David Cronenberg shooting new film

[Bad Ambassador]

So far, it doesn't sound much like the 1970 film aside from the usual Cronenbergisms.

[Shaky]

Yeah, it's got nothing to do with the earlier film - he said he just liked the title and wanted to re-use it.

[Noodle Lizard]

Everyone was so excited.

[Goldentony]

no UK release date, that's good isnt it, looking forward to that

[Noodle Lizard]

no UK release date, that's good isnt it, looking forward to that

Oh really? Despite it being a British co-production an' all.

I won't talk about it much, then, but I found it pretty underwhelming, sadly. Then again, I also disliked Maps To The Stars and A Dangerous Method.

[Menu]

Oh really? Despite it being a British co-production an' all.

I won't talk about it much, then, but I found it pretty underwhelming, sadly. Then again, I also disliked Maps To The Stars and A Dangerous Method.

I liked both and would like to see them again but they didn't feel like Cronenberg films to me. Same as Cosmopolis - which is a genuinely good film regardless.

[Menu]

"Welcome to It'll Be Alright On The Night 8"

This made me laugh from 9 months ago.

[Noodle Lizard]

I liked both and would like to see them again but they didn't feel like Cronenberg films to me. Same as Cosmopolis - which is a genuinely good film regardless.

Ah, well it's very much a Cronenberg film. I'm sure there's plenty to like in it, but it's not quite the "return" it looked to be.

[Menu]

Ah, well it's very much a Cronenberg film. I'm sure there's plenty to like in it, but it's not quite the "return" it looked to be.

Thank you, NL. Looking forward to it.

[Goldentony]

please just release this in the UK or inevitably online somewhere ASAP please lads, I know Cronenberg is one of those '28 production company logos at the start' lads now so its probably complicated but come on

[Sebastian Cobb]

It wouldn't be a Cannes film without a load of dithering around release dates. Almodóvar often has similar problems.

[Goldentony]

bellends man, roundhouse cronenberg for this

[Sebastian Cobb]

bellends man, roundhouse cronenberg for this

I think it's more distributors being wanks.

[Goldentony]

if you roundhouse the director though it shows them you're serious

[Mister Six]

Saw this last night and was very disappointed. There are tons of great ideas and a lot of fun performances (except for the cop, who was awful - no idea why they hired him, unless he's the nephew of one of the backers or something) but it feels like the first act goes on forever and then the third act is missing entirely. Subplots just end with no resolution, mysteries and conflicts are raised and then ignored, characters just disappear.

If it were the pilot for a TV show I'd be tuning in next week for sure, but as an ostensibly self-contained film it just doesn't work.

Spoiler alert

Or I just didn't "get" whatever Cronenberg was trying to say. Perhaps I was supposed to view this as just a very long snippet of Saul's life and not become overly involved in the machinations of the police, or the underground plastic-eating movement, or any of the relationships that the other characters had, or care who was employing the assassins and why... but then, why include these things at all? Or why give them so much focus? Much of the film is written like a conventionally plotted thriller, inviting us to speculate and wonder about what is happening, without (seemingly) any intention on following through on it.

Perhaps this is all tied up in whatever it is Cronenberg wants to say about art. I could see it being a metaphor for trying to produce art under modern social/financial restrictions or something.

[close]

The gore is disappointingly CGI-looking and sterile, too, but I suppose the low budget made that necessary.

I suppose I'll be interested to read any theorising about its themes and meaning, that might turn up on the internet, but I'm not willing to invest my energies in figuring it out for myself, such is my affronted sense of being bloody robbed.

EDIT: Actually, checking the Wiki write-up, I apparently missed

Spoiler alert

Saul saying he was going to quit working undercover for the cops

[close]

which does at least wrap up the story more satisfyingly. Perils of a late-night screening, I suppose. It still feels undercooked, though.

[Noodle Lizard]

@Mister Six - I think that's very well-put, and echoes a lot of my frustrations with it too. I didn't find it satisfying either as a metaphor or a surface-level plot. It seemed as if the same three scenes were happening over and over again as well, so it's not surprising if you miss some plot points (the one you mentioned was quietly mumbled off in the middle of a boring scene). Whatever metaphors or themes there are weren't well served by the presentation.

Agreed that there were some fun individual moments or ideas and some solid performances. I think this is the only thing I've liked Kristen Stewart in, so there's that!

[Mister Six]

It seemed as if the same three scenes were happening over and over again as well, so it's not surprising if you miss some plot points (the one you mentioned was quietly mumbled off in the middle of a boring scene). Whatever metaphors or themes there are weren't well served by the presentation.

There was a lot of mumbling, wasn't there? The younger of the two repairwomen seemed to have her jaw wired shut, and Sedoux was even less comprehensible than usual in places (doesn't help that her dialogue was about such bizarre subject matter).

The blunt exposition was extraordinary, too, and disappointing after an opening that is weird and vague and encourages the viewer to engage and try to figure out what's happening. The bit where the cop asks beardo and Twilight to sit down, then they exposit for about three minutes then leave of their own accord (wasn't he interviewing them in his own office?) was a particular low. So was the bit with the repairwomen explaining the Sark to Sedoux, even though she's the one that owns it.

Just really clumsy and awkward, which wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the film moved along at a fair clip, but for long stretches there's nothing but people standing in rooms telling each other things they should already know, in long, deliberately slow shots.

[Small Man Big Horse]

This is now out on your torrent sites - I'll definitely watch it soon, but the above two reviews mean I'll go in with very low expectations.

[Goldentony]

didn't really find anything to dislike about this and I had a big auld laugh out loud at

Spoiler alert

the sub Friday The 13th level gore and dummy effect when your man got his skull drilled

[close]

Viggo looks a bit weird walking around dressed like Dark Helmet, though. I have absolutely no idea what else to say. The cop didn't get long enough to do anything bad I thought and I really enjoyed the mysterious sci fi government interaction between him and the two office nerds

Spoiler alert

being defused by his sudden arguments about art then that whole thing then becoming three people getting along looking at a book they can't get their heads round

[close]

I dunno, very good to see something properly mad and horrible and impenetrable sometimes. I'm saying better than Cosmopolis but not quite Eastern Promises. Going a very very long way to say I had a good time.

[Goldentony]

the more I think about this the more I definitely enjoyed it. Very weird, messy and IM ALSO GOING TO SAY PERSONAL because there's a bit where Viggo is going on about something, i'll have to watch it again, and I remember thinking ah this is just David Cronenberg talking to us now what the fuck.

Can fully see why people would boot off or be annoyed about things like dropped plot hints ala

Spoiler alert

the internal beauty pageant whatever the fuck that was supposed to be and why Viggo got a zip installed on his chest by some sort of Government dogsbody who was latter shot in his Naked Lunch Chair??

[close]

because they're all over the place now I think back. [spoile]Lea Seydoux just gets crescents implaned in her face suddenly? great, cheers, they're just sort of there from then on? sound[/spoiler]

[ImmaculateClump]

I really enjoyed this!
It's definitely flawed, and maybe I would have been less charitable if I hadn't watched a lot of staid, by the numbers stuff recently, but I really enjoyed it.

I hadn't been taken with his more recent of his films, so this felt like a nice hits medley after he'd spent the first half of the gig doing new material.

I didn't mind things not being wrapped up. I think it was a nice little piece of world building and social commentary and it didn't have to be more than that. I liked the ending,

Spoiler alert

him chowing that plastic yorkie bar with a tear rolling down his cheek. Aye, good enough.

[close]

Oof, the black guy, yeah. Not sure what they were thinking with the casting there.
At first I was thinking "hmm, maybe it's just his accent", but then he did this thing where he had to sort of spin around and look back at the guy and it was seriously laugh out loud funny. Like something Richard Ayoade would do as a joke, spin around, not hit his mark, spin a little bit more, realise his eyeline was off, move his head slightly and start talking again.
Fucking hell!

Spoiler alert

and the drilling scene as well that was mentioned, they should have left that shot out, it worked great with the shot of them sitting behind him, could have left it there.

[close]

Good fun. Can't complain at all. Liked it.

[ImmaculateClump]

This is all probably gonna be the total opposite of a hot take, just some mid-wit surface level observations, but if only to get the ball rolling so I can read smarter people tossing ideas about :D,

Maybe we'd stepped so far outside of nature, staring down the barrel of extinction, that evolution had sped up, taking a last ditch scattershot approach to survival. Just firing out a load of random mutations to see if anything would stick.
It was an interesting idea, with cancer being an evolutionary process, that it could be the body desperately trying to adapt to the polluted environment, reaching for a drastic solution.

I liked the frothing, repressed, awkward organ registration lady. When she was staring into that lads mouth like a pervert dentist and then she reached in and stuck some of his saliva in her gob instead of just going straight in for the kiss.
Fab. You might feel a little twitch downstairs, but it's all a bit repellent and funny at the same time. Great, not something you normally get watching a film.

All those biological machines like the bed and feeding chair seemed to represent the tech and algorithms that we're aligning and connecting with instead of other people.
There's a line where he goes "I'm not so good at the old sex", and this new sex is like people were so detached that they'd half evolved out of their animal instincts, they were cutting into each other with tools trying to feel some sort of connection.

The whole art angle I'm not sure about, maybe an ageing directors self reflective naval gazing, or maybe that's just how we'd approach the new sex, slightly more cerebral than the old base grunty thrust pumps. We'd come at it more from an artistic angle especially if we weren't sure what we were supposed to be feeling.

I liked how it was all a bit comic book noir, with the guy skulking around in the shadows and growling like darkman. I found some of the unashamed exposition dump dialogue endearing.
It's the kind of film that makes me think it's flaws matter as much as it's strengths and I'm so glad it is exactly what it is.

[zomgmouse]

Very mixed feelings about this one but ultimately the combination of assorted imagery and ideas won me over. Seems very disjointed and unfinished in many ways, but the overall mishmash made me feel like I was in a sweaty dream and in the end that mattered more to me.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Very mixed feelings about this one but ultimately the combination of assorted imagery and ideas won me over. Seems very disjointed and unfinished in many ways, but the overall mishmash made me feel like I was in a sweaty dream and in the end that mattered more to me.

I feel similar about it- has that A25 look but the music was like something from the 90s, almost sounded like an early orchestra doing pack in places

What was everyone's problem with the copper? Thought his performance was ok, his dialogue was a bit basil at times

Watched this while dying of Covid, which feels right

Jordan Peterson lookin dude was good, Kirsten Stewart was great in this, properly cracked

[PlanktonSideburns]

This is all probably gonna be the total opposite of a hot take, just some mid-wit surface level observations, but if only to get the ball rolling so I can read smarter people tossing ideas about :D,

Maybe we'd stepped so far outside of nature, staring down the barrel of extinction, that evolution had sped up, taking a last ditch scattershot approach to survival. Just firing out a load of random mutations to see if anything would stick.
It was an interesting idea, with cancer being an evolutionary process, that it could be the body desperately trying to adapt to the polluted environment, reaching for a drastic solution.

I liked the frothing, repressed, awkward organ registration lady. When she was staring into that lads mouth like a pervert dentist and then she reached in and stuck some of his saliva in her gob instead of just going straight in for the kiss.
Fab. You might feel a little twitch downstairs, but it's all a bit repellent and funny at the same time. Great, not something you normally get watching a film.

All those biological machines like the bed and feeding chair seemed to represent the tech and algorithms that we're aligning and connecting with instead of other people.
There's a line where he goes "I'm not so good at the old sex", and this new sex is like people were so detached that they'd half evolved out of their animal instincts, they were cutting into each other with tools trying to feel some sort of connection.

The whole art angle I'm not sure about, maybe an ageing directors self reflective naval gazing, or maybe that's just how we'd approach the new sex, slightly more cerebral than the old base grunty thrust pumps. We'd come at it more from an artistic angle especially if we weren't sure what we were supposed to be feeling.

I liked how it was all a bit comic book noir, with the guy skulking around in the shadows and growling like darkman. I found some of the unashamed exposition dump dialogue endearing.
It's the kind of film that makes me think it's flaws matter as much as it's strengths and I'm so glad it is exactly what it is.

Yea the art thing felt a bit like it was coming from an older time, like it was taking the piss out of, but worshiping artists like stellarc (the ears don't even work) at the same time

That said, there's a lot to be said for being gloriously of your time

[PlanktonSideburns]

Wish I could eat plastic tbh

[Bad Ambassador]

This has been picked up by Vertigo for UK release. Out on 9 September.

[ImmaculateClump]

Wish I could eat plastic tbh

That bin did look proper tasty.

[PlanktonSideburns]

That bin did look proper tasty.

Looked a million times nicer than the food they were eating

At least you know where plastic's been

[Goldentony]

This has been picked up by Vertigo for UK release. Out on 9 September.

abolish the film industry