Existenz
February 15th 2010 23:23
Existenz
on DVD/VIDEO
"The world of games is in a kind of a trance. People are programmed to accept so little, but the possibilities are so great." So says Alleghra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) at the start of David Cronenberg¹s vid game thriller. It¹s a quote that could easily be read as being about the film industry Cronenburg works in ‹ though the terminally soporific Crash (1996) was all his own fault.
This, thankfully, is a much better film, his best since Dead Ringers. Plotline? Ms Geller is the world¹s leading game designer testing her new virtual reality game with a focus group. They¹ve just slipped into their new world (complete with anthropomorphic pink pods ‹ think the Playstation controller crossed with a 'polycystic¹ liver) when a fanatical young radical
bursts in and shoots Geller with a gun made of bone (it fires teeth). Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is the marketing trainee who the company assigns as her bodyguard. They flee, but Geller¹s pod and thus the game ExistenZ is damaged. The only way to fix it is for her to enter the game, and play it with someone friendly ("Are you friendly, or are you not?" is Geller¹s motif question to Pikul)
To play the game Pikul needs a bioport ‹ a suspiciously sexual hole in the base of the spine (Today¹s class exercise: Cronenberg¹s ouvre and squirmy biological obsession ‹ discuss.) Fortunately, there¹s a rural petrol station nearby which specialises in both black-market bioports and a very effective cameo from Willam Dafoe.
It¹s from here that, depending on how well you¹ve been paying attention, things get either weird or weirder. Spectacular mutant amphibians, strange Chinese restaurants, a beautifully odd performance from Twitch City¹s Don McKellar as an OTT Eastern European counter agent and some brief though effective work from Ian Holm also feature.
Jason Leigh and Law carry the film, and both are very effective in a rather down-played and realist style. With Jason Leigh it¹s perhaps relief ‹ she escaped from Eyes Wide Shut to do this (not only a good actor, but smart too).
While the idea of virtual reality being piped directly into the subjects nervous system isn¹t completely new, Cronenburg uses it to satisfyingly gory and visceral effect. The game pods themselves are organic ‹ 'grown from fertilized amphibian eggs stuffed with synthetic DNA¹ as Holm helpfully explains.
If you guessed that this is a work overtly concerned with reality and its discontents you get a gold star (or perhaps a fleshy two-headed pink star which pulsates occasionally to itself). Cultural commodification, the desire for escape, the uselessness of resisting the culturally dominant and man/machine interface are all addressed. "I¹m not sure here, where we are,
is real at all. Everything feels like a game to me. And you¹re starting to feel like a game character," says Pikul. Geller responds "Absolutely not!" and kisses him . . . but their virtual Œin the game¹ characters have already had a (very funny) almost bonk scene, so what¹s a bit of lip prove about deformed reality?
Cronenberg¹s humour is often easy to miss (for example: there¹s a game within the game called 'Hit By A Car¹ ‹ Crash in a single shot), yet there¹s some deliciously dry moments of comedy in this film. Repeated viewings are recommended, because there are subtle details you will may miss first go. This DVD comes with no extras at all (the trailer ‹ woo hoo!), but the film is more than enough. As Dafoe¹s character says: "I like your script. I want to be in it".
For attentive viewers, Cronenberg probably does give the main plot line away ‹ unless you think in the real world a rural petrol station would be prominently labelled as 'Country Gas Station¹. Yet the ending still works and this Œfilm as game¹ is a rewarding, excruciatingly physical, carefully intelligent and entertaining late night ride.
REVIEW by Stephen Dunne
on DVD/VIDEO
"The world of games is in a kind of a trance. People are programmed to accept so little, but the possibilities are so great." So says Alleghra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) at the start of David Cronenberg¹s vid game thriller. It¹s a quote that could easily be read as being about the film industry Cronenburg works in ‹ though the terminally soporific Crash (1996) was all his own fault.
This, thankfully, is a much better film, his best since Dead Ringers. Plotline? Ms Geller is the world¹s leading game designer testing her new virtual reality game with a focus group. They¹ve just slipped into their new world (complete with anthropomorphic pink pods ‹ think the Playstation controller crossed with a 'polycystic¹ liver) when a fanatical young radical
bursts in and shoots Geller with a gun made of bone (it fires teeth). Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is the marketing trainee who the company assigns as her bodyguard. They flee, but Geller¹s pod and thus the game ExistenZ is damaged. The only way to fix it is for her to enter the game, and play it with someone friendly ("Are you friendly, or are you not?" is Geller¹s motif question to Pikul)
To play the game Pikul needs a bioport ‹ a suspiciously sexual hole in the base of the spine (Today¹s class exercise: Cronenberg¹s ouvre and squirmy biological obsession ‹ discuss.) Fortunately, there¹s a rural petrol station nearby which specialises in both black-market bioports and a very effective cameo from Willam Dafoe.
It¹s from here that, depending on how well you¹ve been paying attention, things get either weird or weirder. Spectacular mutant amphibians, strange Chinese restaurants, a beautifully odd performance from Twitch City¹s Don McKellar as an OTT Eastern European counter agent and some brief though effective work from Ian Holm also feature.
Jason Leigh and Law carry the film, and both are very effective in a rather down-played and realist style. With Jason Leigh it¹s perhaps relief ‹ she escaped from Eyes Wide Shut to do this (not only a good actor, but smart too).
While the idea of virtual reality being piped directly into the subjects nervous system isn¹t completely new, Cronenburg uses it to satisfyingly gory and visceral effect. The game pods themselves are organic ‹ 'grown from fertilized amphibian eggs stuffed with synthetic DNA¹ as Holm helpfully explains.
If you guessed that this is a work overtly concerned with reality and its discontents you get a gold star (or perhaps a fleshy two-headed pink star which pulsates occasionally to itself). Cultural commodification, the desire for escape, the uselessness of resisting the culturally dominant and man/machine interface are all addressed. "I¹m not sure here, where we are,
is real at all. Everything feels like a game to me. And you¹re starting to feel like a game character," says Pikul. Geller responds "Absolutely not!" and kisses him . . . but their virtual Œin the game¹ characters have already had a (very funny) almost bonk scene, so what¹s a bit of lip prove about deformed reality?
Cronenberg¹s humour is often easy to miss (for example: there¹s a game within the game called 'Hit By A Car¹ ‹ Crash in a single shot), yet there¹s some deliciously dry moments of comedy in this film. Repeated viewings are recommended, because there are subtle details you will may miss first go. This DVD comes with no extras at all (the trailer ‹ woo hoo!), but the film is more than enough. As Dafoe¹s character says: "I like your script. I want to be in it".
For attentive viewers, Cronenberg probably does give the main plot line away ‹ unless you think in the real world a rural petrol station would be prominently labelled as 'Country Gas Station¹. Yet the ending still works and this Œfilm as game¹ is a rewarding, excruciatingly physical, carefully intelligent and entertaining late night ride.
REVIEW by Stephen Dunne
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Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I've been wanting to review this for a while as I'm a HUGE Cronenberg fan ... but I'm waiting for a decent DVD release with a few extras ...