Review of The Neon Demon (2016) by Mique W — 30 Aug 2016

Nicolas Winding Refn has made a name for himself in the film industry as a visually striking director obsessed with ultra-violence, so after the extreme polarizing "Only God Forgives" he crafted an even more polarizing and experimental film. Did this experiment pay off? Or is it even worse?

Jesse is underage girl that's just starting a modeling career in LA, but after surprising many prominent figures of the industry, hatred starts to grow in the other models.

To be perfectly honest, I only gave this film a shot because I love Refn´s "Drive" and while I hated his follow up "Only God Forgives" I still found redeeming qualities in it, so I decided to give him a second chance (something similar to my first experiences with Terrence Malick), but after watching this film I doubt I´ll ever see another film with his name on it. If you thought "Only God Forgives" was a downward spiral into pretentiousness, "The Neon Demon" takes it to eleven. "The Neon Demon" has deadpan acting from its short cast, plus it wastes actors in thankless roles (why the hell is Keanu doing here? Why Joan Holloway is again wasted in just a shallow scene?); the score works at certain scenes but it is extremely repetitive (it comes off as a failed attempt to replicate "It Follows" score, which was already a replica of John Carpenter), the cinematography suffered a major downgrade from "Only God Forgives", the screenplay is more straightforward than Refn´s previous film but its characters are even more bland (fortunately they are more likeable, which is not saying much considering the characters in "Only God Forgives") and it lacks structure, the story is predictable (it comes off as "Black Swan" directed by Dario Argento with some "Holy Mountain" imagery), obvious visual analogies that try to come off as deep, Refn´s directing is as pretentious as his second Gosling collaboration, and the final 30 minutes are filled with insanely gross/disturbing imagery (depends on your point of view and the kind of imagery you have seen previously) that is needless but is there just because Refn has an ultra-violence fetish. But honestly the worst part of this film is that I couldn't find anything salvageable.

"The Neon Demon" is the worst film I´ve seen this year. It is pretentious, grotesque, boring, self-indulgent and horribly written film that unlike "Only God Forgives", it lacks any redeeming elements to make it worth watching. (I hate using the word pretentious but that is the only way I can describe this fucking disaster).