The Neon Demon

I can understand the harsh reviews, this movie isn't for everyone but it's such a GORGEOUS movie, every shot is so aesthetically pleasing and i like it so much, the story and the acting were fine too it's disturbing yes but absolutely not a waste of time

The brilliant Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has already offered us the sumptuous Drive (2011) as well as interesting movies like Valhalla Rising - Regno di sangue (2009), Bronson (2008) or Bleeder (1999). In The Neon Demon (2016), Nicolas Winding Refn locks himself in a world dominated with an always ultra-neat and globally irreproachable aesthetics and characters who are deliberately cold and devoid of empathy. After the first 20/30 minutes, we understood the message and the film would have benefited from being a short film. Que nenni! The film languishes and barely conveys emotion, with a few surrealistic and bloody scenes. Thus, the last third of the film is a show as gore as annoying. As a synthesis: visually amazing but desperately boring.

Okay, the story isn't much. There is a story for sure but it's very straightforward, fashion industry is cruel. It shows how models can go above and beyond to be successful or keep on being successful and looks isn't a mirror to what's inside. Although people may understand many things or nothing from this movie but that is how I perceived it. . You will find many bad reviews about this simply because people chose to watch a movie that they expected differently in my opinion. This movie doesn't sell itself to be a story driven thriller whatsoever, or action movie. This movie is a movie that is made purely to achieve outstanding, gorgeous visuals that will make your eyes bleed from beauty. It's one mesmerising shot after one. . There is bit of gore, disturbing scenes that includes cannibalism, necrophilia and fetishism. I definitely would define this movie as an erotica alongside with thriller. Erothriler? I personally love these movies, I'd put it in the same category with Raw and Dogtooth, which I loved. Weirdly and disturbing with a touch of ero. . ~This type of movie kind of reminds me of old Giallo movies like Profondo Rosso (1975) and Suspiria (1977), which is getting a remake!!!!, so if you're into those movies that has lots of colour and eroticism and gore, I definitely recommend this movie.

This film tells the story of a sixteen years old girl who moves to Los Angeles to pursue her modeling dream. She knows that she's beautiful, and quickly establishes herself in the modeling world. Jealousy from other models quickly ensue, with undesirable results.

The beginning of "The Neon Demon" looks quite promising, as it retains the beautiful visuals that Nicholas Winding Refn is known for, but is upbeat because of the electronic music. The plot looks quite interesting as it tells the story of jealous, backstabbing models. Then, the story is interspersed between many visually stunning but purposeless scenes. The ending of the film becomes really bizarre, I got so lost and just could not believe what I was watching. I don't even know what the second half of the film is about, except that it wants to be very provocative. If the film could be consistently like the first half, I would actually have liked it.

The Neon Demon (2016)

*** (out of 4)

Sixteen-year-old Jesse (Elle Fanning) arrives in Hollywood with big dreams of becoming a famous model but soon she realizes there is always a price to pay.

In my opinion Nicolas Winding Refn's DRIVE was one of the best movies from the past couple decades and he followed that up with the so-great-it's-awful or so-awful-it's-great ONLY GOD FORGIVES. As strange as that film was there's really nothing that can prepare you for THE NEON DEMON. I'm not going to spend too much time on the plot but lets just say that the less you know the better. In fact, revealing too much plot would ruin some fairly bizarre twists so be sure you don't read too much detail.

As far as the film goes, it's visually a masterpiece and technically it's one of the greatest films from recent memory. The film certainly has a very European feel to it and it appears that the director was inspired by various Italian filmmakers including Dario Argento and Mario Bava. I can't help but think that SUSPIRIA was a major influence and especially the visual look of the film as well as how the music plays in the madness. The cinematography here is among the best that you'll see in any movie and there's no doubt that the director knows how to make something surreal and bizarre.

The story itself is one we've seen countless times before. We learn that Hollywood is evil. Women are sadistic on each other and especially their looks. Men are perverted creeps. The film will probably "say" something different to everyone who watches it but I do think there were some major plus. One being that the film takes way too long to get to where it's going. I thought the build up to the final act dragged on a tad bit too long and I think a shorter film probably would have really helped the psychological aspect of the film.

One of the greatest things about the movie was the performance of Fanning. I was really shocked at how wonderful she was in the film because she's basically playing a naive and innocent girl who finds herself in a world she's just not ready for. The way Fanning showed off her innocence was really something remarkable and her transformation works extremely well and it's very believable. Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote and Karl Glusman are all extremely good as well. Both Abbey Lee and Keanu Reeves are also very good in their supporting roles.

Again, I'm not going to spoil anything but the entire film is downright strange and surreal but the final act takes a turn that will have most people leaving the theater, if they're still even there. This certainly isn't going to be a film for everyone and like the director's previous movies it's easy to see how people would walk out very early on. Those who don't mind challenging movies will certainly find a lot of great things here but I only wish it had been a little bit tighter.