The Neon Demon
(2016) 118 Min.
Rated: R (Gore, nudity, necrophilia)
Country: USA / France / Denmark
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars: Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, Karl Glusman
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
An aspiring model moves to LA and becomes sought after, much to the jealousy of her new friends.
Synopsis:
An aspiring model named Jesse (Fanning) has just moved to Los Angeles and does a photoshoot with photographer Dean (Glusman) and makeup artist Ruby (Malone). After the shoot Ruby invites her to a party. While at the party Jesse is introduced to Ruby’s friends who are models as well: Sarah and Gigi.
Jesse gets signed onto a modelling agency and is told to tell people she is 19 years old, despite being 16. She goes on a chaste date with Dean afterwards and goes home to her rundown motel room. She finds a mountain lion in her room and motel manager, Hank (Reeves), demands she pay for the destruction caused by the lion.
Jesse attends a photo shoot by a notable photographer named Jack McCarther who covers her naked body in gold.
Soon she visits a casting call for fashion designer Sarno. Sarah is also there, but she is ignored by Sarno in favor of Jesse. Jesse finds Sarah in the bathroom of the same building and she confronts Jesse asking her what it’s like to be admired by everyone. Jesse responds that it’s “everything”. Sarah lunges at her and Jesse cuts her hand on a piece of broken mirror. Sarah tries to suck up the blood but Jesse runs away.
Jesse arrives in her room at the motel and faints. Dean visits the motel and pays for the damages caused by the mountain lion. He also visits Jesse and treats her open wound.
Jesse attends the fashion show. Gigi talks to her about cosmetic surgery she’s had. As Jesse closes the show she sees visions of an inverted pyramid of triangles. She’s enchanted with them and her own reflection, kissing her reflections.
After the show, Jesse goes with Dean to a bar with Sarno. Sarno humiliates Gigi for her plastic surgery and praises Jesse for her natural beauty. Disgusted, Dean tries to leave with Jesse, but she chooses instead to stay.
She dreams of Hank shoving a knife down her throat. She awakens to find someone trying to open her door and she locks it. The would-be intruder moves onto her neighbors room where Jesse can hear a girl cry and scream as the intruder assaults her. Jesse calls Ruby who tells her to come to her house.
Jesse is at the large mansion which Ruby claims she is house sitting. Ruby tries to initiate sex with Jesse, but Jesse rebuffs her telling her that she is a virgin. Frustrated, Ruby angrily draws a diagram on a mirror and goes to her second job at a morgue. Ruby kisses and pleasures herself with the corpse of a blond girl.
Ruby comes home to find that Jesse is now fully basking in her own glory. Jesse gets attacked by Gigi and Sarah while in the house and gets cornered by a large empty swimming pool. The three other girls surround her and Ruby pushes her into the pool where Jesse breaks her neck and dies.
Ruby is shown bathing in blood. Gigi and Sarah are shown showering off the blood. Ruby lies down in an open grave and at night she lies under the light of a full moon where liquid flows out from between her legs.
Gigi and Sarah are both at a photo shoot by Jack McCarther. A girl asks what they would do if another girl messed up their job and Sarah states that she ate a girl. Jack chooses Sarah to be in part of the shoot and dismisses the other model. Both Gigi and Sarah are about to be photographed when Sarah suddenly feels ill and runs off. Gigi finds her in a room alone and Sarah vomits up an eyeball. She screams that she has to get Jesse out of her and stabs her stomach, killing herself. Gigi kneels before Sarah and picks up Jesse’s eye and eats it. She returns to her work.
The film ends.
Review:
The Neon Demon is bathed in beautiful cinematography, color and lighting. It’s a beautifully filmed movie, but at it’s core the story rings hollow and forced.
There is no real character development here and it is literally in one scene where Jesse transforms from shy young model into a narcissist reveling in her own youth and beauty. The film, instead, chooses to have lingering shots on faces, shapes and scenes rather than have more character development. The other characters exists without drive or motivation aside from forced jealousy.
To be fair there are films that do not fully explain every bit of the plot but still manage to illicit a response and sense of impending doom. This film fails to do that. There’s almost no reaction to the horror of Jesse’s death and the audience never is told why the trio of girls chose to kill her or why they ate her.
It’s a heavy-handed critique on the modeling world, but it’s so blatant and repetitive that the message becomes dull, and without heavy character development interest in these caricatures starts to wane. It’s a film chock full of style and beauty but short on substance.
For another look on a climb to fame see Starry Eyes (2014).