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A tired eXistenZ? >> David Cronenberg turns to self-parody by MATTHEW HAYS
The more optimistic can look at it this way: Cronenberg, who's both a cult phenom and an accepted mainstream commodity, has become so well known that he can now parody his own style, with a majority of the audience getting it. The more cynical among us--and this is an existential film, so I presume there are cynics who'll line up to see this--will see eXistenZ as something of a defeat: entering the realm of self-parody must mean that Cronenberg is out of ideas, now plumbing the depths of his own work rather than coming up with anything new or vibrant to offer us.
Cronenberg's films have always been laced with a wicked sense of humour, but here he seems to have turned the laugh track on. There are plenty of in-jokes, many jabs at cyber-geeks (none of whom, I suspect, will get them), and Cronenberg's trademark depictions of gross-out gore. A standout is the "gristle gun," a weapon made entirely of bone and gristle which shoots human teeth. The gun makes a squishy noise, and if you look closely at the ammo you can tell who had cavities and who didn't. Not surprisingly, eXistenZ delves into gee-is-this-reality-or-are-we-just-in-some-sort-of-game territory. Leigh and Law stumble from mishap to mishap, unsure if they've just committed murder or scored extra points. This conceptual question soon runs dry, however. Cronenberg has done it before--in fact, much of eXistenZ feels like a remake of his snuff movie riff Videodrome--which leads us to believe he doesn't intend us to read it straight. The conclusion can only be that eXistenZ is meant--from beginning to end--as self-parody, the confines of which can be felt only too heavily as the final credits roll. eXistenZ opens Friday, April 23
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Watching the latest from Canada's most successful filmmaker, eXistenZ, one can come away with two very different sentiments.
It's certainly cool to look at. Shot by Cronenberg's right-hand cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, eXistenZ's cast exist entirely in dark and hushed tones. This is a pretty bleak spot and everyone on board knows it. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Allegra, the wildly successful creator of a series of games systems (in Cronenberg's twisted universe, these systems are a cross between video games and virtual reality which plug directly into your central nervous system.) At an exclusive unveiling of her latest invention, a deranged spy whips out a gun and fires upon Allegra, wounding her. She and Jude Law (Gattaca) manage to escape, but remain on the lam for the rest of the movie, unsure of who to trust and where, exactly, reality and the game begin and end.