The Neon Demon - Hollywood will consume you

This - the most recent film to emerge from the mind of writer / director Nicolas Winding Refn - is a bonkers film.  Refn's work to date (Drive and Only God Forgives) indicates he is a writer eager to layer up textures and oft-baffling metaphor, and a director eager to play around with the stylistic opportunities provided by the cinematic medium.  The new film by Refn is not one to take someone on a first date - not unless that person's favourite film is Erasorhead.

The Neon Demon is at its simplest the story of Jesse (Elle Fanning) and her attempt to inveigle herself into the Holywood fashion / film industry.  Jesse comes - like many before her - from a rural background seeking the bright lights and fame of the big city.  She is taken under the wing of Ruby, Gigi and Sarah, barely older than her but bitter beyond their years and jaded about the industry that has given them the fame and style Jesse now craves.  As Jesse moves closer to an inner circle that she desperately wants to be part of, what will she find there?

Refn's style is unique has needs to be experienced to be understood.  He uses colour, shape and lighting to create a style that's brutal, unsettling and predatory.  Jesse is the bambi trying to become the wolf, and yet the wolves circle her, all the time fearful of her youth, innocence, and the fact she represents their eventual decline.  On top of this the sound track adds layer of sensory discombobulation, the relentless dance rhythm beats play over an opening scene where Jesse meets her 'mentors' in a club.  The tension in the room is there for all to drink in.  The comparisons to Susperia are easy to make, which in itself is plenty enough to recommend a watch.

At its heart the film is a critique of the fashion industry.  It is an industry that idolises youth over everything, while at the some time fearing the very same youth that represents the downfall of its established stars.  The careers of those who have 'made it' last only as long as it takes for the next youngest prettiest thing to emerge out of the desert into Hollywood's bright lights.  In parallel, it is a critique of those who go in pursuit of that world.  It talks about the dangers of letting unknown forces into your life.  How so you know these people are your friends?  You keep your friends close, but your enemies you keep closer right?

As to if what happens in the film is to be taken literally or not... well to ask the question implies that you might not be a fan of Refn's oeuvre.  It doesn't really matter if what Refn puts on screen is a literal depiction of a story he has come up with, or a weird metaphysical construction that deconstructs the horror of the fashion industry and reconstructs it as an all-too-real horror, Refn's work speaks for itself.  His constant use of image, music, colour, form and fashion as a way of building tension and meaning may leave some behind, but his horrific metaphors for the dangers this industry impose upon young wannabies aren't particularly dense.

To conclude, I thought this was a superb film.  Refn is one of a very small number of film-makers these days who has a very singular and recognisable artistic style, but who's work still pierces into the mainstream.  Beware kids, Hollywood will eat you up.