Crimes of the Future
David Cronenberg is back in his element with a futuristic world of neo-organs and performance-art surgery.
Doctor’s orders: Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux
Fifty-two years after David Cronenberg’s 1970 low-budget offering Crimes of the Future, inspired by a never-written-but-alluded-to poem in a 1960s Danish movie, he’s back with a reworking of both the film’s core idea – that society changes in line with technology – and its title. It’s worth knowing this upfront, and the new film’s pertinent central question about how humans might be evolving to deal with – and survive – the industrial mess we’ve created, because in typical Cronenberg style we’re challenged with all manner of thought-provoking distractions along the way. There’s a whole lot of weirdness, much getting sexy-about-wounds that echoes Crash (1996), and brooding performances that at times try the patience. Not to mention the predictable gore.
That said, you can’t fault Cronenberg-stalwart Viggo Mortensen’s commitment as Saul, who’s struggling with a body that perpetually grows new organs all whilst having to eat with a big spoon in a grotesque living chair. This apparently aids his failing digestion, but appears to render him as dextrous as a dining toddler. Meanwhile, Lea Seydoux’s ever-sensual presence distils Saul’s art-partner/lover Caprice, and her performance-art surgery, with a bewitching passion that might seem excessive coming from another. A bit tedious however to see her once again romantically paired with a man significantly her senior. Kristen Stewart similarly captivates as an intriguingly jumpy administrator at the National Organ Registry that operates in a curious ghost world, and whose fellow employee Wippet is organising a new “Inner Beauty Pageant” to showcase the ‘neo-organs’ of Saul and his ilk.
Black humour aside, it’s a clever reimagining of the historic performance of surgery – recalling its lingering origins and how we still refer to the ‘operating theatre’ today. In this dystopian future, however, pain is no more and surgery has become both art and ‘the new sex’. Of course it has: this is Cronenberg body-horror, so gratuitous nudity and bizarre eroticism must always be inserted wherever possible. Old dogs, I guess. Still, there’s perhaps little here to upset those familiar with the director’s predilections. And whilst the environmental messaging might feel rather unsubtle, if anyone might succeed in shocking us into changing our ways before we must indeed unappealingly evolve in line with our industrial detritus, it is Cronenberg.
WENDY LLOYD
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Don McKellar, Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Lihi Kornowsk, Yorgos Karamihos, Yorgos Pirpassopoulos, Nadia Litz.
Dir David Cronenberg, Pro Robert Lantos and Steve Solomos, Screenplay David Cronenberg, Ph Douglas Koch, Pro Des Carol Spier, Ed Christopher Donaldson, Music Howard Shore, Costumes Mayou Trikerioti, Sound Rob Bertola and Tom Bjelic.
Argonauts Productions S.A./Serendipity Point Films/Davis Films/Telefilm Canada/Ingenious/Bell Media/CBC/Ekome/Natixis Coficiné-Vertigo Releasing.
107 mins. Canada/UK/Greece. 2022. US Rel: 3 June 2022. UK Rel: 9 September 2022. Cert. 18.