eXistenZ

Title: eXistenZ

Director: David Cronenberg

Released: 1999

Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe, Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, Christopher Eccleston, Sarah Polley, Robert A. Silverman, Oscar Hsu, Kris Lemche, Vik Sahay

Plot: Allegra Gellar (Leigh) is one of the best game designers in the world working toward the launch of her new virtual reality game eXistenZ, but when she is attacked by a crazed assassin she is forced to go on the run with marketing trainee Ted (Law). Fearing that her game might have been damaged in the attack she talks Ted into playing the game with her only to soon find the real and virtual world becoming all the more blended the more they play.

Review: What is it about Cronenbergs career that no one else seems to talk about the films which fall between his remake of “The Fly” and “A History of Violence”? Its not that these films are any less interesting or enjoyable than the films which he made either side of this period some of these films arguably better than the ones which came before or after them and yet with the exception of “Crash” whose controversial release marks it out much like “Naked Lunch” which had the benefit of being linked to William Burroughs cult novel this remains a seemingly forgotten period for Cronenberg which only now seems to be getting the appreciation it deserves with “Dead Ringers” as I write this quickly coming into vogue at present with cult cinema fans. This film however I would cite as the most bizarrely over looked of these films a feeling I’ve had about the film since I first saw it where it left me bewildered that it wasn’t being more talked about, while its release in 1999 over provides further evidence of it still being the best movie year.

Working from the his first original script since “Videodrome” here the focus hasn’t changed as the focus is once more on societies relationship with technology this time moving the focus from television to video games while also working in his still popular themes of disease, mutation and Infection as like with “Videodrome” he leads us down another twisted rabbit hole. At the same time while the basis for this world might be in Video Games and perhaps to an extent virtual reality, its a world still very much seen through Cronenberg’s eye which see’s players connecting themselves to fleshy game pods via umbilical like cords which connect to the base of their spines. Once in the video game world of the game its almost impossible to tell what’s reality with the exception of characters appearing to be stuck on a loop if the player doesn’t present them with the right line of dialogue for them to respond to. This is of course the trap that Cronenberg sell us as things get only the more progressively weirder as the film continues with Allegra and Ted at one point working in a slaughterhouse style manufacture line where the game pods are seemingly being constructed out of various animal organs.

Compared to some of his other films the mutation aspect is pretty light here with the standout moment coming when the leftovers of “The Special” at a Chinese restaurant turn themselves into a bio-mechanical pistol complete with teeth bullets. The scene played out with much mechanical ease by Jude Law as he unwittingly pieces the weapon together his body working independently from his mind. True this might be lighter than James Woods pushing a video cassette into the video player formed in his chest but what we get here is none the less effective with some memorable imagery featured throughout.

Even when in the supposed real world there is always something to hold the audiences attention with Cronenberg not needing to go into a virtual world before he is introducing some of the more weird and memorable aspects of the film as seen with a would be assassin trying to kill Allegra using a bio-mechanical gun in a scene inspired by the Fatwa being declared on author Salman Rushdie after he released “The Satanic Verses”. Frustratingly its never made overly clear what about Allegra’s game is cause for such protest let alone an attempted assassination attempt and to this extent it really only serves as a catalyst for the main story than being fleshed out as much as I would have liked, more so when the film comes full circle by its finale.

For the most part the film is carried by both Leigh and Law as they try to make sense of what is happening around them encountering a number of colourful and interesting characters along their journey from Willem Dafoe’s mechanic Gas who also has a sideline in bio-ports through to the Bio-pod surgeon and Allegra’s mentor Kiri (Holm) who operates out of a disused ski lodge continuing the theme of things turning up in surprisingly places which features throughout the film. Each of these encounters proving memorable in their own ways with Cronenberg not wasting time on filler here while the ongoing mystery is only added to further by another of classic score by long term collaborator Howard Shore.

Thanks to some misguiding advertisements on the films release selling the film as more of an action film it has for some reason left the film one of the more sadly overlooked entries on Cronenberg’s resume and while it might not be one from his golden period this is still him working at his most creative and inventive best

A History of Violence

Title: A History of Violence

Director: David Cronenberg
Released: 2005
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Ed Harris, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk

Plot: Tom (Mortensen) a mild mannered diner owner living in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana who after foiling an attempted robbery finds himself becoming a local celebrity. However despite his attempts to return to a normal life, he instead finds himself and his family being stalked by a scarred gangster (Harris) who insists that Tom is not who he says he is.

 

Review:  Despite being known for his love of body horror on which he’d built his reputation, it was clear when this film was released that Cronenberg was keen to move on and explore different themes and ideas, than his cornerstones of mutation, disease and infection which had shape nearly all his previous films. However starting with the much overlooked “Spider” and followed by this film it was clear that he had turned a corner in his career and arguably for the better, Cronenberg perhaps realising that he’d really pushed his body horror obsessions as far as he could.

This however is not to mean that he has lost any of his edge as he opens with a pair of thugs checking out of their motel, only to tease out the fate of the motel clerk and manager, while the pair banter back and forth between themselves. In fact I was surprised to find this film more visceral than I remembered with the central diner heist quickly turning nasty before reaching its gruesome payoff while we also early on get treated to a graphic oral sex scene and clumsy cheerleader roleplay between Tom and his wife which will prove a tender comparison to the rough stairwell sex they have when *Spoilers alert* Tom’s former life is revealed.

This film also marks the first of three films he has to date made with Viggo Mortensen with the other two being the spiritual sequel to this film “Eastern Promises” and his Jung / Freud biopic “A Dangerous Method”. It’s clear though from this first collaboration that the two certainly work well together as Mortensen believably plays both sides of his character first as the mild mannered and soft spoken family man and later as his sadistic and violent gangster personality which he has been hiding all these years from his wife and family.

Despite being based on the graphic novel of the same name, released through DC Comics “Vertigo” imprint, the film actually improves on the source material by focusing on the main story of Tom and the life he thought he’d escaped and in turn cutting out the heavy use of flashbacks that made up much of the original story. In doing so Cronenberg really hones in on the meat of the story, while a tight runtime keeps the action and suspense flowing, even when it takes in subplots as Tom’s eldest son having to deal with a bullying head jock, whose dislike of him comes merely from having caused him to lose a game of softball, which makes the intensity of the bullying all the more baffling. It is unclear whether Cronenberg knew the screenplay was based on a comic book, especially when he has so frequently been outspoken on his disdain for the genre perhaps making this this first and only dabble with the genre.

Here Cronenberg once again assembles a strong cast, though at time Maria Bello comes off far too wooden especially during her seduction scenes which ultimately come off more clumsy than sexy. Still this film really hinges on the performances of both Mortensen and Ed Harris who despite his heavily scared face manages to prove himself a terrifying threat even without the threat of violence as he provides the same sort of relentless torment to Tom and his family he almost manages to rival Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast" only without the same prophanity riddled meltdown.

The violence throughout the film while frequently explicit is used with such reserve here, that when do get a moment of violence it remains shocking even if some of the fight scenes especially are so over the top such as the scenes in which Tom is forced to dispatch a group of gangsters threatening his family or the diner robbery. At the same time it’s clear that he’s aware of his abilities and frequently is shown trying to avoid conflict, not only to avoid revealing his previous life, but also you feel to avoid tapping into the side of him he might not be able to supress again, especially if we are to believe any of the tales we are told of his former life one which he is clearly clean to put behind him making the final scenes all the more poignant as he puts his guns to earth and cleanses himself of his sins in the lake before returning to his family, the last scene showing the family wanting to move on while the events of the film are clearly still hanging over them as they try to present the image of a happy family.

This is easily one of Cronenberg’s most accessible films to date especially when it plays more like a traditional thriller while here he shows himself more than capable of producing interesting and engaging films without body horror, while being carried by some strong performances especially by Mortensen who plays both sides of Tom perfectly and making this a thriller with real bite.

Videodrome

Title:  Videodrome

Director:  David Cronenberg
Released: 1983
Starring: James Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman

Plot: Max Renn (Woods) the president of CIVIC-TV, a station which specialises in sleazy and sensationalistic programing is frustrated in his attempts to find his next big program. However when he stumbles across “Videodrome” a show which seemingly shows real torture and murder with his attempts to discover its origin leading him to discover a much larger global conspiracy.

 

Review:  Released during a golden period for Cronenberg, who with “The Brood” had finally found his groove after his hit and miss early experiments with body horror (Rabid / Shivers) aswell as the much overlooked “Fast Company”. Here though he would give us some of his most memorable work as he continues his obsession with bodily mutation, disease and infection which this time comes via the voyeuristic violence of “Videodrome”, whose side effects soon see James Woods undergoing a number of bizarre transformations including most memorably turning his torso into a gooey VHS slot.

Working from a script developed from his childhood memories of picking up signals from New York, when the channels in his native Canada had gone off the air while at the same time constantly worried that he might stumble across like Max something that he should see. At the same time basing the films “Civic TV” on “CityTV” which had a reputation for showing soft-core pornography which it branded “Baby-blue films”; Here he truly crafts a strange tale to say the least but at the same time for all its mutations it’s also a surprisingly straightforward story and one which is carried by Woods moral devoid TV Station president who we open to him buying an underground pornography series from a pair of Japanese businessmen and despite it featuring a hidden dildo, he has seemingly grown board by the usual sleaze and grime he has been peddling on the station until now. Needless to say it only makes it only the more believable that he would see the staged snuff TV that Videodrome offers as the future of TV.

Of course being a Cronenberg film it was never going to be enough for Max to head off on a journey into the film making underground to find out the source of this mysterious broadcast which becomes a source of obsession to Max. Instead Cronenberg turns it into something much more interesting as the broadcast comes with the ability to cause vivid hallucinations and meaning that we get such memorable scenes as Max seemingly pushing himself into his television aswell as the aforementioned chest VHS sequence which the film has become renowned for.

While it’s easy to get distracted with all the visual flair being thrown around, but outside of the big set pieces it’s still a journey filled with fascinating characters such as Debbie Harry’s sadomasochistic psychiatrist who finds the vicious images of “Videodrome” the ultimate turn on. We also meet Professor Brian O’Blivion (Creley) who chooses to only appear via video recordings than in person and while it’s true that some moments such as the homeless mission were those attending engage are forced to continually watch TV’S but like so many of these Cronenbergisms which seem so grounded in reality we don’t ever question them no matter how random things seem to get, with the switches between the reality and dreams being so fluid here, that you genuinely reach a point where you stop questioning what is happening and instead just enjoy the ride.

While this film might have its share of gooey moments this is certainly one of his more accessible films making it the perfect starting place for newcomers, while still containing plenty to enjoy for the converted while this is unquestionably fearless film making at its best.

 

Hail to the new flesh!

Cosmopolis

Title: Cosmopolis
Director: David Cronenberg

Released: 2012

Staring: Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Juliette Binoche, Kevin Durand

Plot:28 year old Billionaire asset manager Eric Packer (Pattinson) travels across New York in order via his impenetrable stretch limo to get a haircut at his childhood barber.

 

Review: This film took me awhile to get around to watching originally due to prolonged delays, thanks in part to the limited distribution as well as were I live on this rain soaked rock meaning that certain films never make it this far south, but still despite such issues I did finally get to see the latest film by director David Cronenberg, which after “A Dangerous Method” sees him back on more familiar ground as he returns with his adaptation of Don DeLillo’s titular novel.

Clearly trying to break away from the shiny vampire nonsense of the “Twilight” saga, Pattinson stars here in a role which was originally going to be played by Colin Farrell, until scheduling conflicts with the recent “Total Recall” remake forced him to drop out, leaving the role open for Patterison who continues here with his ongoing mission to try and find roles as far away from the role of Edward Cullen as possible, especially with this film being one of his more experimental performances, something I don’t think most of the Robert Pattinson fans (or most of the audience at the screening I attended) realised judging by how many people I saw walking out of this film, a scene all to reminiscent of those I saw while watching “Drive”. As such it is certainly worth noting that this is far from the most action packed of films, especially considering how it is a film driven by its dialogue rather than the events which happen within it’s runtime.

For myself DeLillo has always been an author I have found to be largely impenetrable, despite many of his books such as the 823 page epic “Underworld” being highly regarded, they have never truly managed to capture my interest so I was especially curious going into this film to see if this was down to how DeLillo presents his stories or if it was just the writing itself which I was having the problem with. Still seeing how Cronenberg had managed to adapt William Burroughs equally impenetrable “Naked Lunch” with shall we say interesting results, I was hopeful if anyone could make it work it would be him. So did he? Well the results are mixed to say the least for while the film looks absolutely stunning, the verbal masturbation of the film does ultimately mean that it never really goes beyond we world we see out of the windows of Packer’s limo, bar the occasional diversion to one of the numerous diners which Packer visits along on his journey. Still from this view point we witness civil unrests as anarchists take to the street, with the rat being used as their new symbol of revolt aswell as an elaborate funeral procession of Packer’s favourite rapper. Yet despite the chaos which erupts outside of his limo, this protective cocoon means that Packer remains in a constant state of calm, even as he fritters away his fortune on the rapidly declining currency known as the Chinese Yuan, all over the course of one day.

Packer’s limo is frequently shown as less his preferred mode of transport, but more the throne from which he controls his empire, especially when it is seemingly equipped for any need he might have, as he controls trades and monitors changes in the market via touch screens located in the backseats, while also using the limo as a base for the numerous meetings he holds with a variety of characters which form the bulk of the story, when he is not engaging in casual sex with one of his mistresses or even at one part having a prostate exam carried out. It is packers discussions with his personal bodyguard (Durand) though which keep us most informed about what is happening in the real world, something Packer seems overly detached from thanks to his position and status which his fortune has earned him, yet at the same time would appear to be suffocating him slowly, as he seeks random acts of violence such as randomly requesting that one of his mistresses tazer him so that he can feel something.

The cast are all good in their various roles, even if what they might be doing might be less than stimulating for some viewers, especially when so many characters speak so monotone, it can at times make it much of a slog to get through, especially when the film is driven by its dialogue. This will no doubt prove especially frustrating to the Pattinson fans, as he remains an actor severely in need of the right kind of mentor to hone his performances, for while watchable enough here it often feels that he is far from stretching himself, especially when Packer is seemingly on autopilot for the majority of the film. Still more bizarrely it is those within the cast playing potential threats to Packer that prove to the most interesting with Mathiew Amalric appearing as a serial custard pie thrower, whose random monologue was easily one of my favourite moments of the film, while Paul Giamatti’s stalker Benno makes for a slightly bewildering and unpredictable climax, especially when the film seemingly just ends rather than reaching any form of solid conclusion, for those who have stuck around this far, which as I looked around the theatre was probably around 5% of the audience that had started the film.

Perhaps if I wasn’t such a fan of Cronenberg’s work I might not have stuck this one out, as at it’s strongest it remains a curiosity, though unwitting it would seem with “Cosmopolis” Cronenberg, has finally given us a companion piece to Richard Kelly’s underrated “Southland Tales”, whose randomness also baffled many who actually saw it, while strangely charming some like myself something I was hoping for here, yet like DeLillo’s books it frequently seems to get caught up with how clever its writing is, that it forgets such things such as emotional dialogue which is honestly were the main fault of the film lies. Perhaps this was intentional with some highbrow literacy reason which certainly went over my head, but it is at the same time only further credit that Cronenberg is still making films the way he wants to, as shown by his fierce determination to provide as true an adaptation as possible here, while no doubt creating a film which will be pondered over like his adaptation of “Naked Lunch” as a strange yet occasionally wonderful curiosity, but be warned that this is one film which is not for everyone and perhaps only the few.

The Fly

Title: The Fly

Director: David Cronenberg

Released: 1986

Staring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz

Plot: Seth Brundle (Goldblum) an eccentric yet brilliant scientist believes he has found a way to teleport from one location to another using his invention “The Telepod”. However while using himself as a guinea-pig, he unwittingly fuses his genes with a house fly which was trapped in the pod with him.

Review: For the most part the word “remake” can be considered to be a word almost a dirty as the word “reboot”, especially when films get remade seemingly only in the pursuit of easy box office dollars, as the studios attempt to cash in on the legacy of an established classic. Then of course we have a film like this film which not only remakes the classic 1958 movie, but rather turns it into something altogether more special.

Considering Cronenberg’s love of bodily mutation, disease and infection, it would in many ways seem like a no brainer for him to helm the remake, as it is essentially prime for the exploration of these key Cronenberg themes, but despite his love for the original, it was bizarrely only after he was offered the project by even more bizarrely of all people Mel Brooks, who despite being best known for his screwball comedies would also produce under “Brooksfilms”, films such as “The Elephant Man” and “Frances” opting not to use his name, encase people mistook the films for comedies, which is undoubtedly for the best here.

Rewritting large sections of the original script by Charles Edward Pogue, who still retains a writing credit here, thanks to Cronenberg’s insistence that Pogue’s script had served as the foundation for his own rewrites. Here he has crafted in his own way a love story, in very much the same way that “True Romance” can be viewed as a love story, for while both don’t contain the traditional structure of your run of the mill romantic film, it is certainly at the heart of this film, which is only made clearer when the film is broken down into its simplest terms for what we have is the story of two people in love, only one of them is dying from a horrible disease. It just so happens that in this case the disease is one which is turning him into a mutant man fly hybrid or “The Brundlefly” as he frequently refers to himself, as the true extent of his condition becomes apparent to him.

Goldblum is of course perfect casting as the ill fated scientist as his usual tics and stumbling dialogue only further help him embody the character of Seth, while even more surprisingly managing to project real on screen chemistry with Davis’s Veronica, especially with Davis and Goldblum being in a relationship at the time, which would usually equal zero onscreen chemistry which is thankfully not the case, with Davis especially deserving props for making such an unlikely relationship seem believable, even though it would seem that Veronica is using her feminine charms to get the story, it is really down to her performance that we can believe that their relationship is real.

Unlike the original which is played out in a more traditional b-movie style, with more of the focus being on the hideous transformation in order to maximize shocks. Here Cronenberg takes the time to focus on Brundle’s teleportation experiments, which when we join him is still failing to transport anything living, as shown by the messy failed teleportation of a baboon, with Cronenberg using Veronica’s video camera interviews to truly get in the mind of Brundle, looking at the frustration he finds with his failures, while also capturing the enthusiasm his work brings out in his despite this as he bounces enthusiastically around his lab with each breakthrough he finds giving him renewed vigor towards his goal. These video sections become equally important as Brundle starts to mutate it, as he records each new change first of all with a strange curiosity as he finds himself with increased strength and libido, aswell as ultimately sadness as finds himself becoming increasingly more monstrous in appearance as his body parts slowly disintegrate, with his transformation also causing him to adopt fly like attributes such as body forcing him to vomit bile on his food before consumption.

Released at the height of the AID’s epidemic, the film was initially seen as a parable on the disease, but as Cronenberg would confirm the film is infact about growing old as Brundle nears his final nightmarish transformation he is shown bent double and using walking sticks to move around with his once youthful looks now reduced to a wrinkled visage. Still it is clear how much fun Cronenberg is having here, especially with Special effects guru Chris Walas bringing the horrific and gradual transformation to life, while also providing further fuel to the importance of old school effects over the CGI, much like Rob Bottin’s equally incredible special effects work on “The Thing”.

While more certainly gooier than the original trilogy of films, Cronenberg has truly made a version of the story very much in tune with his own vision, something especially surprising for such a mainstream studio film and while he had originally hoped that the success of this film would give him the freedom to make any film he wanted, it would still take another two years to bring his then dream project “Dead Ringers” to the screen. Still if there was ever a film which justifies why Cronenberg is a director worth getting excited about this is it and while it might be a rare jaunt into Big budget mainstream film making it still retains all of his usual trademarks as well as the curious charm from his independent features and while it might be at times it might feel that your reaching for the sickbag perhaps a little too frequently especially on the first viewing, Cronenberg never uses such tactics for cheap shocks and never at the expense of the story. This is bold and exciting film making at its best aswell as at its most gooey.

The Brood

Title: The Brood
Director: David Cronenberg
Released: 1979
Staring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, Susan Hogan, Cindy Hinds

Plot: Frank’s (Hindle) wife (Eggar) is currently under the care of the eccentric and highly unconventional psychologist Dr. Hal Raglan (Reed), who is also pioneering a technique called “psychoplasmics”. Meanwhile a brood of mutant children responsible for a series of violent attacks seem to be linked to the reclusive psychologist but how?



Review: Cronenberg has always held a strange fascination for me, perhaps due to his obsession with bodily mutation, disease and infection, which even from my early exposure to his work, easily set him apart from other directors especially as they always felt like they contained some element of clinical study of these themes within, perhaps due to voyeuristic nature in which he chooses to shoot these main obsessions in his work.

So with my blogging hombre Emily over at “The Deadly Doll’s House of Horror Nonsense” wrapping up her month long celebration of vertically challenged villains with “The Shortening”, I was inspired to delve into one the Cronenberg back catalogue and revisit one of his earlier films, aswell as one of my personal favorites yet sadly most overlooked from this period.

Written and directed during his messy divorce from his first wife, this would be one of his most personal films to date and almost a form of personal therapy, with his own battle for custody of his daughter being especially highlighted through Frank’s own battle to protect his daughter Candice, who is seemingly being harmed by his wife, when she returns to him covered in cuts and bruises. Still being a Cronenberg movie nothing is quite what it seems, as he crafts here what could almost be seen as the horror version of “Kramer Vs. Kramer”.

Opening with Dr. Raglan holding a showcase for “psychoplasmics”, a highly experimental method which forces his patents to invoke painful and traumatic memories with encouraged role play, which we get to see him demonstrate with one of his patients, while the more Cronenberg side of this method is kept for a later revel. This however is the perfect introduction to the barmy yet fantastic performance Oliver Reed brings to this character and while some might argue that Reed’s appearance here was miscasting, I personally adored his performance here, especially as he frequently plays the big secret so close to his chest that we never see the big revel coming, which also serves to highlight in many ways the depths of his own personal obsession with furthering his psychoplasmics research.

While the rest of the cast might not manage to reach these same levels of performance, Hindle is still convincing as the concerned father, while Eggar is suitably insane as his committed wife, while her most bonkers scenes sadly felt the wrath of the censor cuts, much to the frustration of Cronenberg who rightfully argued that these cuts completely changed the context of the scenes they were cut from. Hinds however is possibly one of the worst child actors I have ever seen in, as she fails at any given moment to show any form emotion other than looking permanently stunned and to see her try and pull off any kind of performance is a painful experience to sit through, so it’s almost a blessing when she gets kidnapped by the mutant kiddies.

Despite frequently being sold on the prospect of baseball bat welding mutant dwarf children, this film is actually a lot more of a slow burn than you would expect, with the mutant kiddies only making a handful of appearances throughout and while memorable as they are, it still feels like more of a detective story with elements of horror than a straight forward shocker, as Frank investigates what is really happening at Dr. Raglan’s clinic, an investigation which along the way leads him into a number of colorful characters, who all hint at the larger secret being hidden by Dr. Raglan.

Still gore fan’s needn't be too disappointed, as we still get some meaty bludgeoning to enjoy via a variety objects from mallets to paperweights and these sporadic deaths are shot with such a sobering view point, that they are just as effective as if Cronenberg had doubled his body count, an urge he resists in favor of more focused kills with each death ultimately serving a larger purpose, rather than to just add to the death toll. While perhaps traumatizing a whole group of small kids with the clubbing scene at Candice’s school, Cronenberg would also go on record in “Cronenberg on Cronenberg” that he particularly enjoyed the scene were Frank strangles his now frenzied wife, especially with so many of her characteristics being based on his ex wife.

Howard Shore provides a rich and haunting classical score to the film, which adds the perfect edge to the film, especially as it is frequently kept to the background with Cronenberg allowing his imagery to present their full power, rather than using the soundtrack to provide any false sense of horror or discomfort.

“The Brood” would serve to be the film to elevate Cronenberg from his schlocky origins which had began with “Shivers” and “Rabid” and showed a director with an impassioned desire for artistic expression, while setting the tone for the films to come which would continue to push the boundaries explored here, yet on it’s own merits it remains like it’s director great, yet sadly underrated.