The Neon Demon

Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon is an artistic and daring film. The story follows young model Jesse (Elle Fanning), a newcomer who rises to success on the wings of her natural conventional beauty, gaining the admiration of makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) and the competitive distain of models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee), as her mind is affected by those who control her identity. It is a story vanity and envy and portrays the modeling industry as a fickle and mean entity. The film contains explicit nudity and flashing images.

The premise is similar to that of other psychological thrillers or horrors like Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (1997) or Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), where a woman falls into insanity while following a certain performing art, such as singing, acting, ballet, and in this case modeling. One can compare the themes of these films, such as how the female protagonist is made to exploit or allow others to exploit her sexuality in order to succeed. The Neon Demon is not so much about how the protagonist is plagued and horrified by her hallucinations so much as her mind and possibly soul is corrupted by the shallow and biased attitudes of the industry. The film puts heavy emphasis on themes regarding societal conventions of beauty.

A lot of influence is taken from Stanley Kubrick’s work, particularly A Clockwork Orange (1971). The slow electronic music is very similar, the use of neon lights in some of the sets is quite familiar to Kubrick’s imagining of a cyberpunk world, if more often exaggerated, and the background of the opening titles are made in a way that somewhat resembles the end credits from A Clockwork Orange.

The cinematography is excellent, and the editing helps create an uncomfortable tone with suspenseful scenes throughout. The visuals are stylistic, often using neon lights or bright lighting with darkened backgrounds to create contrast, occasionally with the use of flashing lens flares, and otherwise slightly low colour saturation on less glamorous environments. Makeup is noticeably good – not only the specialist makeup on modeling characters, but also the more subtle uses of makeup on others, like Ruby for example, giving the looks of people who mostly care about their, well, looks.

The performances are also quite good, from Elle Fanning as the timid and minimalistic Jesse and Jena Malone’s portrayal of Ruby’s sexuality, to Heathcote and Lee’s conveyance of Gigi and Sarah as experienced but struggling models overshadowed and reaching their breaking points. Karl Glusman plays Jesse’s boyfriend Dean, a sentimentalist whose ideals are considered naïve by the industry Jesse becomes a part of. Keanu Reeves plays as the motel manager Hank, who is truly written as contemptible through relentless rudeness. One should take note of the characters Roberta (Christina Hendricks), the piece-of-work agent who promises Jesse fame, Desmond Harrington as the photographer Jack, who gives a creepily stone-faced performance with a seriously uncomfortable feel to it, and Alessandro Nivola as the Fashion Designer, a sociopath with particular ideas of beauty and a slightly sophisticated demeanor. The three are central to the manipulation of Jesse and the progression of her corruption.

Upon a basic dissection the film, one may come to the conclusion that it is symbolic of how the modeling industry consumes the innocent, but there is much more to analyse. As one other such example, the glowing symbol of the three triangles creating the impression of a fourth, as seen the hallucinogenic runway sequence, could symbolise Ruby, Gigi and Sarah (or perhaps more accurately Roberta, Jack and the Fashion Designer) shaping and surrounding Jesse’s identity. One may argue that the behavior of certain characters towards the end defies emotional realism when compared to the first and second acts, though this is excusable as the film is supposed to be surrealist piece as there are a few scenes in the first and second acts that meet this intention.

In the opinion expressed in this review, The Neon Demon is one of the best fictional films of the year thus far, not least for its visually interesting and artistic edge, clever storytelling (including great uses of foreshadowing), and gorgeous cinematography and editing. The parts are performed well and characters are functional to the story and its underlying message, though the surreal elements of the third act could arguably be considered abrupt. Refn draws influence from quality cinema, and it shows. It is a thought-provoking film with a plot and symbolism begging to be dissected – definitely worth viewership for those interested in cinema.