences in The Neon Demon are executed with no live sound, which forces the cinematography and score to act as their own characters. I can’t say enough about the technical achievements of this film.

But, again, to be clear, nothing about The Neon Demon is easy. It’s an LA-based film made with a wholly European sentiment. Excruciatingly patient, uncommonly weird, darkly sexual, and nauseatingly violent. I won’t dare promise that you’ll love or even enjoy the film, but I can promise that you’ve never seen anything quite like it. And, if you’re like me, that alone is enough. It’s a film I could see 10 more times and still have fun unpacking. Which, believe me, I will. A