The Neon Demon (and a mini review for Ghostbusters)

http://theneondemon.com/

Where do I begin to paint the picture of how very bad The Neon Demon is? Bad taste, badly edited, overly stylised direction, barely any script, but then again it is "written" by Nicholas Winding Refn (who apparently now refers to himself as NWR so I shall do the same), and he's not exactly known for his dialogue; but no, it's mostly just bad in sense that it leaves the taste of eyeball in your mouth at the end.

This is the story of a girl who wanted to be a model, and who undoubtedly would have made it had she not been so shitty to those helping her to the top of the ladder. I get the metaphors too, modelling is dog eat dog (literally) and if you're big headed and rude to the people helping you on your way up, they're likely to be the ones to push you off the top. I get it. But I didn't really need to sit through 2 hours of strobe lighting and over-long scenes where nothing (and I mean nothing at all) happened, in order to get it. 

It's so sad too because they have some really great people in the cast. Keanu Reeves is criminally underused, Jena Malone, you can do so much better than this honey, what are you doing? And even Elle Fanning who showed real promise in Super 8, is above the level this movie stoops to. Character wise, did we need to know that the crooked motel owner was also a paedophile rapist? Or that the make up artist was a necrophiliac lesbian? No, I really don't think we did, and shocking for the sake of shocking is so very 90s.

I enjoyed Drive, even though it too was over stylised and under dialogue-d on reflection, but at the time it came out it was different, refreshing even. I missed Only God Forgives in cinemas and when I attempted to watch it on TV I only managed to watch about half before I was so bored I gave up. If I'd watched this at home I don't know that I'd have made it half way, but I paid my £8.70 dammit and I was determined to get my money's worth. 

So we're three major films in to NWR's career (I'm aware that in total he's got 13 director credits) and I already feel he needs to try a different tactic, because this one is now old hat. It's clear that after the success of Drive he believed his own hype, and now has no originality left. 

Before the film started there was an advertisement for a season of films that "inspire" NWR. One of those films was Under The Skin. "Inspired" is a funny word when used in this context because if you played Under The Skin and The Neon Demon side by side, you'd see a lot of similarities. The music is one, the look of the film is another. And if you read my review for that movie you'll know what I thought of it. This too has no real point to it, nothing of any value to really say for itself, no likable characters, in fact nothing really to redeem it at all.

The irony is that everyone has praised The Neon Demon and criticised the hell out of the rebooted Ghostbusters, but I actually enjoyed that much more, and thought it more original even though it was a reboot of an existing film. It felt more fresh, the cast were all superb, it features a some fantastic role models for women and young girls, it prominently features both a funny and knowledgeable woman of colour, AND a kick ass and smart gay woman. If you have to pick between the two, go for Ghostbusters. It's not perfect, I think it would have worked better as a sequel rather than trying to be a stand alone movie, but it's been done this way, and as it stands I would much rather see a sequel for this new team of Ghostbusters than sit through the tripe that was The Neon Demon again.

The Neon Demon 1 out of 10 / Ghostbusters 6 out of 10

The Neon Demon Viewing Date - 20th July 2016
The Neon Demon Release Date - 8th July 2016

The Neon Demon Cast Overview:
Elle Fanning ~ Jesse
Jena Malone ~ Ruby
Karl Glusman ~ Dean
Bella Heathcote ~ Gigi
Abbey Lee ~ Sarah
Christina Hendricks ~ Roberta Hoffman
Keanu Reeves ~ Hank
Alessandro Nivola ~ Fashion Designer (uncredited)

Written and Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (with assistance from Mary Laws and Polly Stenham on the script)

Ghostbusters Viewing Date - 11th July 2015
Ghostbusters Release Date - 11th July 2015

Ghostbusters Cast Overview:
Melissa McCarthy ~ Abby Yates
Kristen Wiig ~ Erin Gilbert
Kate McKinnon ~ Jillian Holtzmann
Leslie Jones ~ Patty Tolan
Chris Hemsworth ~ Kevin

Written and Directed by Paul Feig (with assistance from Katie Dippold)