Review of The Neon Demon (2016) by Watchmyshortz — 17 Sep 2016

Whenever I watch a Nicolas Winding Refn film, I can tell it's by him without checking beforehand. His films possess similar qualities, such as flashy cinematography and subtle, mature storytelling, though the quality of this form of storytelling has taken a dip in his most recent films.

While Drive (and arguably Bronson) had great visual metaphors that will be picked apart and analysed by film students for decades to come, Only God Forgives lost the subtlety and had the weakness of thinking it's plot was smarter than it really was.

So where does The Neon Demon come in? Well it's hard to say exactly how much in the way of subtle storytelling there truly was in the film. I'll be buying the Blu-Ray when it comes out next month and studying the film relentlessly to spot all the foreshadowing and symbolism, but I did notice the shift in colour pallet that occurred in a crucial scene half way through, representing a character's arc.

However, aside from all of the details I may have missed, what I mean by it being hard to say, is that the director has not made it clear or not whether many of the events in the film are metaphors or actually the real events of the film.

I refer to the ending (don't worry I won't spoil anything) in particular. Refn has consistently spoken about the film's ending in a literal sense. Though I have heard theories that the events mirror parts of classic English literature and that the 'Neon Demon' in the film could be the ruthless city of Los Angeles our main character models in, it could be possibly that we as an audience are supposed to take what happens seriously.

Since I saw this film back in July, I have been debating with myself as to whether the film's ending is a stroke of genius or a slip-up in an otherwise impressive film. Admittedly, in my own opinion, art isn't truly art if it doesn't offend some people.

The ending to Neon Demon is designed to be shocking and memorable, and it succeeded. It is easily the most memorable ending to a film I've seen all year. But does that make it great? Would it be a better ending if it was more believable and grounded in reality.

I'd have to watch it again to decide. Overall, though, great film.