Review of The Cell (2000) by Adam G — 19 Jun 2009

Holy shit. Never, ever, in my wildest dreams, could I ever have fathomed that this film would be as rapturously sublime as it is. Equal parts visceral science fiction, deft psychological thriller and Jodorowsky fever dream, The Cell works because it's constantly re-anchoring itself - the three the distinct elements push and pull, gravitate and collide and refract each other, as though the entire thing were a massive cinematic Rorschach blot.

In many ways, The Cell reminded me a lot of another, more recent film, one that I'm ashamed to say is also likely destined to be overlooked in the years to come: Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. Both films mix outstanding visuals with emotionally sobering realism, both films are perfectly balanced in every way from beginning to end and both films are very likely too to be much for modern audiences, audiences that have been conditioned to treat cinema as a consumable commodity, as opposed to an art form in its own right. The brainless, yet uber-succesful Saw franchise has turned similar grotesqueries into constant box office gold. But those films don't treat their material as anything more than a grisly means to an end; The Cell goes beyond such limiting confines and uses its bizarre and often horrifying imagery to show the fracturing psyche of a human being.

I wonder, if there were a razorbox or a shotgun collar in this, could it reach the masses?