The new NSFW dystopian Indie that makes you say “WTF.”
As you begin to watch David Cronenberg’s new film “Crimes of the Future,” you don’t know what to expect. You see little boys eating garbage pails, a man who is literally all ears, and Viggo Mortensen sitting in a chair that helps you digest food and sleeping in a bed with a shell and tentacles (or whatever those things are), and you have a bunch of WTF questions.
This is not a remake of a 1970 film, which was, oddly enough, directed by Cronenberg, but rather it takes combines surgery with Sci-Fi in ways that’s sure to divide audiences. It’s not always understandable, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The complete opposite of torture porn. You’re disgusted by what you’re about to see, but somehow you’re glad it doesn’t look as painful as the “Saw” franchise would present them. Actually, there’s a reason for that, and we’ll cross that bridge soon.
We travel to the future and meet two performing artists, whose acts are part of a disease known as “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome.” Mortensen is Saul Tenser, who grows new organs in his body as part of an experiment, while Lea Seydoux is his partner Caprice who can observe and tattoo his organs. This is all part of the show, folks.
Another thing is this disease has gotten rid of pain, which would be ideal for their shows, and everyone is mutating, which is why we get to see a man covered with ears, and why Saul never says “ow,” but somehow, he’s starts to feel weaker.
Scott Speedman plays a man whose 8-year-old boy was murdered by his ex-wife (Lihi Kornowski), and asks Saul to perform a live autopsy on him. Caprice wants to be the one to perform it. And then, Kristen Stewart plays a timid investigator for the National Organ Registry (which is another thing in the future), who wants to part of the show, only because she’s attracted to Saul.
I don’t want people complaining to me that I gave “Crime of the Future” a good review because of all the bizarre things that have been happening, but then again, nobody did so when I praised “Titane” and more recently, “Men.” This is another bizarre Indie film to provide as much originality as it possibly can, while commercial audiences are suckered into seeing torture porn like last year’s “Spiral.”
How many movies have someone describing something as “Inner Beauty Pageant” with “Best Original Organ” as a a category? How many movies can have people tattooing organs? And how often do we see people eating purple candy bars made entirely of plastic? Not much, as far as I’m concerned. But then again, I haven’t seen everything, so I can’t say for certain.
The performances from Mortensen, Seydoux, Stewart, Speedman, and Kornowski are all uniformly excellent in the ways they adapt to this twisted future. It’s not like “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” when Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman have to talk like aliens, while their children are cursed in three stages. They’re people getting with the program, one shows torture porn who’s boss.
Again, this movie speaks a different language that’s too advanced for my mind, but I like the fact that it’s supposed to be a different movie. Anything that doesn’t provide formulas or cliches. Just a bunch of shocking images. I would suggest you don’t buy any snacks for this show, and eat your meals before it.
Leave a Reply