Whether you love his movies, hate his movies or were simply disappointed to discover that they aren’t all exactly like Bronson or Drive, there is one thing you absolutely have to say about director Nicolas Winding Refn: his films are really fucking pretty.
His attention to gorgeous composition, the incorporation of ethereal slow-motion and his stubborn willingness to let the camera linger on those things until he gets bored (and not, pointedly, until his audience does) makes Nicolas Winding Refn a frustrating filmmaker to critique. You are undeniably inside his meticulously crafted world, you are probably gobsmacked by how attractive it all is, but you’re not necessarily always invested what’s happening. Sometimes – and I’m looking at you, Only God Forgives – his love of lusciousness gets in the way of actually telling the damned story.
Amazon Studios / Broad Green Pictures
Fortunately for all of us, The Neon Demon is all about lusciousness. It is about beauty and superficial perfection. It is about pretentiousness itself and the high cost its pursuit can have on the human psyche. It is as perfectly suited to Nicolas Winding Refn’s sensibilities as just about any film could be: the style is also the substance, and neither is getting in the other’s way.
Elle Fanning stars as Jesse, an underage model who recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in modeling. Her innocent appearance and flawless skin make her an instant success, landing her the type of dream jobs her aging “peers” actually have to work for. She is the newest sparkly in a world of rapidly dimming sparklies, and that makes her powerful, desirable, vulnerable, and maybe even kind of a horrible human being. And we watch as she succumbs to her own particular blend of ugliness, and we watch as others watch her and try to take ownership of her beauty, and we realize that something terrible is bound to happen to somebody in this disturbing and hypnotic world… eventually.
Amazon Studios / Broad Green Pictures
The Neon Demon is being marketed as a “horror movie” and a “thriller” because, indeed, something does happen that makes any other description seem misleading. The event(s) might be a shock to the senses, but it’s plain to see that the beautiful, slithering place to which Nicolas Winding Refn has invited us has always had fangs. Watching this film is like being trapped in a large room with a cobra, with nothing to distract you but the elegance of the venomous snake that, sooner or later, is going to attack. At that moment you will either feel catharsis, or horror, or both.
Opulence for its own sake is not exclusive to any artistic medium, and it is fascinating to watch a filmmaker who has been accused of this same sort of pretentiousness explore the ugly side of beauty. The Neon Demon is pretty because it has to be, and it is ugly because of course it is. It is a celebration of superficial loveliness and a punishing indictment of the type of people who are only superficially lovely. It is shallow and complicated. It is disgustingly beautiful and beautifully disgusting. It is brilliant filmmaking.
The Best Psychological Thrillers of the Decade (So Far):
Top Photo: Amazon Studios / Broad Green Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Best Psychological Thrillers of the Decade (So Far)
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Black Swan (2010)
Darren Aronofsky's dazzling pirouette into madness stars an Oscar-winning Natalie Portman as a ballerina driven by matriarchal obsession, self-loathing and sexual confusion. When a rival dancer (Mila Kunis) sets her sights on our heroine, the stage is set for tragedy and violence.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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Blue Ruin (2014)
Jeremy Saulnier re-wires the old-fashioned revenge thriller into something less cathartic, and more unsettling. Macon Blair plays a homeless man who kills his parents murder, but screws everything up along the way. If it wasn't so thriller, Blue Ruin would be the anti-thriller.
Photo: Radius-TWC
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Cold Fish (2010)
Shion Sono's shocking, brutal, and utterly amoral thriller Cold Fish may not have had a major release in America, but those who have seen it understand its power. A mild-mannered aquarium owner named Syamoto (Mitsuru Fukikoshi) falls into orbit around his more successful rival Murata (Denden), only to discover that the confidence that makes Murata successful in business (and with the ladies) stems from sociopathic violence. As his wife and daughter become corrupted, we look to the mild-mannered Syamoto to lead us out of this Hell. But the only way out... is directly through.
Photo: Nikkatsu
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Compliance (2012)
Based on a grotesque true story, Craig Zobel's back room thriller Compliance tells the story of a fast food restaurant manager (Ann Dowd) who receives a phone call from a police officer (Pat Healy), implicating one of her employees. But as the story builds, and as all the employees are encouraged to do more and more questionable things in the name of this unseen authority, we realize that something altogether more sinister is going on. Unsettling and slimy.
Photo: Magnolia Pictures
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The Gift (2015)
Joel Edgerton wrote, directed and stars in this insidious little nightmare, about a seemingly idyllic couple (Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall), who run into an old, old acquaintance (Edgerton) at random. Then he won't leave them alone. Is he a harmless kook? A dangerous stalker? The Gift takes everything you've come to expect from the psychological thriller genre and twists it around, hitting every target in sly, unnerving ways.
Photo: STX Entertainment
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Gone Girl (2014)
Savage twists are everywhere in David Fincher's gloomy, cynical marital thriller. Ben Affleck plays a man whose wife (Rosamund Pike) goes missing, and the media scrutiny soon turns him into a suspect. Then... something happens. You should discover what that is for yourself. Impressive performances and an unpleasant perspective on gender roles and 21st century romance make Gone Girl worth looking for.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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The Invitation (2016)
A grieving man is invited back to his ex-wife's house for a dinner party, with his old friends and her new husband. That's uncomfortable enough already, but Will (Logan Marshall-Green) can't help notice sinister little details about the hosts, and their very well-guarded house. The build-up is nearly infuriating in The Invitation, because Karyn Kusama's film is such a potent drama about grief that it wouldn't actually have to end in violence in order to be satisfying. So stick around either way. You won't be disappointed.
Photo: Drafthouse Films
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Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Half thriller, half drama, all creepy. Sean Durkin's powerful Martha Marcy May Marlene stars Elizabeth Olsen as a young woman who escapes a disturbing cult, only to discover that her family can be just as controlling. John Hawkes is terrifying as the cult leader, but Olsen carries the film as a woman so torn she can barely function.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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Nightcrawler (2014)
Dan Gilroy's brilliant thriller Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an industrious young man who goes into business selling videotapes of car accidents and crime scenes. And when he starts getting good at it, he starts to realize that he can stage them all himself. Gyllenhaal gives a performance for the ages in a film that punches morality in the face and knocks some teeth loose in the process.
Photo: Open Road Films
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Stoker (2013)
Korean thrill expert Chan-wook Park came to America to film this strange psychological scar, in which hauntingly beautiful images intertwine with sleazy psychodrama of the highest (or possibly lowest) order). Mia Wasikowska plays a young girl taken in by her alluring uncle, played by Matthew Goode, right after the mysterious death of her father. Something wholly untoward runs in this film, and it runs deep. Wading into Stoker's madness is a haunting enterprise.
Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
