Cronenberg (pt. IV)

eXistenZ

Maps to the Stars

Well, reader, we have officially survived awards season. And just like every year and every cycle of movies, there are already new projects being touted as Oscar-worthy. But I’m so over all of the awards discourse, and while I love Brendan Fraser, I cannot wait to never hear about that atrocious movie The Whale ever again. The fact that this film was even nominated is horrendous, but The Whale winning best makeup—aka best fat suit—at the Oscars is quite simply: gross! Gross because fat suits are an outdated tool for filmmakers and non creative creators, gross because there are actual fat people out in the world who could take on fat roles—even Christian Bale has gained and lost weight for movies so it can be done. And it’s gross because when I think about the marvels of modern prosthetics and special effects, I do not think about fat suits. I think about the movie magic and stunning innovations of the visual effects form that come from an artist like David Cronenberg. Yes, it’s already time again for another Cronenberg night, dear readers, not just because this Canadian Pisces king celebrated his birthday yesterday, but because diving into more of his twisted filmography seems like the perfect remedy for my post-awards season malaise. This is now the fourth Cronenberg night of Double Feature Thursday, and these are the 8th and 9th films of his to appear on this blog. The films I’ve chosen to watch this evening represent a balanced diet of his directorial efforts: a body horror and a drama. While I love many aspects of Cronenberg’s filmography, I’m just obsessed with the fact that he can create engrossing and ingenious horror films just as easily as he can make gripping and unpredictably tangible dramas. I’m fascinated by his ability to intertwine the real and the surreal, his way of taking a cerebral premise and making it seem terrifyingly plausible, and how, quite simply, he can find the horror in just about anything. I began with perhaps his most polarizing and challenging-to-describe of his resume (which is saying something), a film from 1999 called eXistenZ. eXistenZ follows a brilliant video game designer named Allegra Gellar (Jennifer Jason Leigh)(sounds like Jewish allergy medication to me), who, at an unveiling of her latest gaming system, is the victim of an assassination attempt. Allegra works for a gaming company called Antenna, and there is a rival company called Cortical Systematics, but the real threat appears to be a group of obsessive video game fans called the Realists that seek to put an end to both companies to prevent the “deforming” of reality. After she’s shot, Allegra is rushed out of the building by Ted Pikul (Jude Law), who works in the marketing department at Antenna, but has no knowledge of or experience playing games. Allegra explains to Ted what’s happened, and fills in the gaps of this instantly-confusing narrative. See, in this near-future, electronic gaming has been replaced by biotechnological virtual reality gaming consoles that look like fleshy blobs of skin with joysticks buried underneath. This organic, gooey design is unmistakably Cronenbergian, and it is the least disgusting prop or set piece in this movie. Allegra tells Ted that they have to get to a safe place so that she can go into the game and make sure that the game itself has not been damaged by the Realists, but she needs his help. Together, they enter the world of eXistenZ, they uncover the mystery of Allegra’s assassination attempt, and Ted becomes a much better gamer in the process—though his American accent at this point was far from perfect. That was the easiest way for me to describe this film’s plot, but I assure you, watching eXistenZ provides a different set of sensations than just reading about it will allow. Like every Cronenberg film I’ve ever seen, eXistenZ was unfathomably ahead of its time. These conversations surrounding virtual reality, and our dependence upon technology that we only understand the consequences of after damage has already been done, were not only salient but prescient as well. While this is certainly an aspect, eXistenZ is not wholly concerned with the violence of video games, but rather the swift detachment of reality we feel when fully immersed into a virtual world. eXistenZ explores the horrifying sensation of losing yourself, of questioning your reality and your very existence. By creating these gaming consoles and wires that looks like human organs, with umbilical cords that plug directly into one’s spine, Cronenberg has effectively metaphorized the idea that we can become so absorbed into false realities that we lose ourselves and what makes us human. Even though this is far from my favorite Cronenberg movie (still beats my least fav, The Dead Zone), you can’t hate this movie for its cast, alone—Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, former Doctor Christopher Eccleston, Ian Holm, and Oscar Winner Sarah Polley. Cronenberg, as usual, has created a grotesque version of our world within eXistenZ, one that will have you questioning your own reality by the time the credits roll. It’s a bit heavy-handed with its symbolism at times, and a bit weak in its execution of some of its loftier ideas, but I could never hate eXistenZ—because its Cronenberg through and through, and because my former horrible boss told me it was the worst movie he’s ever seen and that just makes me like it all the more. It’s an interesting meditation on free will and human frivolity, how swiftly we can make life-altering decisions and how the consequences of these decisions may present themselves in odd ways. These themes were carried right over into the next Cronenberg film that I watched: a deliciously dark meta-dramadey set in Hollywood called Maps to the Stars. I became interested in this 2014 film when I heard comedian John Early sing it’s praises in more than one interview/podcast appearance. When someone I admire recommends a movie, I tend to watch them, especially when they’re films made by the weirdo of the evening—and I’m happy to say that I was not let down. Maps to the Stars follows several members of the Hollywood machine, who are all connected by the same agent, but different traumas. While I thought the cast of eXistenZ was excellent, I was positively blown away by the cast of Maps to the Stars. This film follows Havana Segrand (Julianne Moore—in an Oscar-worthy performance) a deeply troubled, once-shining actress who is mourning the loss of a role she didn’t get, then there’s the young and troubled child star Benjie Weiss (Evan Bird) who’s at risk of losing his starring role in a successful franchise due to a drug addiction, his parents Dr. Stafford Weiss (John Cusack) and Christina Weiss (Olivia Williams) who are harboring dark secrets, Jerome Fontana (Robert Pattinson—doing a perfect [and SEXY] American accent, no offense Jude Law) a chauffeur who wishes to be an actor but for now is forced to listen to the ramblings of every star he has to drive around. On one fateful day, Jerome picks up a strange girl named Agatha from the airport (Mia Wasikowska), whose entry into Hollywood is sure to shake up everyone’s lives. I unfortunately cannot go into great detail about the bizarre and shocking hijinks that unfold in this film, for it would spoil all of the fun. But I can say that this film, while far from body horror or science fiction, is undeniably a Cronenberg film. It is just as surreal and, at times, just as hard to follow as any of his other films. It maintains the same sense of absurdity and acceptance of morbidity that is present in all of his films, but Maps to the Stars implements a dark sense of humor that is far more obvious than his films usually present. Every fake actor name, every real actor name, every eschewment of purity or decency was just so brazen and hilarious. As fatalistic as this movie is, it feels like Cronenberg was genuinely having a good time satirizing the persistently wicked nature of Hollywood. It’s the kind of funny and fucked up movie that will make you question why you’re laughing, but it also just further underscores the historically predatory, toxic, and deadly qualities of the film industry—which is always worth exploring. You could really use any scene from Maps to the Stars as an example of this film’s clear disdain for Hollywood, but one moment that really encapsulates this takes place when Benjie and some fellow child stars are at a big party discussing their careers and everyone else’s. These characters are all under 16, and yet they have a firm understanding of the currency of youth, how quickly you age in the film industry, and how you can get through it all with the right drugs. It’s a jarringly adult conversation for a bunch of children to be having, and yet it feels entirely correct and possible. It feels correct that Benjie would tell a little fangirl of his that his movie made 750 million dollars worldwide as she’s dying in a hospital bed. It makes sense that John Cusack would play an all-seeing but egocentric spiritual reiki healer, and that Julianne Moore would be his client as she mourns the loss of playing the role of her dead mother in a movie. It’s all very morbid and depressing and made appallingly normal in this film. I’m certain that these disturbing conversations take place still, to this day, and to see them occur in such hyper-surrealistic, only-somewhat-exaggerated ways felt dizzying but accurate. Cronenberg is an expertly disturbing auteur—one who has a clear grip on his own reality as he messes with everyone else’s. For this critic, at least, he is always successful with whatever he is critiquing, analyzing, exaggerating, or revealing. While there are plenty of freaky filmmakers attempting to tell similar stories, Cronenberg is unpretentious in his storytelling, and wildly imaginative in exploration of humanity. But no matter how outrageous the premise, there is a steady, beating heart of truth at the core of all his films—one that is often more revealing of our real world than of the one he’s created. I can’t entirely explain why out of all of the surrealistic, horror-imbued films out there, Cronenberg’s just do it for me, but I can tell you that his films have only opened my mind and expanded my threshold for terror—which, as a somewhat jaded horror fan who’s seen it all, is more than welcome. If you’re looking for a mid-mind fuck, eXistenZ might just surprise you. And Maps to the Stars may be the perfect movie to watch when you’re in a weird mood, I’ve learned from experience. Thanks for reading along this week, friends. Stay cool, stay kooky, and long live Cronenberg.