[yasr_overall_rating]
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
“If you aren’t born beautiful, you never will be,” says Alessandro Nivola’s meta character Robert Sarno, as he attempts to deconstruct Karl Glusman’s overly-naïve character, Dean. Dean’s rebuttal is one that is old as time, and boils down to, beauty comes from within. He says this with disgust as he feels the lies drip from his mouth because both he and Robert know the truth, which also happens to be the overarching theme in the film, beauty is everything, beauty is the only thing. Beauty is the world’s most sought after currency.
This is “The Neon Demon” from start to finish and it is done well. This film is like a candy-coated vanity mirror, complete with a sprawling metropolis that shines and gleams from the outside but within, the darkness lays in wait, ready to devour what it needs and now the city has a new target, Elle Fanning’s Jesse. She arrives in Los Angeles ready to move through the ranks of the modeling industry, and move she does but her starting point and ending point both mimic and differ from each other greatly. We first see her with Dean, laying on a couch, bloody and lifeless as he photographs her. Once the photoshoot ends she goes back to her dingy motel room filled with cans of soda, boxes of cereal, and second-hand outfits. The motel is the only place that isn’t coated with neon, it’s the only place of innocence left within the world Refn created until halfway through the movie. Jesse has no family, she has no job, she has no experience but she does beauty and she knows this. She even says it to Dean, “I am beautiful and I can make money with that.”
Even with no experience Jesse blazes through the industry. She signs with an agency, shoots with a world renowned photographer and lands a high profile position at a high profile fashion show. Jesse has made it and with that she realizes that this industry is out to devour her both literally and figuratively. Whether it be the models or her friend with false intent, Ruby. She finds that everyone has a hunger and the only way it can be satiated is with the envelopment of her.
It isn’t by accident that you would go into “The Neon Demon” looking for the theme to be masked or locked away behind all the wild colors and egos but the film’s message is always in plain sight and it never goes dark. There should be a hats-off moment to Natasha Braier, the cinematographer behind the madness because she makes the world come to life with such elegance and beauty. This film requires patience but, if you can make it, Refn rewards you with irony and tension that is unmatched in film.
This is not a film for everyone and many will seek the exit sign before it’s point has been made but nonetheless, it is an intriguing watch.
In theaters Friday, June 24th
