The Neon Demon Review

There was a time, what feels like a lifetime ago now, when Nicolas Winding Refn had finished his Ryan Gosling starring film Drive and released it to almost universal acclaim. After that, with Drive as his calling card, he had all sorts of people knocking at his door. However instead of jumping on a franchise bandwagon he turned to Bangkok and brought us the nightmarish descent into hell in the divisive Only God Forgives. It seemed like an almost deliberate attempt to tell those who were knocking at his door that he had no intention of answering. 

Now he brings us The Neon Demon, a film that explores what lies underneath the modelling world of LA, as Elle Fanning’s stunningly beautiful wannabe model Jessie moves to the city of angels and enters the jealous, competitive and narcissistic world of beauty, as Alessandro Nivola’s designer observes at one point “beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”

The style that Refn has cultivated is maturing into something truly unique and special. Refn, along with his cinematographer Natasha Braier, create stunning shots of pure formalist brilliance, whatever you think about the content of the film, no one can deny that with shots this beautiful and a brilliant pulsating score from Cliff Martinez, there are few films that look or sound this good. The performances are all strong as well, as with any Refn film they are all very still, but that’s mostly because the time Refn takes with them means that his actors are more images then they are characters, how their appearance is presented through the camera is all he really wants you to know about them. Which in a sense is the films main flaw, the script, which was co-written by Refn with Mary Laws and Polly Stenham, doesn’t quite achieve the malice that it tries to create between the characters in this world. Aside from a strong moment on the discussion of real beauty and artificial beauty, the film operates best when it is communicating through image rather than dialogue.

There’s a moment where The Neon Demon feels like its drawing to its natural close and you’d leave the theatre and feel somewhat passive towards the ending. It’s at this point that Refn doubles down in a truly glorious fashion, yes there had already been necrophilia by this point of the film, but the final moments descend into something else entirely which ends up elevating the experience to something far more visceral.

Essentially what Refn has created with The Neon Demon is his vision of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, only this vision is more like a mean acid trip, and when you end up in wonderland there’s no Cheshire Cat or March Hare, just Keanu Reeves being a scuzz ball and make-up artist into necrophilia, now how many other directors can you say would bring you a film like that? (High 4 Stars)