Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)

[Stay Puft]

COSMOPOLIS
Director: David Cronenberg

IMDb page

[Stay Puft]

I've been trying to think of something to say, but I've not got much. Cronenberg has been boring me senseless lately, but I thought the trailer for this was good, made it look markedly different from his recent films visually, and some word of mouth suggested the same. Unfortunately, it bored me senseless. At some point I was sitting there thinking of The Matrix: Reloaded, and that's when I knew the film had lost me.

I can see where the thematic preoccupations come into play when comparing it to older Cronenberg, but aesthetically, nope. I don't know if it's just the digital projection but I thought the film looked like garbage, to be honest, especially shots of the limo interiors with the Toronto streets in the (often barely discernable) background. And these make up the majority of the film. Camera work is dull and predictable given the setting and focus (primarily convos between two actors). And the special effects are lousy. Just completely lousy, and mostly digital. Hardly the playful Cronenberg of old.

I sort of liked the film at first (the dialogue, the thematic focus; oh and Pattinson is pretty great in this, but many of the actors around him surprisingly not so much) but I left feeling like the source gained nothing from being adapted into a film (even though I'm unfamiliar with the source). I felt like my time would have been better spent listening to an audio book of the novel, because I could have closed my eyes in the theatre and it would amount to same.

More of a "meh" but marked down a bit more due to the cumulative boredom/frustration with recent Cronenberg.

[eternity]

I need to see this at least a couple more times, because it is a lot to take in. I don't know if I love it, but...I'm pretty sure I love it. It's the kind of crazy insanity that Cronenberg has been lacking lately.

[dreamdead]

This was pretty good. Liked how thoroughly Cronenberg treated the limo as its own character and conveyer of information. And I rather love how seamlessly Cronenberg transferred DeLillo's dialogue from the novel over to screen. Its mannerisms led to some gold interactions, especially between Eric and his wife.

And man, Binoche is still sex personified.

I'm with most critics who feel that the third act loses a little luster, though, in that it's a little too easily dualistic. Good cut-to-black, though. Everyone in my theater let out a pissed-off sound at that, which was fun to experience.

[B-side]

This is an alien product. A zeitgeist narrative trapped in a sterile bubble of not-too-distant-future cybereconomics. There's nothing like this, and that alone deserves commendation. Cronenberg's control of the material is awe-inspiring. It's a carnival ride through opaque and artificial dialogue refracted through a modernist and capitalist prism. The aesthetic is so precise and foreboding it's nearly impossible to settle in. This is a good thing.

[ledfloyd]

i think the prism is decidedly postmodernist (this is delillo we're talking about after all).

you're right that there is nothing else like this. i'm still not entirely sure what to say about it, i just know that i loved it and i want to see cronenberg adapt more delillo.

[B-side]

My prostate is asymmetrical.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I am awful. I have waited too long to see this, and now it is nowhere in Los Angeles.

This is Los Angeles. We have ten million screens, a third of them devoted to arthouse fare like Samsara and Icelandic Bisexual Love Triangle Dramedy, and no Cosmopolis.

[Pop Trash]

I am awful. I have waited too long to see this, and now it is nowhere in Los Angeles.

This is Los Angeles. We have ten million screens, a third of them devoted to arthouse fare like Samsara and Icelandic Bisexual Love Triangle Dramedy, and no Cosmopolis.

It's gone from the Bay Area too. Bummer. Guess I'll wait for redbox.

I noticed this hasn't even cracked a million in American B.O. even with Pattinson. No wonder it's gone.

[Ezee E]

Yep. Was in Colorado for two weeks. I snoze and lost. Dang.

[Milky Joe]

Same story in Portland. I have been waiting for it to show in a 2nd run theater but nothing yet. What the hell?

[Ezee E]

"Nancy Babitsch," may be the most shocking line of the year, and it isn't until a hour into Cosmopolis that things get interesting. Before that, Cronenberg's movie is always heading into some peculiar, unpredictable future. I kept on waiting, knowing that it's capricious nature, but couldn't really appreciate it. In fact, it's simply not very interesting until, "Nancy Babitsch," wakes everyone.

It's final 30-40 minutes is when it turns into the movie that it was talking about earlier. Instead of talking heads in a limo, restaurant, what have you... Paul Giamatti's talk with Eric is easily the best of the conversations of the movie as well. However, the final shot is a bit maddening. It feels a bit cheap, and I'm glad I read the book.

Unclear to this movie as well, but unlike The Master, there's not nearly as much to appreciate here.

I love and hate Cronenberg's movies. This goes into the dislike area. He hasn't done this since Spider which has a similar pace to it.

[kopello]

I actually preferred the first half of the movie to the second, maybe because I really wanted to like it. I was also kind of always looking forward to his next encounter. By the end of the film I had clocked out and lost all interest, and I think I may have even fell asleep for a minute or so. I understand how people really dug it's cold alienating style, but goddamn this was almost unwatchable.

[Milky Joe]

Really wanted to like it, but oof, this was bad. Pattinson was a bad call, but not even Juliette Binoche or Paul Giamatti could sell this script, which was far too wordy and pretentious. It's like Cronenberg took all the most ponderous (and pretentious out of context) lines out of Delillo's novel, forgetting the humor and pathos, and made a script out of them. Nay.

Best scene was the prostate exam.

[B-side]

There's plenty of humor. The prostate exam being a perfect example.

[Milky Joe]

There was attempted humor, but most of it fell flat for me. "My prostate is asymmetrical" and "Nancy Babitch" were the most notable laughs.

I like your description of the movie, and that's what I hoped the movie would be upon seeing the trailer, but it was pretty middling overall.

[Grouchy]

This was 100% Cronenberg. Long, intellectual conversations, honest and clinical sex scenes, sudden bursts of gory violence... It's like he let out more "Cronenberg-ness" here than in the three films he made with Viggo Mortensen.

I liked it, I was engaged by the conversations and I wanted to know where the story was going, but I can't safely recommend it and I wouldn't like to see it again, which is a first for me with Cronenberg. I also thought the very last shot's ambiguity was too much... I wanted a strong ending.

So, mixed more than anything. I don't like the comparison to Spider - that movie is brutally involving, whereas this one is only interesting.

[Melville]

This was pretty terrible. The scenes in the limo looked like something from a low-budget kids' sci-fi show on a bottom-tier Canadian cable channel: all cardboard-cutout aesthetic (maybe due to the type of digital camera used?), wonky angles and distorted perspective, and cheap cg. The dialogue sounded like something collected from a garbage heap of postmodernist cliches.

[DavidSeven]

This was awful. Pattinson was utterly unconvincing, but I put a lot of that on Cronenberg's direction. It felt like an amateur production in every respect. Poorly lensed, written and acted. It becomes an absolute chore to sit through by the halfway point.

[Pop Trash]

I attempted to watch this, but wound up fast forwarding through most of the movie. I'm thinking the Atlas Shrugged movies might resemble this.

[The Bad Guy]

This is in the running for my least favorite movie of 2012.

It should be noted that I try very hard to avoid watching crap, but I have also seen about 150 movies from '12.

[number8]

Wow, Pattinson is utterly incredible in this. One of the most memorably controlled performances I've seen in a while, a perfect mix of subdued desire and emotionally manic eruptions. It's up there with Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman.

[B-side]

Wow, Pattinson is utterly incredible in this. One of the most memorably controlled performances I've seen in a while, a perfect mix of subdued desire and emotionally manic eruptions. It's up there with Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman.

He is terrific in it, though comparing his performance to Bale as Bateman may be a bit much since I kinda see Bale's performance as the paragon of its ilk; that sort of subdued rage and fiercely sarcastic persona embodied later by Hugh Laurie as House.

[Ezee E]

Too bad everything around Pattinson is pretty awful though. Otherwise, I'm close to agreeing.

[Milky Joe]

Gosh, I thought Pattinson was possibly the worst part. Major misstep in casting him. But I thought the whole film was a misstep so I guess whatever.