Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It does my heart good to know that a movie like The Neon Demon can still get a wide release in the United States. I’ll be the first to admit my tendency towards pessimism regarding the current state of our film industry, especially when it comes to true creative freedom. But the fact that I can hop in my car, take a 10 minute drive to my local Regal Cinemas, and watch a movie as uncompromising and unique as this – with “Amazon Studios” plastered on it, no less – gives me hope. The fact that I was one of exactly five people in the theater on opening Saturday night? Let’s not talk about that part. The film follows Jesse (Elle Fanning) – a beautiful, virginal (figuratively and literally), and possibly orphaned (the backstory is vague) 15-year-old girl who has recently moved to LA in pursuit of a career in modeling. Essentially, we watch as Jesse is slowly sucked in by the superficial glitz and glam of the industry, chewed up, and eventually swallowed whole as the film becomes increasingly bizarre and abstract. At its core, The Neon Demon is a film about vanity; it’s a film about the vacuous existence that results from a single-minded obsession with appearance. It’s certainly not a unique idea, but the success of the film is that it isn’t just about vanity, it embodies vanity. Many have praised the visual prowess of this film and I’ll wholeheartedly echo that – it is unbelievably beautiful and easily one of the most visually striking movies I have ever seen. There is an obsessive attention to detail in every single frame: the lighting, shot composition, set design, color palate – you name it – are all finely tuned to create an incredibly sumptuous, nearly sublime visual experience. But at the same time, the film feels incredibly empty. Much of it takes place in big, wide-open spaces sparsely populated by women who take up just about as little horizontal space as humanly possible. Many scenes – interestingly, often those with dialogue – feel extremely quiet as monotonic characters lethargically converse with intermittent moments of near-silence between each statement and response. And, of course, many of the film’s scenes find its characters simply gazing wordlessly at themselves and others, completely lost in the allure of their perceived beauty. The polarized response to the film is definitely unsurprising. By its own design it feels empty, emotionless, and artificial. The characters in the film and the world they inhabit don’t feel real; they are personifications of vanity – vampires who feed on beauty rather than blood. To enjoy the film isn’t really to identify with its characters or connect emotionally, but to marvel at how wholly and successfully it captures the essence of superficiality and vanity. The brilliant crux of the film is that the pleasure derived from it by those like me who enjoyed it comes directly from the same deep-seated, mesmeric attraction to beauty that the characters in the film embody. Not unlike what Haneke accomplished with Funny Games (another polarizing film) and his commentary on the “torture porn” genre, Refn slyly exposes the audience for their moth-to-flame affinity for beauty, regardless of how superficial it may be. However, while the main appeal of the film is certainly (and fully intentionally) the visual style, there definitely is subtlety and depth to the proceedings which bolster it as well. Jesse’s character arc is quite frank – at the outset she’s a naïve, relatively unassuming and hesitant girl who is slowly “consumed” by the glitz of the industry and ultimately becomes as self-absorbed and delusional as the veteran models who surround her. It’s the manner in which this transformation occurs, however, that is quite well-executed and subtle: flattery. She’s surrounded by people in LA who universally faun over her, call her special, tell her she will be the next big thing, etc. Through a series of ever-so-subtle positive reactions to this repeated flattery (portrayed very well by Fanning), we watch as all of the praise and attention infiltrates and corrupts Jesse’s mind, culminating in a hallucinatory, abstract turning point during a runway show where she becomes fully taken by lust for her own beauty, kissing her reflection on either side of a triangular mirror. She becomes her own worst enemy. Though obviously taken to an extreme in the film, this is a trajectory we see all the time with child stars whose fame inflates their ego to a breaking point from which they spiral downward. And Fanning’s performance combined with Refn’s direction deftly captures the subtlety of such a transition and how it can be provoked by something as innocent as a compliment. Also, while many of the characters – particularly the rival models – are thinly drawn (and intentionally so), I found the other main character of the film, Ruby (Jena Malone) to be quite interesting as well. She’s a makeup artist – most likely a failed model – who rubs elbows with the elite models of the industry but is clearly an outsider and fully aware of that fact. She’s pretty, and clearly just as preoccupied with beauty as the rest, but also painfully aware that she just doesn’t quite have the looks to make it in the industry. So instead she does the makeup, surrounding herself with her more beautiful counterparts motivated both by envy and physical attraction. She gets as close to the life as she possibly can without being able to live it herself. This theme is very effectively driven home by her role as a “house sitter” later on in the movie – caretaking in the home of a wealthier, more successful individual, watering the plants, living the life but at the same time not living it at all. It’s all a fantasy fueled by her desire to be something that she just isn’t. Her character feels like a vehicle for commentary on the detrimental effects of a society so hyper-focused on appearance – those who don’t meet the standard almost inevitably feel discluded and inadequate. As far as criticism goes, the themes of the film can definitely be a bit heavy-handed at times. Also, on an initial viewing I will say that the third act of the film left me wanting a bit more. Looking back on the full arc I do appreciate the ending, but there was definitely a bit of a tonal shift where the film began to feel a little cartoony, particularly in the very final scenes. It’s a minor criticism, as the film certainly is already quite detached from reality and the cartoony elements really just augment this quality and bring it out in full view at the close. Still, I couldn’t help but want a little more as the credits started to roll (although, to be fair, it’s also partially because I didn’t want to the film to end). Bravo to Amazon for helping to produce this film. This was the very first film I have seen with “Amazon Studios” labeled on the front, and I applaud them for putting their name on a project so uncompromisingly artistic and with very little universal appeal. Regardless of whether you enjoyed the film, I think we can agree that such a huge company supporting and advertising an auteur film like this is a huge win for film lovers. 4.5/5