Enter the Void. Directed by Gaspar Noè, 2009.
Let's cut to the chase: Enter the Void, the latest movie from the enfant-terrible Gaspar Noè (Irreversible) is, visually, like nothing you've seen before. A mental trip through the skies of a very much hell-like Tokyo, the film has no noticeable cuts but many visual effects to masquerade them, as we see exactly what Oscar (newcomer Nathaniel Brown) sees in his way to the afterlife. Or something like that. As Noè himself has said, it is not necessarily innovative, but he takes a familiar element and manages to make it 'new' (as a perfect example, point-of-view (POV) films, while uncommon, are not new, but here the point of view is that of a soul, so the camera always floats around).
Oscar lives in Tokyo with his sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). It seems that they cannot live without each other. When they were kids, they lost their parents in a car accident. They got separated and now they are, finally, together again. But Oscar has found his way into becoming a drug-dealer, and he... well, he 'pays the consequences'. This is a mere pretext (or should I say a Mac-Guffin) for Noè to rumiate about love, life, death, brotherhood, sex, loneliness, reencarnation, afterlife... you name it. That's one of the main problems of Enter the Void: it wants to say so much that it ends being exhasperating. And a bit ridiculous (we see a man and a woman having sex, the camera enters her belly, then her vagina and... yes, we see his penis entering her vagina). That's not to say that Noè doesn't get some things right: the fixation he has for the neon lights is, to say the least, fascinating, and the relationship between Oscar and Linda is really complex and fucked up. This is the highlight of Enter the Void: it creates two interesting characters and, since we go through all of Oscar's life, we really get to know and understand them. The film's best sequences are precisely those of their childhood (that car accident is freaking shocking) and it really help that de la Huerta plays her character very naturally and convincing enough (we really never see Oscar, except for one or two times, always in a mirror, so there isn't much to say about Brown's performance).
Unfortunately, the movie spends too much time dealing with more esoteric themes. Although that is not necessarily bad, Noè thinks he has all the answers and the film becomes didactic, especially in the scenes dealing with the afterlife. Noè has expressed his admiration for Kubrick's 2001, and this is pretty tangible here, but, where Kubrick throws questions, Noè provides answers and not only that, but he also seems to think that his answer is THE answer. Therefore, the movie succeeds emotionally but not intelectually: it doesn't let you think at all, it has an answer and it wants you to believe it. When a film expends so much time trying to stimulate you intelectually, this is a problem.
Finally, while I have mixed feelings for Enter the Void, I urge you to see this film. I cannot assure you will like it, but here's a film that's trying to do something new and to do it right. I believe that's always worthy of appraisal, even if it is not completely successful. Only a warning: the film can be very strong and it's not for weak stomachs (but, don't worry: there's nothing here that can compare with the infamous rape-scene from Irreversible).
Oscar lives in Tokyo with his sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). It seems that they cannot live without each other. When they were kids, they lost their parents in a car accident. They got separated and now they are, finally, together again. But Oscar has found his way into becoming a drug-dealer, and he... well, he 'pays the consequences'. This is a mere pretext (or should I say a Mac-Guffin) for Noè to rumiate about love, life, death, brotherhood, sex, loneliness, reencarnation, afterlife... you name it. That's one of the main problems of Enter the Void: it wants to say so much that it ends being exhasperating. And a bit ridiculous (we see a man and a woman having sex, the camera enters her belly, then her vagina and... yes, we see his penis entering her vagina). That's not to say that Noè doesn't get some things right: the fixation he has for the neon lights is, to say the least, fascinating, and the relationship between Oscar and Linda is really complex and fucked up. This is the highlight of Enter the Void: it creates two interesting characters and, since we go through all of Oscar's life, we really get to know and understand them. The film's best sequences are precisely those of their childhood (that car accident is freaking shocking) and it really help that de la Huerta plays her character very naturally and convincing enough (we really never see Oscar, except for one or two times, always in a mirror, so there isn't much to say about Brown's performance).
Unfortunately, the movie spends too much time dealing with more esoteric themes. Although that is not necessarily bad, Noè thinks he has all the answers and the film becomes didactic, especially in the scenes dealing with the afterlife. Noè has expressed his admiration for Kubrick's 2001, and this is pretty tangible here, but, where Kubrick throws questions, Noè provides answers and not only that, but he also seems to think that his answer is THE answer. Therefore, the movie succeeds emotionally but not intelectually: it doesn't let you think at all, it has an answer and it wants you to believe it. When a film expends so much time trying to stimulate you intelectually, this is a problem.
Finally, while I have mixed feelings for Enter the Void, I urge you to see this film. I cannot assure you will like it, but here's a film that's trying to do something new and to do it right. I believe that's always worthy of appraisal, even if it is not completely successful. Only a warning: the film can be very strong and it's not for weak stomachs (but, don't worry: there's nothing here that can compare with the infamous rape-scene from Irreversible).
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