The Neon Demon Review

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve heard people say the fashion industry is carnivorous before&comma; but it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t until Nicolas Winding Refn&&num;8217&semi;s <em>The Neon Demon <&sol;em>that I realized how savage it can be&period; Sure&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all hyperbole in the name of art&comma; but if anyone can make hyperbole beautiful&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s Refn&period; After two films starring Ryan Gosling and drenched in bright&comma; vivid colours&comma; Refn continues his neon-soaked visions with Elle Fanning replacing Gosling at the helm&period; <em>The Neon Demon <&sol;em>is a fantastical fairy tale seeded in the darkest&comma; bloodiest corners of Los Angeles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When Jesse &lpar;Fanning&rpar; moves to LA to become a professional model&comma; she finds her rise to fame easy and effortless&period; Competing models look at her in disgust&comma; photographers and stylists all want to work with her&comma; and no one is standing in her way&period; The structure for this film falls somewhere between <em>Drive <&sol;em>and <em>Only God Forgives<&sol;em>&comma; with the latter feeling like it lacks structure almost entirely while the former is very deliberately paced&period; When the plot wants to move&comma; it can move at a breakneck pace &lpar;which occasionally is its worst decision&rpar;&comma; but with Refn it is often that he sits back and lets the camera linger over something beautiful&period; Even if it&&num;8217&semi;s beautifully macabre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109233" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109233" style&equals;"width&colon; 1400px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-109233 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03134014&sol;UhI63Xq&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Neon Demon&comma; Amazon Studios&rpar;" width&equals;"1400" height&equals;"934" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109233" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Neon Demon<&sol;em>&comma; Amazon Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I found myself often trapped in a gaze at the imagery on screen&period; Sometimes it is juxtaposed with extremely horrible circumstances&comma; but other times it just highlights the appeal of the industry&period; Cliff Martinez&&num;8217&semi;s score echoes through empty black spaces as lights flash and flicker in the backdrop&period; Then the model appears in the LED-lit haze&comma; providing the centerpiece to something majestic and wholly its own&period; Or the camera just sits there as blood drenches the screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Neon Demon <&sol;em>is equal parts flattering and scathing to the fashion industry&period; By centering the tale on a young aspiring model&comma; Refn gets to go places that will make many uncomfortable&comma; but what makes it more shocking is how the characters feel about what is happening&period; These are not good people&comma; but they sometimes have good moments&period; With a final scene that will either make you walk out or have your jaw on the floor&comma; the film plays with the idea of darkness in a spectacle-filled world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I mentioned briefly that the plot sometimes moves forward at a rapid pace&comma; and I found those scenes to be the less engaging ones&period; The reason some scenes work is because the camera is willing to sit there&comma; building tension in a tense situation&period; When the camera is not just sitting or slowly zooming out&comma; it is capturing action that is generally cliché and uninteresting&period; It is unfortunate that <em>The Neon Demon <&sol;em>devolves into a thriller for a couple of scenes&comma; especially its last instance of thriller-like qualities&comma; because it feels like a betrayal to the film&&num;8217&semi;s aesthetic storytelling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;109232" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-109232" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-109232 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;06&sol;03134032&sol;the-neon-demon-4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Neon Demon" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"666" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-109232" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>The Neon Demon<&sol;em>&comma; Amazon Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Most of the actors seemed to all be on board for Refn&&num;8217&semi;s dark styles&comma; especially Fanning&comma; Abbey Lee and Desmond Harrington&period; Fanning&&num;8217&semi;s performance is captivating while at the same time extremely fragile&period; Meanwhile&comma; Lee gets the best scene of the film&comma; in my opinion&comma; and Harrington does a great job walking the line between scumbag and fashion photographer&period; Jena Malone is also really good as one of Jesse&&num;8217&semi;s only friends in the city of angels&period; Other actors include Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks&comma; but both play such small roles &lpar;though Reeves is memorable when he is on screen&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Neon Demon <&sol;em>is why I love Refn&period; He is great at melding genres together to create something wholly his own and&comma; in this case&comma; he manages to celebrate and insult the fashion industry under the guise of a moody horror film&period; If <em>Only God Forgives <&sol;em>is Refn&&num;8217&semi;s film for himself to enjoy&comma; and <em>Drive <&sol;em>is his crowd-pleaser&comma; this is him meeting everyone in the middle&period; But it&&num;8217&semi;s still a very sinister place to be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>The Neon Demon is distributed by Amazon Studios<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;