Does anybody "get" David Cronenberg? Having seen Eastern Promises a couple of weekends ago, and having suffered through A History of Violence, I'm convinced either I just don't get him or the critics are all idiots. Both movies are slow, cliched, poorly-acted, overwritten, absurd executions of potentially-interesting premises. EP less so than AHoV (which is probably on my top 5 worst movies list), but Cronenberg's fingerprint is still there. I haven't seen any of his other movies[*] due to them looking stupid (eXistenZ and Crash especially), and now I probably won't. Should I?
[*] I don't count Naked Lunch, which I saw in my high school years, since (a) I don't remember it at all, and (b) I watched thinking I'd be seeing something other than bugs. "Naked" Lunch my foot — boo false advertising!
Posted by pcg at October 11, 2007 10:25 AMWe watched a few weeks ago, and really liked it. Sure, Armin Mueller-Stahl kind of plays himself in every movie he's in, but I thought Viggo Mortensen was awesome, and come on. You can't tell me that fight scene wasn't awesome.
I haven't seen AHoV, though I'd like to. Someone hates it, which makes me think I might like it.
I watched eXistenZ in a class, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I really didn't think I was going to like it (my impression before watching was that it was kinda cheesy sci-fi), but it really sucks you in. I think my impression of that one suffered from over-Matrix stimulation (eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City) (all of which, as it happens, are good on their own, and fairly different).
I haven't seen that that Crash, so I can't comment on that one.
Also, you missed a perfectly fine Simpsons quote in your comments about Naked Lunch. I expect you to scour the internet to rectify that.
Posted by: joel on October 11, 2007 11:52 AMeXistenZ does indeed look stupid, but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected. The first half of the film will seem to confirm your suspicion that it's stupid, but stick with it; it's really quite good.
(I agree with Joel re: 13th Floor and Dark City, which I realize are not Cronenberg films. Both are good, Dark City more so than 13th Floor.)
I've not seen any Cronenberg films besides eXistenZ. To be honest, I suspect that the 'ick factor' Cronenberg seems to like so much would be a bit much for me. eXistenZ was... pretty icky.
Posted by: Andy on October 11, 2007 1:11 PM