Crimes of the Future review

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE: 

DAVID CRONENBERG RETURNS TO HIS UNSETTLING BODY-HORROR ROOTS WITH FLYING COLORS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

NEON

Viggo Mortensen in Crimes of the Future

 

            David Cronenberg (The Fly (1986), A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) makes his long overdue return to the science-fiction and horror genres in Crimes of the Future, which in no way is connected to the 1970 film of the same name…that he also directed. I’ll admit that I’m not much of an expert on Cronenberg, I’ve seen a handful of his movies before like The Fly, Eastern Promises, Scanners, and A History of Violence but he’s one of those filmmakers who often slips under my radar and most of his recent work I’ve never heard of before. 

            Nevertheless, he’s a brilliant filmmaker and one of the most ambitious and strangest directors working today. Which brings us to this film, released only a couple of weeks after Alex Garland’s mindf*ck of a movie, Men. 

            Given that both films were released very close to one another, it seems as if David Cronenberg saw Men, went up to Alex Garland, and said “Hold my beer!”. Because by God, Crimes of the Future is pure David Cronenberg insanity and his first sci-fi film since 1999’s eXistenZ. 

            The film follows Saul (Viggo Mortensen-The Lord of the Rings trilogy, A History of Violence, Green Book), a man with an unusual condition where he grows new organs inside his body. He and his partner, Caprice (Léa Seydoux-Inglourious Basterds, James Bond franchise, The French Dispatch) decide to do the most logical thing, turn the discovery and removal of these organs into performance art with people sitting in a theater and watching the surgeries firsthand. 

            This catches the attention of National Organ Registry investigator, Timlin (Kristen Stewart-The Twilight Saga, On the Road, Spencer) who obsessively tracks Saul and Caprice’s movements. It also gets the attention of a mysterious organization that plans to use Saul’s notoriety to shed life on a new stage in human evolution. 

            The film also stars Scott Speedman (Underworld franchise, The Strangers, Barney’s Version) as Lang Dotrice, Don McKellar (The Red Violin, eXistenZ) as Wippet, Tanaya Beatty (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1, True Justice, Yellowstone) as Berst, and Nadia Litz (The Five Senses, Fear X, Big Muddy) as Dani Router. 

            Overall, Crimes of the Future may not be among David Cronenberg’s best work, but it’s still a well-crafted, grotesque, and completely bonkers throwback to his early days. The film was given me a lot of Fly (1986) vibes even right down to Howard Shore composing the music (Who is basically what Danny Elfman is to Tim Burton, but for David Cronenberg) and a lot of unsettling imagery except replace Jeff Goldblum transforming into a hideous fly monster with Viggo Mortensen and a bunch of organs. 

            It also has this very unconventional narrative where you’re not always sure what’s happening during a scene and a lot of sequences in this film are so strange and odd that they’re even difficult to try and describe. To the point where the movie has sort of this abrupt ending and once the credits started rolling, I was like “Oh, we’re at the end?”, I get the feeling the film will make a lot more sense after multiple viewings when it comes out on home media or streaming. 

            I really dig how this movie looks in terms of the cinematography and production design, especially during scenes that take place in this gothic and shady laboratory where Mortensen’s character is having his surgeries. The laboratory/hospital that he lives in has all these shades of black, red, and dark brown and the building itself looks ancient and like a haunted house with Mortensen sleeping in a pod due to his condition like a monster, a moving skeletal chair that helps him eat, and a man with multiple ears and his eyes and mouth stitched shut like a creature from Pan’s Labyrinth or a Human Centipede f*ck up doing an interpretive dance. 

            Viggo Mortensen is fantastic in this movie and does an excellent flip-flopping back-and-forth from being creepy to sympathetic. Kristen Stewart is also a standout in the film as this eccentric Organ Registry employee who goes through the movie like she’s turned on by Mortensen’s organs. 

            Crimes of the Future is a very odd film out in theaters right now and probably won’t appeal to everyone. But for those who are daring enough to venture into this insane void of WTF will have a delightfully weird time at the movies tonight. 

Still less disturbing than that Invader Zim episode, though!