6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
Starring: Christina Hendricks, Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, Desmond HarringtonHorror | 100% |
Drama | 82% |
Mystery | 46% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1
feat. commentary by Nicolas Winding Refn & Elle Fanning [DTS 2.0 / 48 kHz / 256 kbps / 24-bit]
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In his tenth completed feature, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn fixates his cinematic gaze on the neon lights and high-end fashion world of
present-day Los Angeles. While Refn did not attend a fashion show until working on The Neon Demon, he directed commercials and made
fashion advertisements for designer brands like Gucci, H&M, Hennessey, and YXL. In The Neon Demon's fashion shoots and shows, Refn's
often garish mise-en-scène and solid contrast of light and dark spaces will likely intensify the style versus substance debate that critics have
argued over, particularly the Dane's recent films. I believe that Refn achieves a successful balance of form and content here. He has always been
an underrated writer, his laconic and terse dialog frequently upstaged by gorgeous day and nighttime visuals. Refn's script is no doubt enhanced by
two female playwrights who provide an added feminine perspective into the fashion sense of the LA models. (Mary Laws and Polly Stenham share
screenwriting credits with Refn.)
Note that this review includes minor spoilers.
Jesse (Elle Fanning) is a shy sixteen-year-old who has recently moved from a small town in Georgia to LA to pursue a modeling career. Jesse is
accompanied by her new friend Dean (Karl Glusman), an amiable and nice-looking photographer whose snapshots have garnered Jesse the
attention of a local modeling agency. Following a quite striking photo shoot that opens the film, Ruby (Jena Malone), a makeup artist who was
probably once herself a model, confronts Jesse in the dressing room. Ruby becomes a hybrid mentor/muse to Jesse. She introduces Jesse to two of
the agency's top models, the blondes Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee). In the scenes between these young ladies, it is not so much
what is said, or even how it is articulated, but how the models project themselves to each other that is important to Refn. For example, one model
asks Jesse if she misses being away from her parents but enunciates the words in monotone and in the most robotic manner. When Jesse meets
with Roberta Hoffmann (Christina Hendricks), the head of the agency, she falls prey to this salesperson's pitch that a perfect body will get her into
as many shows as she wishes. But Jesse's naiveté precludes her from realizing that scintillating beauty and a perfect body can diminish, however
slightly, into ephemeral beauty and a disposable body.
While The Neon Demon is a film that Refn can call his own, it sometimes parallels the female rivalries in different professions depicted in
prior films, e.g. the two competing ballerinas in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) as well as the head honcho and her protégée in Brian De Palma's Passion (2012). Another reference to a De Palma work is apropos. In The
Neon Demon (the first half, especially), the ladies become jealous and envious of Jesse's newfound "model as superstar" status. But
beforehand, when Jesse is an unspoiled innocent girl, Refn establishes a bullying milieu in which the ladies verbally assault her purity. Jesse is
much like a twenty-first century version of Carrie White (without the pious maternal influence). Besides bullying, Refn reckons with two taboo
subjects (which I will not disclose) that Hollywood would never touch these days.
"I'm pretty, and I can make money off 'pretty'."
The Neon Demon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Broad Green Pictures on this AVC-encoded BD-50 disc. The label presents the movie in an
aspect ratio of about 2.39:1 and the picture faithfully replicates the way it looked when I saw it in the theater last June. The red, blue, and violet hues
so integral in Refn's color spectrum are displayed here the way I remember them. The source print is virtually flawless with no chroma noise, color
bleeding, or video artifacts that I could pick out.
The Neon Demon was shot entirely on digital using the Arri Alexa XT camera. According to press notes, Refn spent two months searching for
specific anamorphic prime lenses to fulfill his vision. He acquired an older set (aptly named "Crystal Express") which make faces appear cosmetic,
gentle, and soft. Notice in the various screenshots that skintones have a cooler and softer look to them. Refn also made finite corrections to the image
using Photoshop so the faces closely reproduced a typical model in a photo shoot.
Broad Green has broken the film up into eighteen bookmark-enabled chapter stops.
Broad Green has provided a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and a Spanish DTS 5.1 dub. The lossless English sound track delivers a wonderful circularity of music and sound effects. The pulsating bass beats from Martinez's score made the rug in my home theater vibrate and caused the wall to shudder. When characters spoke, voices sounded ultra-crisp and natural in the center channel with outstanding bass. My very tiny quibble is other sounds (not necessarily f/x) were not accented or amplified through the center speaker, making it subtly absent for short moments. In other words, separation was a little lacking. There was precise synchronization of sounds across the center and fronts. Dialog is completely audible for nearly the entire feature except where Keanu Reeves's character utters a few whispers. Broad Green has given the viewer the option of English SDH and Spanish subtitles. The English track is pretty thorough but unfortunately, it does not translate the lyrics of any of the songs.
An uber-stylish horror film, The Neon Demon is deserving of multiple nominations during awards season (cinematography, art direction, and
costume design, at the very least). Broad Green Pictures delivers a sparkling transfer that can justifiably be called reference quality. The uncompressed
sound track is also not a letdown. With two brief featurettes, the disc is a bit light on extras but compensates with an anecdote filled commentary track
with director and star. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Note: The German video distributor Koch Media Film intends to release The Neon Demon on both Blu-ray (including Media Book and Steelbook
packages) and 4K UltraHD in about a month. My sources indicate that the bonus features will all be different and thus serve as a complementary
edition to Broad Green's. Koch plans to include an introduction by Refn, a new audio commentary with Refn and editor Matthew Newman, an exclusive
interview with Refn in Berlin, Refn and Alejandro Jodorowsky together at Filmfest München, a Masterclass with Refn (also at Filmfest München), a photo
gallery, a teaser, and an original theatrical trailer. Koch, which occasionally provides English subtitles on its American film releases, appears not to be
including them on this forthcoming release. My hypothesis is that some of the extras will be English-friendly, including the Refn and Newman
commentary with probably optional German subs.
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