Filled with colour-saturated sights, pulsating electro sounds, and pregnant pauses echoing around pointed dialogue, The Neon Demon could only be the product of one filmmaker. For anyone that has seen Pusher, Valhalla Rising, Drive, or Only God Forgives, there’s no mistaking Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylistic trademarks as his fashion industry fantasy-thriller assaults the cinema screen in as seductive a manner as the writer/director is capable of. As he immerses audiences in the underworld of the Los Angeles modelling scene, there’s no mistaking his stripped-back yet statement-heavy storytelling either.
Indeed, the Danish helmer’s tenth film in two decades offers an equally careful and gleeful celebration of his usual components, as well as his fondness for forcing viewers to consume dark, sparse stories peddled with entrancing aesthetics. As co-scripted with playwrights Mary Laws and Polly Stenham, it’s the epitome of a craftsman continuing to do exactly what he’s known for, which, in general, can entrance and infuriate in equal measure. And yet, as hues imbued with the lustre of the movie’s title expose and obfuscate shadowy deeds, actors float across the screen with a sense of danger and detachment, and purposeful sound design divorces the dialogue from its surroundings, The Neon Demon doesn’t just prove the product of an artist leaning heavily upon his familiar crutches. Instead, it’s the feature his others have been building towards, and the distillation of his film-making preferences — as well as his penchant for lurid genre fare gone by, appreciation of other Californian-set cautionary tales, and all-round love of master movie stylists from cinema history — into one distinctive effort.
In a movie populated with mirrors and fashioned to reflect more than a few comments about the cutthroat realm at its centre, blonde, bright-eyed, orphaned teenager Jesse (Elle Fanning, Trumbo) becomes the audience’s guide through Refn’s twisted fairytale-esque film, her innocence beaming from her face as she endeavours to navigate a world predicated upon competition — for jobs, for attention, and for validation, most notably. After meeting makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone, Lovesong) on a job, she’s soon earning the envy of fellow models Gigi (Bella Heathcote, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and Sarah (Abbey Lee, Gods of Egypt), particularly when a specific photographer (Desmond Harrington, TV’s Limitless) and designer (an uncredited Alessandro Nivola, Doll & Em) warm to her youth and natural allure over their experience and surgically enhanced appearance.
That Jesse is first sighted streaked in blood in what appears to be a tragic pose (but is swiftly revealed to be part of an exaggerated shoot) hammers home Refn’s approach to The Neon Demon. There’s little that’s nuanced within his choices or the film that results, though subtlety and such striking compositions rarely go hand in hand. Cinematographer Natasha Braier’s (The Rover) images emphasise an unsettling feeling of emptiness by design, with composer Cliff Martinez’s (The Knick) synth-heavy score layering sonic texture over every slick frame. The combination of almost-ethereal visuals and twinkling music — and their heightening of intentionally comedic exchanges, and just as frequently horrific flourishes — encapsulates the movie as a whole. The Neon Demon is ostensibly superficial, often stilted when anyone speaks and still largely static otherwise, and emphatically striving for dream-like fashion-shoot status, though these aren’t criticisms. It’s also always overflowing with interest and intrigue, with both the presentation and the probing that comes with it demanding the viewer’s focus in the process.
A nightmarish feature satirically eviscerating the vacuousness and viciousness of a life that trades in beauty as currency couldn’t ask for more eye-catchingly apt packaging, not that Refn — who plasters his initials across the screen’s opening — would’ve tackled it in any other manner. Nor, as its cast plasters on smiles then plays characters obsessed with wounding each others’ egos and more to strengthen their own, could it ask for more perfectly-pitched performances. Amongst a roster of talent that includes Christina Hendricks (Hap and Leonard) as a top agent, Keanu Reeves (Knock Knock) as a sleazy motel owner, and Karl Glusman (Love) as an aspiring snapper soon unimpressed with the reality of his chosen field, Fanning convincingly conveys the necessary journey from naivety to confidence required; however it is Malone that commands the screen by expressing both a need to consume and an understanding of the consequences of such consumption. In a film that veers from narcissism to cannibalism and from desire to jealousy, she ensures the thirst and hunger that courses through every scene never subsides; while she never winks at the camera, with Refn she may as well be daring audiences to eat it all up.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
The Neon Demon
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
France | Denmark | USA, 2016, 118 mins
Melbourne International Film Festival
miff.com.au
28 July – 14 August 201
Actors:
Director:
Format:
Country:
Release:
