White Women are the Devil: The Movie Alright, so maybe that's a bit harsh. It's not like men aren't capable of the exact same kind of pettiness and insecurity when faced with another male they feel is a threat to their position. It's something I've personally experienced in my life (in a church no less 🙄). This film just deals with those issues from a strictly female perspective and if we're being honest the Western standards of beauty have led to a universal societal fetishization/worship/desire/uplifting of (most) Caucasian girls that will never allow a woman of color to reach the level of status in life that any of the characters here have. I've heard so much about how gorgeous this is. Refn seems to have built a fanbase partially out of people who solely value the visual component of cinema and happily proclaim him as some sort of filmmaking god for his unique stylistic flourishes. And hey, you can't deny he makes good looking stuff. The meticulous cinematography, what appears to be careful positioning of every actors' individual body parts in some scenes, and of course his unabashed love for freaking neon colors. The ending credits sequence is even a bougie fragrance ad turned James Bond music video. My incredibly limited and previously unfulfilling experience with the man's work thus far gave me the vague impression that he was possibly the type to painstakingly craft a work of art in every shot without much true concern in regards to whether or not he was telling a tale that had any sort of point or meaning. Luckily, he seems to have something to say here. The message is incredibly shallow in a lot of ways, but at least there appears to be a hint of a brain behind the beauty. The plot covers themes of the dangers life can present to young girls on their own (particularly if they're pretty), the malicious sly power games ladies play, the modeling industry's regular usage and abandonment of women, the narcissism that can grow when all anybody tells you is how perfect you are, and plenty of other morals along similar lines. I remember back to my first real job working at a dental office as a teenage gofer and floater after school. I was the only guy there with exception to the dentist himself. It's always stuck with me how, while for the most part especially restrained whenever I was around, there was the identical underlying hostility hidden beneath a thin veneer of civility between those adults that I had noticed in the chicks from my highschool and countless teen flicks over the years that of course went off like an atomic bomb every once in a while, always claiming a casualty or two. It's that same subtle, ever ready to explode tone Neon Demon expertly manages to capture in its feminine interactions up until things get REALLY savage. It's magnificently used to build a constant air of tension. Every barbed remark causally delivered with venom from behind a smile by these blondes makes it clear things could (and will) get violent fast. Yet, even the clear villains of the bunch aren't portrayed as inherently awful people. You'll hate them for their cruelty, but simultaneously pity and empathize with their struggle because it's the expectations and requirements the systems in place have placed on them that made them that way. So your heart breaks for them just as much as you'd like to see each one die painfully. As for the actual horror portion, this is exceptionally slow burn. When the action does finally kick off however, viewers are treated to some sick, twisted, and downright shocking moments that will stick with them long after the credits have rolled. I'm not talking about the gore either. The envelope gets pushed in a particular sequence with Jenna Malone for example, that I'm not sure even a lot of exploitation movies would try. I legitimately wish I could unsee it. It could haunt me until the end of my days and if I ever meet her I'm punching her square in the face for how well she sold/got into that. This will offend some, delight others, and leave many wondering what all the fuss is about coming from either direction. I worry I may have started at the wrong end of Refn's career because it seems like with his latest efforts that the success of Drive caused him to crawl so far up his own anus that he's started making pretentious arthouse-wannabe violence pieces that aren't as deep as he thinks, and he can't tell due to not realizing that the ones who are continuing to call him a genius are simply whores for aesthetics and imagery above anything else. Still, only my second of his works and I've been given more to write, talk, and think about than I have in what feels like years. So regardless if this is the "style over substance" dreck its detractors say it is, the rest of the guy's filmography has my interest.