Climax

Director Gaspar Noé on the set

CLIMAX                    D                    

France  Belgium  (97 mi)  2018 ‘Scope d:  Gaspar Noé              Official site

I’m annoyed by a culture in which death is always considered something bad.

― Gaspar Noé quoted in a September 14, 2018 interview, Gaspar Noé: 'I'm annoyed by a culture in which death is always ...

It seems this director of extreme cinema is always trying to top his previous effort, growing more and more visually outlandish to provoke audience reactions, yet this one is another major let-down, so much so that one wonders why his films even get invited to Cannes anymore, though not screened in competition as it premiered in Director’s Fortnight, where the film was largely embraced by the critical inner circle at Cannes, winning an Art Cinema Award.  Most will likely hold a different view, showing more of a crude sadistic streak than ever, as it’s a film that may be visually stunning, yet veers into chaos and utter annihilation, turning the film into an extended death wish fantasy.  Working primarily without a script, this is basically a psychedelic horror dance fantasia, with the closing credits opening the movie, where the grind of the amped up electronic dance music plays continuously throughout, reflecting the raw energy of disaffected Parisian youth, yet the mood shifts from an initial celebratory euphoria to a horror filled, nightmarish, out of control world that descends into utter havoc, misery, and death.  The premise is simple, as a group of about 20 racially diverse dancers get together at an empty school for a rehearsal, creating a burst of spontaneous energy in a mesmerizing dance collective shot by the director himself in a hypnotic, free-wheeling style that accentuates body movement through a liberated physicality and open expression, breaking off afterwards into an after-party atmosphere, where routine gossip and talk of the men wanting to get into the pants of every girl is a staple of conversation, yet small talk quickly shifts to something else when the entire dance troupe has been affected by what could be an LSD-laced sangria (we never find out for sure) that everyone has been drinking, growing more and more disorienting, where a fear of the unknown turns into an open revolt, turning against one another in a nihilistic gesture of hatred and group stupidity, provoking mind-numbing violence, some of it self-inflicted, urged on by the collective mania, veering into disturbing territory that is difficult to watch.  While Irreversible (Irréversible) (2002) remains this director’s most successful work (arguably his one and only masterpiece), opening in the menacing atmosphere of the most darkened regions of hell, yet the backwards chronology of that film turns what would otherwise be viewed as a nihilistic, exploitive, and highly pessimistic film into one that at least allows for the possibility of hope, offering a new beginning at the end.  This film does just the opposite, taking what amounts to a bounding level of optimism that soon spirals out of control, becoming a drug-induced psychedelic nightmare scenario that descends into wall-to-wall psychotic deliriums of hell, aggressive and hyper-violent, with pulsing techno music evolving into incoherent and rambling hallucinations, where unless you exit the theater viewers can’t escape the psychological onslaught of unending pain and anguish, as the escalating claustrophobic horror show never ends. 

A few members of this collective do stand out momentarily, though there’s not even the barest outline of a story, and even less character development, making this more of an abstract expression of dire straits, suggesting we’re engulfed in a nightmarish scenario, as suggested by a bookended prelude and postscript in the wintry snow that alerts viewers to an underlying theme of ultimate doom.  While the spotlight briefly shifts from one to another, at least initially it shines on Sofia Boutella, an Algerian model, dancer (backup for Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Rihanna), and the lone professional actress, appearing more than a decade ago in the Bianca Li French hip-hop movie DANCE CHALLENGE (2002), featured here as Selva interviewing prospective dancers to form the troupe, who are videotaped in an old school VHS style, though the framing background material provides relevant clues, as these are the books and films that have inspired Gaspar Noé, an Argentinean director now living in France, where the listed titles are obvious influences, scrutinized more thoroughly by the director himself in this article, Gaspar Noé on the Easter eggs hidden in plain sight in Climax - Polygon.  After an exhilarating dance sequence that screams empowerment and racial diversity, exhibiting a form of street dance known as Krumping, all the dancers are featured at some point, all collaborating in unison, as if in one voice, creating the illusion of collective harmony, as afterwards this is quickly broken down into accusers and backstabbers, targeting one another with negligible evidence, yet a lynch mob mentality takes over, where the power of the group to incite violence becomes clear.  Selva is one of the first to realize something is wrong, feeling disoriented, questioning what’s going on, initially thinking it’s just her before we realize the entire group has been affected.  As we’re witness to braggadocio male sex talk, attempted hook-ups and sexual trysts, and just general gossip, behavior turns more bizarre, especially when they start turning on one another, singling people out, inflicting a mob mentality on innocent people, and inciting a reckless violence.  As the evening progresses, it only gets worse, venturing into criminal behavior, where primal instincts kick in, as if driven by Charles Manson-style Satanic impulses.  Now this is hardly the trippy chemical reaction that most people experience on LSD, yet Noé insists upon changing the rules, altering the altered reality, implementing fascist tendencies, where sadistic inclinations take over and individuals cowering in fear are powerless to respond, manipulated by sheer force, leaving the dance floor shredded as a new-age battleground of depravity and death.  As a vision of hell on earth, Noé challenges anyone to remain unmoved or neutral, as it’s all designed to provoke a reaction of revulsion, literally turning the camera upside down at one point, losing all familiarity with being human, becoming floating apparitions that already resemble dead souls, no longer fixed to the earth, morphing into one incredibly demented paranoid vision.   

While there will be those who love the thrill of how this is filmed, creating a hyper visual psychedelic extravaganza, featuring virtuoso cinematographer Benoît Debie who keeps the film immersed in neon-lit fluorescent colors, yet the underlying tone throughout accentuates such crude base impulses, where the Greek theater chorus urges one fellow dancer to stab herself, or commit suicide, ganging up on another, literally beating him unconscious, threatening to castrate him, turning on a dime against yet another, accusing him of spiking the drinks, throwing him out into the freezing cold and locking him out, with no thought whatsoever for his welfare.  What they do to a young kid is utterly deplorable, yet there it is becoming the substance of yet another Gaspar Noé film, where it’s a depiction of humanity that at its core is base and repulsive.  Does this film in any way offer insight into the current human condition, or is the director instead obsessed with his own deeply disturbed and utterly grotesque pessimism, where in his view society is retreating to its most primal Neanderthal instincts, where this director has simply thrown away the key and eliminated all hope, leaving us to wallow in our own prehistoric misery.  Not sure what the value is of experiencing something so senselessly horrifying that is utterly inescapable.  Not a single member of the entire collective turns out to be helpful, all are greedy, self-centered or lustful, thinking only of themselves at every turn, where it’s literally impossible to relate to any of them, as each is caught up in their own myopic short-sightedness.  While the film feels contemporary, it’s actually set in the early 90’s, apparently so no one could use their cellphones to call for help.  In this ridiculously imposed mindset, it’s as if all phones had been eradicated from the earth, so they were forced to endure a No Exit dilemma where there is simply no escape.  The heavy handed nature of oppressive hopelessness hangs like a lingering cloud over every aspect of this film, where it simply doesn’t represent anything we know about the world, as we’re not this helplessly isolated and disconnected, stuck all alone in a house of horrors, unable to communicate with the outside world.  Assuming this is an allegory for today’s unflinching political pessimism, caught up in extreme nationalistic fervor, there are democracies around the world (including France, where Noé works and resides) where a majority vote can change the outcome and direction of the entire country.  Noé isn’t stuck under the thumb of an authoritarian dictatorship (where his family fled the right-wing Argentinean coup in 1976), nor is he mired in social deprivation where the cycle of poverty is generational and seemingly neverending, so these are not the people he’s speaking for.  His voice is his alone, believing the world has become too moralistic, which makes this grotesque vision of death and hopelessness even more pathetic and less relevant, where the amount of cruelty on display is stunning.  “Death is an extraordinary experience,” he highlights, as if that’s something to aspire to.   

Star Trek Beyond

STAR TREK BEYOND            C+              

USA  (120 mi)  2016  ‘Scope  d:  Justin Lin              Official Site

Speaking of 60’s idealism - - let’s see what the Star Trek series is up to these days.  Eschewing the exaggerated expense of the 3D experience, one of the things that’s so surprising about the series ever since its earliest conception is the presence of such a variety of life found in the outer galaxies, where we find green people, blue people, orange people, and species of all shapes and sizes, where a diversity of life is expressed through a preponderance of rubber masks, each one shaped uniquely different to reflect a different planet of origin.  While we’re yet two-hundred years or so away from the period portrayed, there is scant evidence so far that the universe looks anything like this.  Still, part of the look of the future comes from the rapidly changing social dynamic that was taking place when the TV series originated in the 1960’s, where the show was ahead of its time in intentionally reflecting racial diversity, something that has proved overwhelming popular through the course of its evolution into movies.  Even today, Star Trek sets a certain social standard that remains part of its original mission, where they’ll kick ass if they have to when provoked into battle, but otherwise they are a peacekeeping mission, one whose intent is to spread peace and brotherhood throughout the universe.  All noble intentions, where the show is like a United Nations mission into outer space, yet the focus of most films remains the action sequences, in particular the spectacular battle sequences, where computer graphics take center stage, yet this has also been the Achilles heel of the movie series, each one having to outdo the previous episodes, forcing the hand of the studios, apparently, as now they’ve chosen none other than Justin Lin, the director of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS sequels three through six, films that simply provide nonstop action sequences.  While there is an art to bringing this relentless earthbound storm and fury into the cosmos, the stylistic mechanism is the same, where the feature attraction, just like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), is an unending barrage of explosions, where the look of the film has only grown more similar to the ten episode and still counting Star Wars series, both resembling hell and havoc in outer space.  If anything, this only reveals the limits of space saga sequels, as they all look alike after a while, even as they go to such extremes to accentuate diversity in discovered lifeforms.   What J.J. Abrams discovered in his original Star Trek (2009) was tapping into the personalities of the beloved TV series figures, where the next generation of actors playing the same roles duplicated their human characteristics, as that was the most appealing aspect of the original show.  That nearly disappeared in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), ditching Abrams this go round (hired to direct the latest STAR WARS venture), instead concocting a formula for what will likely be a summer blockbuster movie.

While there remain traces of recognizable personality-suited dialogue, none more evident than Scotty (Simon Pegg), who continues to call Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, a surprise breakout star), a newly introduced female alien creature, “lassie” throughout, which couldn’t be more endearing, although one might attribute this to the fact that Pegg is a cowriter of the film, so writing lines for himself, even as others are routinely ignored, comes with the territory, while there are occasional other touches as well, such as Bones (Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy) stealing a bottle of prized alcohol from Chekov’s locker to share with a particularly beleaguered Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), which was also a nice way of paying tribute to the recently deceased Anton Yelchin who played Chekov, as he died in an unfortunate car accident just before the movie was released.  But for the most part, that’s not the draw of this movie, as the familiar characters are overlooked once again, barely used for anything other than window dressing, while continually overshadowed by the larger action sequences, where this may as well be another comic book action figure movie.  The plot is minimal, representing the simplicity of the earlier TV series, whose goal was the cram as much as possible into a shortened 50-minute running time, where mostly they sat around chatting on the deck of the USS Enterprise until they approach an unknown space ship, hailing it for identification before all hell breaks loose if the ship has malicious intent, where the entire budget is spent establishing alien looks and uniforms, perhaps a few scenes on a foreign planet, along with some ship-to-ship battle scenes largely viewed from the hectic panic and anxiety of the bridge, where the familiar characters are thrown about like ragdolls, while Spock (Leonard Nimoy) usually offers a last minute suggestion to the Captain (William Shatner), who initiates last second evasive maneuvers to escape from harm’s way once again.  That’s pretty much the format, as they all have a good laugh about it afterwards, though there are meandering excursions along the way, some constituting an entire episode, but the Enterprise crew from the television show spent much of their time in close quarters on the bridge, where the banter of their dialogue, in good times and bad, filled time and space, where it was their personalities that was the draw.  The pattern from the very beginning was that Kirk hogged most of the action sequences as well as the scenes on the ship, where many in the original cast came to despise William Shatner and his gargantuan ego, though as the series waned there wasn’t much action to speak of, as it was such a low budget operations.  Now we’re talking about a budget of nearly $200 million dollars.  Three years into a five year mission, the Enterprise pulls in for shore leave, where certainly one of the dazzling set pieces is Yorktown, a Starbase re-envisioned into a thriving, modernistic METROPOLIS (1927) in outer space, complete with architectural marvels of intersecting, multi-directional arches, each with its own unique urban skyline, given full futuristic scope, all built inside a protective bubble, like living inside of a snow globe without the snow, retaining its specially designed shape when turned in every which direction, suggesting it provides its own gravity field.   

Little has changed except they’ve all grown a bit older, where a middle-aged existential crisis seems to dominate Kirk’s thoughts, finding it harder to tell “where one day ends and the next begins,” reassessing his career ambitions, thinking he might seek a promotion, where perhaps it’s time to offer the ship to the command of Spock (Zachary Quinto).  Meanwhile, Spock’s undergoing his own inner transformation, having been informed of the death of Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy), making him especially sensitive to the survival of the Vulcan species, thinking he may need to leave the Enterprise to play a leadership role on the planet of New Vulcan.  Of course, when the two have a momentary pause to discuss their thoughts, neither one utters a word, too embarrassed apparently to bring it up, saving it for later.  Also if you blink you may miss the insinuation that Sulu (John Cho) is gay, seen wordlessly placing his arm around his partner, who is carrying their baby daughter.  That’s a tell-tale sign that something’s about to happen, as a distressed vessel of unknown origin suddenly approaches the Starbase pleading for help, with a single person Kalara (Lydia Wilson) arriving in an escape pod, suggesting her ship is stranded in a region not yet explored by Starfleet, resurrecting the Enterprise to the rescue.  But the move proves disastrous, as an enemy is lurking to ambush the unsuspecting crew, overwhelming their ship with a flock of tiny metallic ships that resemble killer bees, containing huge destructive capabilities, literally sawing the ship in half, with some of the crew escaping in rescue pods while the main section crashes to the planet surface, where now Kirk is in the exact same position as Kalara, a captain separated from his ship and crew.  Krall (Idris Elba) boards the ship taking the entire crew prisoner, including Sulu and Uhura (Zoë Saldana), frantically searching for an artifact seen earlier, though it was viewed with little importance at the time, while this commander considers it the essence of his mission.  Scratched up from the bumpy landings, Scotty lands on the planet surface alone, Kirk arrives with Chekov, while Spock and McCoy are stranded as well, where communication devices are inoperable.  Scotty is impressively rescued by Jaylah, displaying a warrior mentality, a lone survivor of an alien community destroyed by Krall, where she has skillfully survived in the interior of a lost Starship, the USS Franklin, an earlier vessel that went missing over a hundred years ago.  While primitive by state-of-the-art modern standards, it’s a relic from the past, yet has been modified by Jaylah’s ingenuity, including the protection of an invisible shield around it in order to remain undetected.  Scotty gets to work and quickly makes the needed repairs, eventually reunited with the other Enterprise officers, forming a plan to storm the prison and rescue the hostages.  Meanwhile Krall has been torturing the crew in search of the artifact, handed over to him by Kalara, who sabotaged Kirk and the Enterprise, as the device is the missing piece of a deadly weapon that can disintegrate lifeforms in seconds, which is immediately put to a grisly test with Kalara.  With his mission completed, Krall leaves to attack Yorktown, followed by all his killer bees, with plans afterwards to go after the entire Federation. 

But first, Kirk must re-power the Franklin after a century spent in mothballs, where the plan is to energize the rescued crew back to the ship, an extremely handy device that is featured prominently throughout this film, saving some of the heroes at precarious moments, as the rescue mission doesn’t exactly run smoothly.  Nonetheless, it’s a harrowing moment followed by an even more daunting task.  By reviewing the ship’s logs, Kirk and Uhura are able to identify Krall as Balthazar Edison, the former captain of the Franklin, whose life was prolonged, yet warped and physically deformed by his planet’s technology.  But the logs show his growing resentment and disillusionment when he and his crew have been left stranded by Starfleet, where his increasingly paranoid belief is that this was deliberate, that the words of the Federation are a hoax that hold little meaning, turning into an angry and maniacal renegade soldier holding a personal vendetta against the Federation, much like Special Forces Commander Colonel Kurtz in APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), who must be wiped out in order to stop the spread of his venomous ideology.  Having fought the early wars that led to the success of the Federation, he has now gone rogue in his obsession to destroy them, where he was searching the universe for the ultimate weapon to accomplish the task, believing he now finally holds it in his hands.  It’s a race back to Yorktown to save that world from the incendiary fury of a seemingly invincible madman with a doomsday weapon, as they race across the galaxies to meet him head-on.  But first they have to solve the little problem of the killer bees, surmising there must be a unifying coordination directing their actions that needs to be altered and disrupted, creating a disconnect within their electrical circuitry.  Something as old-fashioned as radio transmissions seems to do the trick, causing interference within their unifying transmissions.  Jaylah has a thing for Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” Public Enemy - Fight the Power - vidéo Dailymotion YouTube (5:16), playing a significant role in her formative years, which would have made an excellent choice, linking the STAR TREK series to the streets of urban America in Do the Right Thing (1989), but the musical selection instead becomes a much safer choice in the Beastie Boys “Sabotage” Sabotage - Beastie Boys - Vevo YouTube (3:02), wreaking havoc within their operating systems, causing them all to self-destruct.  In the high-powered confusion of this neutralized invasion, however, Edison, returning to his original form and shape, has been unleashed into the anonymity of an unsuspecting public carrying his deadly device with him, with plans to flood the ventilation systems.  Like King Kong (1933) climbing to the top of the Empire State Building, Edison has similar aspirations, where Kirk has to head him off, going mano a mano in hand-to-hand combat, becoming a battle of wills, each trying to gain the upper hand.  “You won the war!” Kirk shouts at him, “You gave us peace!”  It was that very peace that left Edison alone in the universe without a purpose, a victim of his own delusional obsessions, though it’s clear both men are cut from the same cloth, Starship captains from different eras, mirror images of one another, both hell-bent on carrying out their mission, where good and evil have a common root, but produce decisively different outcomes.  In keeping with the times, the story turns into a paranoid thriller about stopping a suicide bomber, where all of humanity hinges in the balance.  Although it’s an outer space apocalyptic melodrama, the format is the same as any western, where in this continuing saga, there’s never any doubt about who’s going to win.