The Neon Demon--Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)

Elle Fanning as aspiring model Jesse "playing dead" in Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon 2016

Ah, The Neon Demon.  I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to hate this film, or maybe I should be turning in my feminist credentials, but I oscillate back and forth between loving/hating it.  I think this review is going to come across in much the same way--sigh.  The things I hate about it though, tip the scale a bit.  I just can't write the film off as a misogynist's view of the hateful world of modeling, and the hunger for youth and beauty that is so endemic to Los Angeles and its ugly/pretty world.  I may have to see it again to make a final determination--but then I'm worried that I'll be mad at myself for succumbing to the film's temptations and seeing the thing again.  The BAD things about it are really BAD.  But it's so-o-o-o pretty!  Ugh.

Several things really appeal about Nicolas Winding Refn's latest style fest.  First off, the film is utterly gorgeous--a real visual feast.  Have a taste by watching the trailer.

Pretty/Ugly Los Angeles

Jesse walks the finale of the longest fashion show EVER

Second, I have to get a hold of this film's soundtrack, because it is truly amazing.  Cliff Martinez is an absolute genius.  Seems he's been scoring all of Winding Refn's goofy films, and most of Steven Soderbergh's as well, but he dazzles on this one.  The tracks during sleazy fashion designer Alessandro Nivola's show are truly mesmerizing, even if this super-cool visual scene (as well as all the other ones) goes on way, way, way, way too long.  Somehow I don't think Winding Refn was trying to bore his audience, but films can have some unexpected effects! Ooooh, Ahhhh, Wow, ZZZZZZZZZZZ.  That's pretty much how it went.  And repeat.  Until the last 15 minutes or so.

Channeling Helmut Newton with some Guy Bourdin thrown in for fun

Third, the sets and costumes are phenomenal.  The spaces they use for the fashion shoots, the nightclub in which they prowl, and Ruby's house-sitting manse, are truly gorgeous and embody the way I imagine really rich people in L.A. might live--if they were trapped in a Helmut Newton shoot or a remake of The Hunger.  Mind you, I like all the oodles and oodles of style that this film has on display, and I am not complaining about that.  But the story...well...

Sixteen-year old Jesse at her first (bloody) photo shoot

The film follows the young Jesse (Elle Fanning) as she heads to Los Angeles to break into the world of modeling.  Frankly, if you are going to break into modeling, you do not go to L.A. but whatever, this way is how Danish people imagine how modeling (and gender relations--see Lars Von Trier for more) must be. Jesse is a semi-self conscious gorgeous young empty vessel onto which people project their fantasies and fears.  She also seems to magically attract everyone, winning over photographers, fashion designers, and one seemingly savvy makeup artist played by Jenna Malone.

Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) hanging out at "the club"

Sarah (Abbey Lee) glares at Jesse (Elle Fanning) at a casting call

She also attracts the attention of two supernaturally gorgeous blondes, Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote), who are none too pleased to have Jesse worm her way into the scene and steals their jobs.  Viciously beautiful women out to get each other.  Check.  Some might read this film as a caustic critique of the modeling world.  I mean, everyone in the film except for poor worshipful photographer Dean (Karl Glusman) seems to want a piece of Jesse's lush innocence.  Oh right, he posed her as a corpse.  So everyone's sleazy in Los Angeles, right?  No.  I'm sorry, but this film does not effectively offer a critique of anything.  It revels in all the BAD Stuff of L.A. in all its neon-lit glory.  It cultivates a voyeuristic gaze rather than subverting it.  This film cannot have it both ways (critique/celebration), and here's where things get dicey, and I start to get disgusted.  Now I'm going to list some of the egregious stuff--***SPOILERS ahead.

Hank (Keanu Reeves) pulls out all the stops as the sleaziest motel owner EVER

I hate it when truly terrible roles happen to really good actors.  I understand that actors get these gigs and they are psyched, but then do not really know how things are going to turn out in the end.  I felt really bad for several of them.  Exhibit one: Keanu Reeves.  As actors go, I really like him, and I realize that I may be in the minority.  Whatever.  He's great in younger roles (River's Edge, My Own Private Idaho) and in more recent ones (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, John Wick).  He makes Something's Gotta Give watchable.  So to see him play the cold-hearted rapist of a 13-year old girl (thankfully we don't see that happen, but we hear it).  Well, I understand why he might be "sad."

Ruby (Jenna Malone) tries to comfort Jesse (Elle Fanning)

Exhibit two: Jenna Malone.  She's terrifically talented and I've loved her since films such as Donnie Darko and Saved!.  She definitely stole some scenes in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  So AT FIRST I was delighted to see Ruby take young Jesse under her wing, introduce her around, and provide a safe haven for Jesse after she flees that sleazy hotel (where Hank was raping that girl in the room right next door).  Ruby is a predatory lesbian though who puts the moves on Jesse, and when rejected, gets really, really murderously pissed and retaliates.

Ruby screws a look-alike corpse

But not before a memorable scene where Ruby screws a corpse that looks a bit like Jesse.  Yep.  (Ruby works part time at a funeral home putting her make-up skills to work).  Poor Jenna Malone.  She's a predatory lesbian who is also into necrophilia, murder and cannibalism.  Nice.

Jesse waxes on about how pretty she is--way better than everyone else

Exhibit three: Elle Fanning.  I guess all these young, cutie actresses performing in indies like Somewhere or Ginger and Rosa, or even in big films like Maleficent, yearn to grow up quickly and star in something truly sleazy and exploitative.  I guess she could have been in something like Spring Breakers...but is that film so much different? I think not.  For much of the film, spectators are implicated in the voyeuristic consumption of young, beautiful Jesse, and she seems a little like a pawn who will be devoured by this crass fashion industry.  Yet, as the film wears on, it suggests that Jesse's pretty aware of her effect on others, and she will use her youth and beauty to the fullest extent.  She has sleazy encounter after sleazy encounter, and after each one, the viewer catches her secret little satisfied smile.  At least that might explain her fantasy of being mouth-raped by Hank using a huge phallic knife.  Yes, you read that correctly, and the film shows you THAT.

When Jesse thinks about how lovely she is, she cannot help but touch herself

Poor Elle Fanning.  The film tries to suggest that she's more knowing than innocent, and the speech she gives about her own beauty and appeal does make her definitely annoying and despicable,  But does she really deserve to be killed and eaten by the predatory lesbian and her killer blondes (don't worry, cannibalism, like rape, is implied rather than shown).

Pretty or Pretty Awful?

Here's the thing--I actually like the cannibal part of the film, even though you don't see anything really.  To me, the fact that women are devouring the young and beautiful in order to absorb their essence makes perfect sense.  The film already demonizes women, especially queer women, so horribly--yet their murderous cannibalism is the only time in the whole film where they seem to have some agency.  Yes, you know a film's sexual politics are pretty bad when you are championing cannibalism, but honestly, when the killer ladies dispatch Jesse and eat her, something finally HAPPENS that sends the film into horror/giallo territory.  Up until that point, the film is equal parts tedium and dread. As per usual, this film could have lost 30 minutes easily with just some thoughtful editing.  That cutting doesn't necessarily make the film worth seeing, but would make it less painful (especially if I torture myself by watching it again).

The Neon Demon is not a feminist fable about the horrors of the fashion and modeling industries and the perpetual corruption of youth in the City of Angels.  Nope.  Under the Skin and Sucker Punch have similar issues.  These white male filmmakers think that if they show women being exploited and used that they are producing a "commentary" on these societal issues, when they are actually just putting more of that stuff into circulation and rationalizing it in the dumbest way imaginable.  Winding Refn's film is unfortunately just a lot of dazzlingly shiny surfaces with a truly rotten inner core.