CRIMES OF THE FUTURE
(May 2022)
BODY IS REALITY
The senior Cronenberg is back ‘round these parts
with Crimes of the Future.
No, not his second, hour-long feature from 1970,
but an all-new film that feels like a thematic extension to some of his previous
works like Videodrome and eXistenZ. (Little wonder, that, since
the screenplay was originally written over two decades ago.)
“‘Human’ is
the operative word. Human evolution is the concern. That it's going wrong. That
it's... uncontrolled, it's... insurrectional. It might lead us to a bad place.”
We find ourselves in an indeterminate point in the
near-future, when the human body has begun to spontaneously grow new organs of equally
indeterminate function (so-called “neo-organs”), and thus, bear witness to the
violent (and virulent) collision of biological evolution, art, society, politics,
pollution, and revolution.
“The creation
of inner beauty cannot be an accident.”
With a haunting sonic backdrop by frequent
collaborator Howard Shore, the senior Cronenberg once again drops us into an
unsettling, disorienting reality, a world where the most mundane of activities
like sleeping or eating become disturbing visions of the human body juxtaposed
with pieces of shuddery, nightmare furniture.
“An organism
needs organization. Otherwise, it's just designer cancer.”
So, yes, if it sounds like old school Cronenberg is
back, then you heard right.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Eastern Promises, and as he himself has asserted, he sees no
difference whatsoever between that kind of film and this new Crimes.
In his personal assessment, there is no such thing
as “body horror.”
But what there is, is that very Cronenberg
obsession with carnal transfiguration, the (r)evolution of the human body, and
the impact that has on the world outside of all that shuddering skin and mutating
meat.
“Long live the New Flesh,” indeed.
“We understand
human bodies are changing. I know this quite well.”
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(Crimes of
the Future key art courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)
