Crimes of the Future is an original and thought-provoking sci-fi arthouse film, featuring great performances from Léa Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart.
David Cronenberg approaches his material like that of a final year thesis paper, using his characters as a mouthpiece to discuss the next step of human evolution through biology melding with technology.
In the future, climate change and pollution have fast-tracked the advancement in biotechnology. Pain and infectious disease have been eliminated for most of the human race, resulting in human evolution going outside of the natural order.
Saul Tenser and Caprice, a performance artist couple who do live avant-garde performances of open surgery, making use of Saul's unique condition of regrowing organs and cutting them off in front of a live audience. For their upcoming show, Saul and Caprice are entangled between an underground organization and government forces about unveiling a key secret about the next phase of human evolution to the public.
Jerry Seinfeld once had a joke about how men are fascinated by whatever body parts a woman covers up. If women all started wearing hats one day, men would get their ya-yas from looking at the top of ladies' heads.
David Cronenberg applies this very same concept to his own body horror aesthetic in Crimes of the Future. In a world where pain doesn't exist, where would human sexuality go? What would people do to their own bodies for pleasure?
The film pushes its sci-fi themes even further to new places and asks, if biotechnology allows us to control our own evolution, should people be allowed to dictate their own evolution? Or should we stay on nature's course?
Although it was a challenging watch, I found Crimes of the Future intellectually engaging. It is a pure ideas film and not a film to relate to emotionally. At times, Cronenberg's transhumanism ideas could just as easily be presented as art pieces in a museum exhibit or a novel.
There's a lot of time spent in the body horror moments lingering on grotesque wounds, but it is towards a thematic point. Cronenberg isn't holding onto the shot to disgust or scare the audience; he's studying it. He presents the body horror as a reflection of our own humanity, as in, "If the world was like this, this is what we would probably do to ourselves."
Cronenberg's future world, perhaps due to budget constraints, is all world-built through dialogue, which has a style and rhythm of its own that one must tune their ears to. It was mentally challenging keeping up with what was happening but ultimately rewarding. Watching it with subtitles on will help.
The cast does a great job delivering the stylistic dialogue and working together to create an emotional core for what otherwise is a cold cerebral film.
Viggo Mortensen is great in a subdued part but it is Léa Seydoux who steals the show. Seydoux dug deep and convinced us that performing live open surgery is as important as Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.
Kristin Stewart brought something we've never seen before as a squirrelly horny government clerk, which was funny because I almost wished she performed the Twilight films this way.
For the uninitiated, Crimes of the Future could be frustrating at times for its unconventional style and it will play best to David Cronenberg fans or body horror fans who are familiar with his work and will find these ideas fascinating.
The film stayed with me long afterwards and the more I thought about it, it slowly blew my mind with its rich ideas. This is a true work of art.
I don't know who to recommend this film to without getting vicious complaints afterwards. I suppose the people who want to see Crimes of the Future will see it. Meanwhile, I desperately need to discuss it with someone.
David Cronenberg approaches his material like that of a final year thesis paper, using his characters as a mouthpiece to discuss the next step of human evolution through biology melding with technology.
In the future, climate change and pollution have fast-tracked the advancement in biotechnology. Pain and infectious disease have been eliminated for most of the human race, resulting in human evolution going outside of the natural order.
Saul Tenser and Caprice, a performance artist couple who do live avant-garde performances of open surgery, making use of Saul's unique condition of regrowing organs and cutting them off in front of a live audience. For their upcoming show, Saul and Caprice are entangled between an underground organization and government forces about unveiling a key secret about the next phase of human evolution to the public.
Jerry Seinfeld once had a joke about how men are fascinated by whatever body parts a woman covers up. If women all started wearing hats one day, men would get their ya-yas from looking at the top of ladies' heads.
David Cronenberg applies this very same concept to his own body horror aesthetic in Crimes of the Future. In a world where pain doesn't exist, where would human sexuality go? What would people do to their own bodies for pleasure?
The film pushes its sci-fi themes even further to new places and asks, if biotechnology allows us to control our own evolution, should people be allowed to dictate their own evolution? Or should we stay on nature's course?
Although it was a challenging watch, I found Crimes of the Future intellectually engaging. It is a pure ideas film and not a film to relate to emotionally. At times, Cronenberg's transhumanism ideas could just as easily be presented as art pieces in a museum exhibit or a novel.
There's a lot of time spent in the body horror moments lingering on grotesque wounds, but it is towards a thematic point. Cronenberg isn't holding onto the shot to disgust or scare the audience; he's studying it. He presents the body horror as a reflection of our own humanity, as in, "If the world was like this, this is what we would probably do to ourselves."
Cronenberg's future world, perhaps due to budget constraints, is all world-built through dialogue, which has a style and rhythm of its own that one must tune their ears to. It was mentally challenging keeping up with what was happening but ultimately rewarding. Watching it with subtitles on will help.
The cast does a great job delivering the stylistic dialogue and working together to create an emotional core for what otherwise is a cold cerebral film.
Viggo Mortensen is great in a subdued part but it is Léa Seydoux who steals the show. Seydoux dug deep and convinced us that performing live open surgery is as important as Michaelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.
Kristin Stewart brought something we've never seen before as a squirrelly horny government clerk, which was funny because I almost wished she performed the Twilight films this way.
For the uninitiated, Crimes of the Future could be frustrating at times for its unconventional style and it will play best to David Cronenberg fans or body horror fans who are familiar with his work and will find these ideas fascinating.
The film stayed with me long afterwards and the more I thought about it, it slowly blew my mind with its rich ideas. This is a true work of art.
I don't know who to recommend this film to without getting vicious complaints afterwards. I suppose the people who want to see Crimes of the Future will see it. Meanwhile, I desperately need to discuss it with someone.