Also checked out a very good – but maybe not for everyone – kind of drama, dance, freakout, drama, horror movie called Climax. I missed this one when it came out earlier this year but, when I found out it was directed by Gaspar Noe, the talented film maker behind the shocking but very well made Irreversible, I knew I had to check it out. And it’s available on Amazon Prime if you have a subscription.
Climax is a hell of a weird movie that doesn’t seem to know how movies work (or does and just doesn’t care). It opens with what looks like the end credits… then spends about 8 minutes on a static shot of a tv as dancers are being interviewed for a French theater production. Then it has a seven minute amazing choreographed dance number with about thirty people doing amazing footwork. Then there’s about 20 minutes of random dialog between the actors/dancers… some of which is intelligent, dramatic, or simply pornographic. And finally there’s a title sequence at about the 50 minute mark. And then there’s another ten minutes of top-down angle shots of dancers doing solo work…
I lay all this out not to give away spoilers but just to clarify what kind of odd, experimental, often improv this movie is and it hasn’t even gotten to what it’s really “about” yet. This movie is energetic, exciting, and fun though… if you like dance, the various dance sequences are truly impressive. If you like dramatic (mostly French) dialog about life ‘n stuff, that’s pretty well done too…
And then, finally, someone realizes the punch bowl has been spiked with LCD and people start to freak the hell out. And that’s when the movie – which has been curiously interesting but not really going anywhere as far as “plot” is concerned – goes into hyperdrive freakout horrorshow mode. And, when I say horror, I mean in the sense that the characters are losing their minds and sometimes want to escape the dance hall but can’t… and the film making is so amazingly well done, you as the viewer also want to escape. But the movie is made in such a way that it keeps you in suspense… you can’t get out because they can’t get out. The camera follows different characters as they are have really bad trips, get set on fire, can’t rescue their child from a locked store room, get accused of a crime, get beaten up, or whatever. The camera is normal, then upside down, then swooping through the air, following different individual stories, and then upside down pointing at the floor in the dark and you can tell weird stuff is happening but you can’t tell what. All intentional, usually disorienting.
You are trapped in the nightmare with them and it’s super uncomfortable, awkward, and horrifying. And I was glued, wide-eyed, to every moment of it. It’s exemplary, crazy film making that isn’t for everyone, but I think everyone would have to admit that it’s well shot, if nothing else. Whether any of this awful discomfort is something you’d enjoy is up to you and probably something you already know if you want to track down by now.
So, yeah, I say check this out if anything I wrote above intrigues you. If you want to see what crazy stuff someone with real skill can do with a camera and really game actors, this is something you’ll want to check out. But if you don’t like weird experimental films and/or would not find being trapped in an LCD-infused nightmare interesting, then stay away.
Score: 82