Harefooted Halloween: The Neon Demon

What I Liked: Visually gorgeous.  So many vivid colors, excellent framing and seizure inducing strobe effects.

The acting is mostly good.  Elle Fanning (Maleficent) is great at conveying the naïve newcomer vibe while turning on the sinister when it’s necessary.  She’s the most human character out of everyone (along with her brief male friend).  Everyone else plays it more robotic but that was on purpose so I can’t exactly fault the movie for that.

Keanu Reeves (Dracula(1992)) was maybe my favorite part of the film.  He plays a lowlife motel owner that doesn’t give a fuck.  Even when a goddamn cougar brakes into one of the rooms he’s still gonna make sure someone else pays for the damages.  This was such a pleasant surprise because this might be the most different I’ve ever seen him.

The general concept about the modeling industry being this monster that can possess your soul in a way that it literally becomes a kill or be killed business is very cool.

What I Didn’t Like: The storytelling.  Things felt disconnected to the point where almost any major event seemed to come out of nowhere.  The way the plot unfolds and how the characters develop doesn’t gel for some reason.  I wanna say there are a number of scenes missing but I think it might be the editing and pacing.  All the key points are there but sometimes it’s like I’m treading water.

Overall Impressions: The movie seems to technically be there but it slips through my fingers.  I get this is supposed to be arty and sort of a sci-fi picture where the environment and characters come off strangely alien, but there’s something about it that doesn’t work.  Weird.

On subsequent viewings it’s almost guaranteed I’ll like this one more though.  I love Refn and think he’s a genius but like Terence Malick he’s getting very inside his own head as he gets older.  Each picture gets more Refn-y than the last which isn’t a bad thing.  At least we know whatever he comes out with will be, as Keanu puts it, “not generic”.