teriekwilliams-48053 As a fan of Nicolas Winding Refn's most "beloved" works (Drive, Bronson) and what many see as his worst (Only God Forgives), I would say that The Neon Demon matches his stunning (colorblind) eye for lighting and cinematography while in some ways tempering his tendency toward visceral brutality, replacing it with disturbing, "maneater" psycho-sexuality. The film follows a young model (Elle Fanning) whose natural beauty stuns the modeling world, quickly turning a makeup artist (Jena Malone) and two beauty-obsessed models (Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee Kershaw) into obsessive lust and jealousy.As with Only God Forgives before it, the film uses symbolism and unspoken implication to create its allusions, which in this case seem to highlight the illusion of beauty and the obsessive fantasies created to either fake it or make it. However, much of this gets lost in the sparseness of the material and in the symbolism that doesn't immediately connect to the themes Refn is conveying to the viewer. With an underdeveloped narrative, the film has a brooding underbelly that never brings us too far under the surface.Despite a charming Karl Glusman, a sinister Keanu Reeves, an eerie Desmond Harrington and a pretentious Alessandro Nivola in supporting roles, the film is very thin on story and character development undercutting the power its four main female characters could have. With things moving too quickly to their conclusion, the film never truly realizes the promise of its exploration of a beauty-obsessed industry full of Lady Macbeth types. So while it may rejuvenate Refn's standing following Only God Forgives, it doesn't move him far away from the perception of Refn being pretentiously visual while lacking substance or immediacy. This perception was created by Valhalla Rising and Only God Forgives in quite possibly an unfair manner. Nevertheless, there is enough here to satisfy the niche audience of Refn fans who enjoy his violent surrealism. However, there won't be much for audiences outside of that niche to consume... if you excuse the pun.

christianrmaxwell The movie Dogtooth directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and this movie both have some things in common. Not only are they both movies that are very abstract in their production, but they are also both movies that I would describe as experiences rather than films. My reasoning for this is somewhat hard to explain, but it mainly boils down to the fact that both films present a string of events, presented in a very "realistic" (I use this term referring to the shots and dialogue, not at all with the content being presented) manner. This movie was outstanding in terms of visuals, and my god, the soundtrack was phenomenal and added much needed suspense to some moments in the movie that might have suffered without it. The acting in this movie was great as far as the main characters and Keanu Reeve's character go, however, there were a few side characters that I believed did not deliver their lines so convincingly. However, they are side characters and as a result did not draw me out of the movie too often. The story of this movie honestly did not have a lot going on, but again, as with Dogtooth, I believe that is kind of the point. Nicolas Winding Refn is too good of a director and writer to just accidentally present a film with little story. I believe this was done on purpose for this movie, to make it play out, like I said before as an experience. The movie also makes some surprisingly great social commentary on beauty and human nature itself. I have no idea why this movie has "horror" as its first genre, as the movie was not horrifying at all in my opinion. However, I do agree that this movie is a thriller, Refn takes the audience on a ride, winding up the coils of suspense until he just releases the coils and lets everything fly, referring to that crazy ending of course. The strangest and perhaps most intriguing thing about this movie to me was the fact that even though the ending was absolutely insane, it did not seem out of place at all in terms of the movie's universe. Even though the universe at first was presented as very realistic, as the movie went on you could feel the reality start to slip as if Refn had been slowly pulling a rug out from under you. This movie was fantastic, although there were a few flaws, and I do not believe I have the desire to watch it again, it is definitely a thrilling, visually compelling, smart ride that will have you holding on for your life as the credits roll.

cpu-4 Most of the time, absolutely NOTHING happens in this flick. And when something finally does happen, it either makes no sense whatsoever and/or is completely ludicrous (not in an amusing way).Although technically well executed, I find the visual style pretentious and tacky and I'd say the same about the soundtrack.It's almost as if the idea was to make a David Lynch flick for millennials: brightly colored, empty, meaningless drivel covered up with a sauce of faux deep symbolism and some "edgy" violence & sex for shock value.The director surely was happy to just make a buck and get away with it all. If you were to compliment him on his work, I think he would find you stupid.

lisagliddon Horrifically boring. Waiting for some dialogue, something interesting to happen. Trying to find a character to like. Just dead. The biggest question is How the hell did Keanu Reeves get mixed up in this garbage?