Title – Crimes of the Future (2022)
Director – David Cronenberg (The Fly)
Cast – Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman
Plot – With human evolution evolving into a strange new direction, performance artist Saul Tenser (Mortensen) and his partner Caprice (Seydoux) showcase a series of changes in a collection of public performances.
“We are creating meaning out of emptiness”
Review by Eddie on 14/11/2022
His first feature film since 2014’s divisive and mostly forgotten about Maps to the Stars, cult director David Cronenberg returns to the cinematic landscape with an unsurprisingly odd tale that reunites him with his early 2000’s muse Viggo Mortensen in the body horror sci-fi that is Crimes of the Future.
A film that defies a simple explanation or synopsis, Crimes is loaded with ideas, shock value and shady characters all brought to life by capable actors that here includes indie darlings Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart but while the film shares similar DNA to some of Cronenberg’s best features such as The Fly, Videodrome and The Dead Zone, there’s something severely lacking here that makes Crimes a unique viewing experience but one that lacks any heart, soul or cohesive threads to tie it all together.
Giving little away other than the fact Crimes takes place in a not to distant future where human evolution has reached a point of the unknown and with a potentially detrimental spin too boot, Cronenberg follows the exploits of Mortensen and Seydoux as the performing arts couple Saul Tenser and Caprice, who deliver confronting autopsy’s in front of wide-eyed audiences keen to get a glimpse of what mysterious internal evolution’s are happening within Tenser’s rapidly transforming body.
It’s a nightmarish concept and a nightmarish film with Cronenberg keeping things dark in tone and delivery at all times and it’s hard too exactly know what he was hoping to get out of the whole exercise other than to deliver yet another film that feels like it’s entirely its own beast and while it may be argued there’s a fair portion of darkly humorous angles in the film and some strangeness that one can only laugh at, there never feels like there is much point to anything happening here, making it hard to understand why the audience should engage with or care about anything happening here.
It’s most likely that those that find the most enjoyment from Crimes will be those seeking ghastly body horror, weird romantic kinks and a story that just never plays things out in a cookie-cutter fashion but after such a long hiatus between films one can’t help but feel disappointed it took so long for Cronenberg to return with a effort like this, one far removed from the highs of his long-standing career.
Final Say –
Undoubtedly original and likely destined for some form of cult-following, Crimes of the Future is a bizarre and cold experience from one of cinemas most unique voices, marking itself down as a disappointing return to the industry for the unflappable Cronenberg.
2 kneeling main characters out of 5
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) 
I haven’t watched this yet but I did see a couple of interviews with the director about it and I guess it will make a difference in my viewing experience. He has some interesting real words ideas about our future.
His got a very interesting brain mate! Sure he is a lot smarter than me ha but I didn’t connect with this vision at all.
E
Yeah I need to check it out. An interesting vision doesn’t always translate into a good and/or watchable movie. 😉
You’re very punishing with those “Crimes of the Future”! I must be one of these weird romantic kind of guy you talk about 😉 but I think there’s behind the autopsy table matter to think about how could possibly evolve human kind. I’m developing arguments in my own review.
I accord you the best part is really cerebral, and the criminal plot is not very important (it reminds me the strangeness of “the naked lunch”). And I’m not really fond of Lea, but I must admit Kristen is really good in it.
Glad you liked it mate, had some neat little moments but I didn’t connect to any of the characters or plot lines the way I would’ve hoped to.
E
Its a shame when directors like Cronenberg seem to lose their mojo. I loved his early films, especially Videodrome and The Dead Zone, and Crimes of the Future with its title and subject matter should be a dead cert, but instead, its pretty much dead on arrival, unfortunately, from what I’ve heard.
Its doubly annoying because, thanks to what you can do now with CGI even relatively cheaply, it would seem that someone like Cronenberg could blow people’s minds with this new toybox. Which kind of suggests that when we ask “what would Kubrick do with the CGI technology of today in a film?” we should perhaps be glad we can’t have the answer.
If this was made in Cronenberg’s heyday I do feel like it could’ve been something special.
A lot of ideas all thrown into one feature that never gels or becomes anything that’s truly engaging. A real missed opportunity.
E
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