My interest was piqued when I saw the trailer for Neon Demon. I really wasn’t sure what it was about other than the fashion industry. Really, that might be a stretch. It’s about a model in the industry. Visually, the film is stunning, but it also contains some very disturbing images. I give Neon Demon the Not Quite Golden, Ponyboy rating.
Neon Demon is burned into my brain!
Jesse (Elle Fanning) moves to Los Angeles with aspirations of being a model. A group of aging models are jealous of her youth and vitality and desperately want what she has.
This is the first film of Nicolas Winding Refn that I have seen. I plan on watching Drive soon, but I knew little of Refn’s work. This movie is gorgeous and extremely innovative visually. There are a few scenes where the low key lighting is so intense that the actors appear to be in a sea of darkness. There are lots of odd visuals that may or may not have symbolic meaning. Visuals alone this film feels like a masterpiece.
The actors in the film, particularly Elle Fanning, do a fantastic job. Fanning’s character has so much underneath the surface and her subtle actions really demonstrate that. Karl Glusman plays Dean and gives a really strong performance. His face is among the first scene in the film and gives the impression of a much darker character than we end up with.
Jena Malone plays Ruby who is a makeup artist that befriends young, innocent Jesse. She has the scenes that disturbed me to the very core. However, she is great on screen even if I don’t really get the character motivations.
In fact, the motivations of the characters are a little hard to follow. Some of the more disturbing aspects of the film seem to take large leaps in reasoning to get to. The movie takes an extreme tonal shift after Jesse’s first photo shoot with Jack (Desmond Harrington) and she cuts her hand. Sarah (Abbey Lee) grabs her hand to look at the wound and then… SPOILER…starts sucking the blood. No, she’s not a vampire, although I did question that at the time. However, we get the feeling that there is something much darker looming over this story.
I’m still not really sure how I feel about this film. I get that it’s well made and I think watching it again to better analyze it is needed. The story is the weakest, or at least most confusing, part of the film. However, there is clearly some solid film making going on with Neon Demon.
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