Movie of the week – The Neon Demon
There’s a real treat for cinephiles this week with the release of controversial director Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest. In The Neon Demon, Elle Fanning plays a teenage model who becomes the toast of the Los Angeles fashion scene, making some dangerous enemies along the way. Inspired by the Greek myth of Narcissus, this is a visual and aural feast, but unlike most of Refn’s work, there’s a lot going on under the surface here. Unmissable.
The Legend of Tarzan
At the other end of the quality spectrum is The Legend of Tarzan, which attempts to reboot the Ape Man tale in dark and gritty fashion, and fails miserably. Borderline racist (you can tell which Africans are good and bad by the darkness of their skin), sexist (Margot Robbie’s Jane exists only to be kidnapped and saved by Tarzan), unpleasant (animals are killed onscreen in brutal fashion, along with hordes of natives), and just plain dull, this is the latest big budget stinker of the summer.
Ghostbusters
Speaking of reboots, the remake of Ghostbusters (featuring a female cast) opens on Monday. It’s suspiciously not being screened for critics until Sunday evening, so I’ll have to wait until next week to give my opinion on this one.
By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com
