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Reviews
The Neon Demon (2016)
The spiritual sequel to 1977's Suspiria, but only marginally better
Very much like Suspiria from 1977. The times have changed obviously and the generic details of the film are half a world away—but its basically the spiritual sequel to Suspiria.
Suspiria has the disadvantage of being horrendously dated, especially with regards to its being an Italian production dubbed clumsily over into the Hollywood idiom. The Neon Demon unfortunately fares only marginally better than its predecessor.
Yes the film is beautiful. No the plot isn't very deep, and no its very well constructed either as far as simple plots go. The plot being simple isn't a bad thing, and simple plots are not categorically bad (rather the opposite is true IMO,) but the film experience is also pretty shallow and unsatisfying; like Suspiria. The way The Neon Demon aestheticizes death and violence are compelling, but only in ways that will likely seem unrealistic and quaint in another time. In fact its already showing its age a little bit by some rather obtuse occult references that seem possibly even more stupid than Suspiria's pretensions to the then red-hot taboo area of Satanism and witchcraft, though the amount of screen time given to these inexplicable and unneeded references in The Neon Demon is kept to a ignorable minimum. The story however only seems to progress through nonsequiters, which while thematically relevant, don't quite follow from the preceding logic.
What this film has, which Suspiria lacked, is a pretty laughable degree of self advertising. The opening credits were shockingly narcissistic, something which the end credits mirrored and indeed crescendoed to a undeniably intoxicated degree. Now it may not be fair to judge the film at least partially by its credits, but these credits were positively intruding into the film. The director is clearly "high on his own supply," and is so in such a topical and obnoxious way that will seem laughable to many now and almost everyone in the near future. Its almost like making a film where the credits are something like 'hashtag best movie ever.'
To use the current parlance, it has no issues with pacing or tone, just a rather half baked story filled with competently acted, but woefully underwritten characters. If you can enjoy films like Suspiria for being beautifully polished exploitation films with a touch of class, then you stand a good chance of enjoying The Neon Demon, but then again it might be too classy for what you're expecting (even with a Keanu Reeves performance trashy enough to bring in that sort of interest.) For most people the film is a probably little too extreme, or a little too unsatisfying depending on taste. Unlikely to really wow anyone, but not a bad film. I don't think you have to be pretentious to say you liked it, but I think its pretentious to say that its a great film.
Gekijouban Mozu (2015)
a dead-pan, humorless mess that manages to somehow be as predictable as it is incoherent.
Without exaggeration, one of the worst movies I have ever seen and one of the only to earn the distinction of being shut-off half way through. I live in Japan and watched this with my Japanese wife, who warned me that the plot might be "complex." Complex is not the word, saying that this movie has a plot at all is a huge stretch. It is simply one poorly introduced scene after another of ultra stylized coolness after another—a dead-pan, humorless mess that manages to somehow be as predictable as it is incoherent.
The highlight of the nonsense comes when the narrative inexplicably leaps from the main character and his crew receiving a message from a villainous-second-in-command ordering them to fly to a foreign country and to bring the mentally disabled girl they are protecting as ransom for another insular character's kidnapped daughter—to the these same characters already being in aforementioned foreign country in the middle of trying desperately to get the mentally disabled girl back from a gang of human traffickers who are totally unrelated to the main antagonists. When did the heroes arrive and how did they lose custody of the girl? Why did we lose this necessary scene for the sake of a completely unnecessary one? Well never mind that because its time for another plot twist and more narrative leaps.
This movie may appeal to some in the "so bad its good" sort of respect, but to my sensibilities the extraordinarily lavish sets and ultra expensive action sequences just make it into some sort of big budget train wreck rarely seen by viewers outside of Japan. The bottom line is that there are quite literally dozens of video games on the market right now with more enjoyable and better written story lines.