Directed by:
Nicolas Winding RefnCinematography:
Natasha BraierComposer:
Cliff MartinezCast:
Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote, Karl Glusman, Desmond Harrington, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Alessandro Nivola, Charles Baker (more)VOD (1)
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The film follows 16-year-old aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) as she moves to Los Angeles to pursue her dream. Signed by Jan (Christina Hendricks)'s modelling agency, Jesse quickly finds herself working with some of the city's top designers and photographers. But her innocence and youth make her a target of her fellow models, including Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee), who it seems are willing to go to any lengths to possess Jesse's X factor and to get revenge for the theft of their limelight. The cast also includes Jena Malone, Desmond Harrington, Keanu Reeves and Alessandro Nivola. (Icon Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (13)
Spoiled pretentiousness with two hours of running time and two twists. Cheaply provocative, grandly announcing something that will never come, and most importantly – completely unnecessary. The attempt to approach the incomprehensible spectacles of David Lynch is too shallow and self-absorbed. I understand that all the colors, wordless minutes, and repulsive scenes have metaphors that Nicolas Winding Refn enjoys talking about, but at their core, they are all so disgustingly trivial that they cannot even touch a clever or sophisticated effect. I was looking forward to more Danish-Hollywood hypnotism because I love Drive, and just narrowly missed Only God Forgives. But the main character's vacant stares don't work here because they have no narrative foundation to draw from, and the supporting monsters in this case are more like screenplay flaws. Nicolas just lost even the most patient of us.
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A non-mainstream, visually captivating, hypnotically immersive experience for those who can appreciate Nicolas Winding Refn's extraordinary visual sensibilities. But Refn is also explicitly provocative, completely unnecessarily so, and I could really do without a few scenes (sex in the morgue, yuck!). So when I add up the pros and cons, Refn ends up with a draw, but the kid has talent for more, much more. That's probably how Jaromil Jireš would shoot it when he was making Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, he would be a bit of a pervert and permanently on drugs.
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Refn is one of those directors that I always wished would make a horror film. The announcement of Neon Demon fulfilled one of my dreams as a cinemagoer and the expectations couldn’t have been higher. After the responses from the première in Cannes, I still believed the film will grip and captivate me instead of sending me to the other side of the fence, with the disgusted and annoyed viewers. But in the end it was worse – it was just meh! Boring. It didn’t arouse any emotions, positive or negative. Audiovisually, it’s beautifully empty.
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The protagonist moves to Los Angels to start a modeling career and, as everyone is impressed by her natural beauty, her career grows at a tremendous rate, which some of her competitors can not tolerate. The film has a slower pace, not much talking and there are some very long takes, but it's a fantastic cinematography and audiovisual experience. It’s horror maybe in the last 15 minutes or so, the rest is more of a hypnotic and audiovisual drama, but it has a lot going for it. PS: I didn't like the main character. 60%
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”Beauty isn't everything. It's the only thing.” Beautiful opening and end credits, largely thanks to Cliff Martinez, who looks like he might become one of the greatest film composers of the future. But that’s where the enthusiasm ends. It would be a pity if we stopped looking forward to Refn’s movies and were instead only curious about them. It seems like that is what he tried to achieve here, forgetting that he earned his biggest success (not just in Cannes) thanks to a story with heart (Drive), elevated by his unique style of directing, not by that style alone. The Neon Demon is a simple film with a clear message. There is no puzzle arousing exciting intellectual debates like in Only God Forgives. In its simplicity and lack of surprising elements, the film replaces the possibility of getting emotionally involved in the story with purely visual storytelling, which looks attractive but leaves the viewer unmoved. But I guess you should see this, at least because of the slobbering over a corpse we’ve never seen in an A-movie before. [Cannes]
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