David Cronenberg's Crimes Of The Future

[Dark Horse 77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dark Horse 77]

Just when being a Cronenberg fan couldn't seem to get better...another film in the pipeline!

https://variety.com/2022/film/market...hWzBy2O0xcJJRE

[Jack J Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jack J]

Awesome info, Dark Horse 77!

New Cronenberg interview:
https://deadline.com/2022/05/david-c...3dc2aa15e0a91f

[Dark Horse 77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dark Horse 77]

Awesome info, Dark Horse 77!

New Cronenberg interview:
https://deadline.com/2022/05/david-c...3dc2aa15e0a91f

Glad to spread the news to other Cronenberg nuts! I find it quite exciting that not only does he have a new movie ready to be released but that it's his screenplay and he's gone back to his roots (from what I've read) to 'body horror' which was always my favorite phase of his career. Now, to have another one on the way more than likely...it's like being spoiled after such a long period between films and not even knowing if he would make one (let alone two!) new film.

[ShawnP5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ShawnP5]

I'm seeing it tonight - very much looking forward to it!

[ShawnP5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ShawnP5]

So... trying to be as spoiler free as possible-
body horror not withstanding, the film is kind of messy. They introduced needless subplots that they never really followed up on, and half the time you're finding yourself thinking "wait. What?"

but I still liked it.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Bummer. I know circa Videodrome he said he used to cut his films to the bone forgetting that the audience hasn't read the script. Hopefully there's enough weird imagery to keep it fun.

[ShawnP5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ShawnP5]

Bummer. I know circa Videodrome he said he used to cut his films to the bone forgetting that the audience hasn't read the script. Hopefully there's enough weird imagery to keep it fun.

I saw it twice in under 13 hours and liked quite a bit about it (it has weird parallels to my own life, which is always/never something one wants to be true about a Cronenberg movie) and loved the parts I loved, if that makes sense.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Dave is channeling Dame Edna...

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

This opens wide in Canada next week. So great, I thought I was going to have to travel to see it.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

Saw it last night. I was really impressed and can't wait to see it again. It's beautifully shot and Howard Shore's score is exquisite. Lots of gross moments but one scene in particular is absolutely disgusting - it's brilliant.

[Dick Ringeisen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dick Ringeisen]

I saw this recently, and, I thought it was alright. It's a Cronenberg film though not on the same level as his earlier stuff, of course. I found the movie a bit more interesting during the first portion of the film, than the later portion. The last 1/4 of the film I found myself holding back a bit from checking my watch for the time.

Best I can say about the film is, it was alright.

After watching it though, upon leaving the theatre, i did think back to 2 other, "Oddball" films I'd seen somewhat recently in a movie theatre, and that I'd have to give them both the edge over Crimes of the Future. Titane and Possessor. Possessor, I do have to give it a bit of an edge over Crimes of the Future. So, I hope Cronenberg's son keeps improving since he does seem capable. Possessor has it's faults, but when comparing it to Crimes of the Future, i think I'd get more out of watching Possessor again than Crimes of the Future.

[JoeS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoeS]

“Surgery is the new sex” a character intones in David Cronenberg's return to his early “body horror” era films. In this dark dank dystopian world, we find Saul (Viggo Mortensen) and Caprice (Lea Seydoux) who are performance artists. Their canvas is Saul's body - more specifically, the insides of his corpus which has begun to grow new organs. Caprice surgically opens his cavity and thrill-seekers gawk and take pictures and videos. In this unspecified future, there are also an assortment of various other distorted body models, experimenters and even governmental agencies. The technology is a mishmash of forward looking cutting edge and retro. The couple's videos are projected on old CRT TVs and the audience sports everything from futuristic ring devices to retro instamatic cameras and video cameras.


CRIMES OF THE FUTURE acts almost like a greatest hits of Cronenberg's formative work with his continuing fascination of how biology and technology both intersect and effect one another. Here too, is the filmmakers fascination with deviant sexuality, perhaps never more seen than in his CRASH which was also set in a vague murky future. Here, the obsession with car accidents is replaced with one for distorting the human form. There's even a new police unit called “New Vice” to investigate this underworld (if that isn't the ultimate self-tribute to Cronenberg's world view!).

Unlike his finest work, CRIMES doesn't have a truly compelling narrative. Saul and Caprice are glum protagonists. A few of the secondary characters display a bit more zeal, but, it's almost always from a subdued perspective. With all the new sexual thrills out there, they seem awfully repressed. The cop (Welket Bungue) does a decent job, but, nobody goes to a Cronenberg shocker to see a procedural. More crucially, the screenplay's contradictions and muddled thoughts hamper Mortensen's performance in particular. He delivers in certain scenes, but, one never really empathizes with his character. It's quite obvious early on what is going on within Saul, but he seems to be the last one to realize it. Seydoux handles the choppy script well, and there are standout supporting performances by Scott Speedman as the father of a child of the new order, and Kristen Stewart as a bureaucrat who gets truly turned on by her work. Howard Shore's score and Douglas Koch's cinematography set the mood.

Where the movie partially succeeds is in its themes. The title is no accident as it echoes that of his second short feature from 1970 (it's all of 63 minutes). That version of CRIMES (and it's companion film, 1969's STEREO) certainly set the template for his early career; and there are elements from of all those formative, pre-”mainstream” works. VIDEODROME's “The new flesh” has become “The new internal organs” here. In this Cronenberg vision, even a simple kiss is now considered some gross outrageous perversion. Beauty is now truly on the inside.

[Dick Ringeisen Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dick Ringeisen]

Crimes of the Future, there is a silly scene in the film, where people go to see this performance artist with ears all over his body. Someone that Viggo meets, she makes a comment about how it's so silly considering he just sewed the ears onto himself, not like they're actually functional with hearing or anything. That's about how I felt with Crimes of the Future. A plot that could have been fleshed out a bit more, dragged a bit too much, and I would have preferred more to the story. The entirety of the current film could have been condensed into 45-60 minutes, and then had the story followed upon even further. For all that went on, for it to end where it did, thinking about it later, I just feel like, holy shit, 1 hour and 45 minutes just to get to that. It's not a bad film, but, it needed a bit more work. Towards the last 1/4 of the film, I just wanted to check my watch to see how much more I'd have to sit through.

Also, I did like the bit about the, "Inner Beauty Pageant", too bad it was never shown. That was a damn good Tales from the Crypt episode about, "Inner Beauty". Crimes of the Future also made me realize I need to revisit some Tales from the Crypt episodes sometime soon. I wonder if David Cronenberg had been thinking of that episode of Tales from the Crypt when writing those bits of dialogue about an, "Inner Beauty Pageant"...

Possessor, that had a lot more going on. I'd be curious to see father and son work on a film together. Crimes of the Future did make me more appreciate Possessor, and see that it may be time for the son to take over the family business, so to say.

Looking at What David has in the works coming up, "The Shrouds", that sounds more interesting to me than Crimes of the Future. A film about a person who creates a device to communicate with the dead, from a Cronenberg? Well, sure, I'll give that a viewing.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

Also, I did like the bit about the, "Inner Beauty Pageant", too bad it was never shown. That was a damn good Tales from the Crypt episode about, "Inner Beauty". Crimes of the Future also made me realize I need to revisit some Tales from the Crypt episodes sometime soon. I wonder if David Cronenberg had been thinking of that episode of Tales from the Crypt when writing those bits of dialogue about an, "Inner Beauty Pageant"...

Haha, I never thought of that: "It's what's inside that counts!"

[null Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close null]

I saw this opening day, and have been chewing on it for a couple days in the hope of finding something that would improve the initial impression. Nope. Lesser Cronenberg. Worth seeing, even if just to support things like this still getting made (and getting theatrical distribution!) but, as Dick said, this needed more time in the proverbial oven. It feels incomplete in an unsatisfying way.

And I wholeheartedly support/want a collab between father and son. Perhaps Brandon adapting "Consumed"?