Review of eXistenZ (1999) by Meaghan C — 02 Dec 2009

Surreal, disturbing, frequently hilarious and consistently thought prevoking, Cronenberg's eXistenZ manages to continually stay one step ahead of the viewer's expectations through its perpetual bombardment of outright bizarre additions (a gun made out of animal bones?!) and plot twists, as well as an unconventional script constantly working at undermining the viewer's sense of 'normal' reality.

Through off the wall yet thoroughly quality performances from leads Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, as well as deliciously eccentric support from Ian Holm and Willem Dafoe, Cronenberg's film manages to ask all the right questions in spite of its sometimes frustrating ambiguities, and delivers a grotesquely enjoyable concoction of a kind rarely imitated.