The Neon Demon (2016)

Director (and co-writer): Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Karl Glusman, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Desmond Harrington

An aspiring model, Jesse, is new to Los Angeles. However, her beauty and youth, which generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry, may prove themselves sinister. – IMDB

Its been a long while since I’ve seen a Nicolas Winding Refn film. The first (and last one) being Drive back before I was reviewing movies on this blog. Heading back into his world, the only thing I expected was a neon saturated and visually stunning film from Neon Demon as I headed into this knowing absolutely nothing about what it was about other than I like the poster and really enjoyed Elle Fanning in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere. The Neon Demon hit the two elements I expected from it and even exceeded my expectations as this film truly is a mesmerizing and stunning visual experience even if I spent most of the film confused with what the end game was going to be with everything going on.

Cinematography is a great place to start when we look at The Neon Demon. Its a film that starts off with one of the darkest but stunning shots with Elle Fanning’s character Jesse lying covered in “blood” motionless on a sofa. The contrast of the colors and the whole set up of the shot is such a mesmerizing way to start the film. As the film moves on, the outfits and the lighting of the film capture the spiral of Jesse as she dives further into the model world and starts diving into her own narcissistic nature. There’s so much art to the how light is used in each shot from flashing lights that amplify the moments between everybody at the start to the mind-boggling scene that defined Jesse’s narcissism on her catwalk, the film is a feast for the eyes.

The narrative of The Neon Demon is almost like a character study of Jesse, a young model who finds herself as others appreciate her natural youthful beauty in the model world and quickly get taken over by her own narcissism. The film takes a little magnifying glass into the world of models and the perception of beauty. While I think its just my lack of depth into this world that stops me from understanding the film more but The Neon Demon’s biggest flaw probably is its plot which takes a lot of interesting moments in Jesse’s life and leaves a lot of space to wonder where its going and what its intentions are. With all that was going on, the biggest mystery was where the whole film was going and how it would end. The ending though, as a whole, is a big shocker which dials up the surreal horror element quite a bit and has probably an equally nauseating scene compared to Raw.

The cast is pretty small here with Elle Fanning being the main focus and she does a fantastic job capturing the aspiring model Jesse. Her expressions and build in confidence and those little movements that define her character are done impressively. However, after watching a bunch of Hunger Games films and Jena Malone, she is one of the shining points in The Neon Demon right from the start when Ruby enters that first scene. Ruby is such a mysterious character and even when the film ends, there are still so many questions about her that are unanswered which normally would be considered a lack of development but somehow it adds to the mystique.

I’ve watched many surreal horrors during my festival covering days pre-pandemic so I’m not completely unfamiliar with how weird it can get. The Neon Demon is probably one of the most visually stunning films I’ve seen in a while and the film has such an unexpected and shocking twisted ending. In general, the final act was odd and crazy in a good way however, there was a good chunk in the middle which just lacked a lot of engagement and took some turns that left this film feeling a little underdeveloped to head into that final act. With that said, The Neon Demon has made me realize the underrated actress that is Jena Malone and I’m going to seek out more of her films this year.