Crimes of the Future (2022)
June 3, 2022 10:07 AM - Subscribe

As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed...

Currently in US Theaters as of June 3, 2022, and Rotten Tomatoes 78% at time of this post.

Several threads come together in the newest film by David Cronenberg: A filicide, a future where pain and sickness are rare, performance art focused on growing new organs, and what all that means for (government regulation of) what makes a human. There's also some terrible furniture.
posted by Weighted Companion Cube (5 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I watched this last night with my creative partner - an interesting choice, given the Caprice/Tenser focus - and I'm still processing it. Yes, there are disconnects, areas left to be explored, as some critics have said, but I feel that's part of the Cronenbergian aesthetic and tone. It could explore the idea of 'what makes a human' more, but as a tone piece, I feel it contained itself.
posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 10:12 AM on June 3, 2022


Man, I *so* want to see this one. Such a strong cast. But...I just can’t step into a theater yet.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:28 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]


Well, the theatrical run will probably be short and then it'll hit streaming.
posted by praemunire at 1:26 PM on June 4, 2022


I think you mean awesome furniture. The the prop team really leaned into H. R. Giger with the chair, bed, and autopsy table.

Lots of cool stuff in this and not for everyone. It is slow and meandering and while there is plenty of parts to be squeamish through, I didn't think it was quite the assault of grotesqueries that I've seen people claim it to be. The eroticized surgeries are really interesting, not just because of the implications in the cold future that exists in the movie, but because we so rarely see consensual eroticized violence. Is it even violence if it is consensual surgery?

Has more in common with Deadringers ro Crash than Videodrome, even if "Surgery is the new sex" has the same vibe as "Long live the new flesh." More of a vibe movie than a narrative one. There is sort of a narrative, but it isn't that important. What we are really seeing is a moment in time before a revolution that may or may not come. Like we are seeing some of the inciting events before an upheaval. We see some of the different stakeholders: artists, cops, bureaucrats, activists, etc and their current dynamics and then the movie ends leaving us anywhere from days to years from whatever is going to happen when all of this comes to a head.

I dug it. A solid late-career entry into the Cronenberg canon.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 4:36 PM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Finally got around to watching it last night.

A solid late-career entry into the Cronenberg canon.

I concur.

There's also some terrible furniture.

There have been mornings where I wouldn't mind that sort of breakfast assist.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:24 PM on November 16, 2022


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