The Neon Demon (2016), directed by Nicholas Winding Refn
A Review of The Neon Demon, directed by Nicholas Winding Refn
A look into hyperreality, a surrealist take on the fashion industry & its pursuit of beauty.
This movie starts out the way we would imagine a regular fashion film to be. Midwestern girl, played by the lovely Elle Fanning, moves out to Los Angeles to fulfill her dream of being a model. It starts out really normal, but then it gets so, so dark and weird. And I’m here for it. If I want a strange film trying to make commentary about fashion and the beauty industry, I’m all for it.
I will, however, have some big critiques for this film. I’m working on a film criticism piece about it to be published, so I won’t go too in-depth about it here, but, essentially, there are some valid feminist critiques against this film.
It’s a super wacky film, but the way it plays with color and light is a spectacle in itself. If you can’t tell that from the film poster to the left, or from the trailer, you’re in for a treat when you actually watch the film. Sometimes it’s an ethereal aesthetic, but at other times it’s too ethereal to the point where it’s disturbing. You begin to wonder what is real and what is contrived.
This is a fast film in pacing, but there’s quite a bit to unpack. Let’s get into it.
Plot / Story
Our main character in this story is the sixteen-year-old Jesse. Her parents have died, and so she moves to Los Angeles to become a fashion model. A bit strange that’s what you do instead of, well, grieving, but power to her. She’s completely innocent, a small town Georgia girl in a den full of lions. Literally. The first night we spend with her she finds a mountain lion in her room. Symbolism, much?
There’s a ton of stunning photoshoots throughout the film. It makes me almost wish this were a traditional fashion film and that this would go the strange way that Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn did, minus the creepy photographer man making out with her after violating her workplace. But, in a way, all of these photoshoots emphasize the fact that everything, including fashion and beauty, is manufactured and sought after.
And this is why the other models are now envious of Jesse. She is moving up the ranks and has now outranked all of them in terms of getting the best clothes, shoots, etc. This leads to a lot of friction, especially when things start getting real weird in this film.
My qualms with this film is that it sends a completely bad message about the fashion industry, as well as I don’t think it has a feminist message at all. It’s critiquing the industry in a way where it’s showing women tearing each other down, but it’s also showing an extremely whitewashed view of how beauty should be depicted. Sarno completely tears down on women who’ve had plastic surgery, using Gigi as the example right in front of her. And then, Jesse, the youthful one, becomes the ultimate sacrifice for beauty and industry. It kind of plays into that idea that only women are seen as beautiful when they’re youthful.
I did my homework and research before going into this review, and the director intends the demon to be narcissism and the neon to be the fashion industry, specifically in regards to modeling. But, at the same time, this felt like such an outside take on what fashion is truly about? In modern cinema, we often equate the fashion industry as frivolous, often not needing attention because it’s for air-headed Midwestern women. That is a stereotype this movie is feeding onto. I felt at times the camera was like the male gaze of viewing these turn of events, because we have women turning against each other and depicting the industry only as narcissistic—would it be depicted this way if fashion were catered towards men?
Cinematic Elements
I mentioned the lighting before, but they play a lot with color in the cinematography of this film. It’s mimicking the fashion industry, so, of course, we get lots of aesthetic shots playing with purples, bright flashing lights, vibrant pinks. At times, everything seems a little too pristine, as if the world were sanitized and awash with artificial lighting.
Fashion, of course, plays a huge part in this film. The costume designer definitely had some good ideas for this one, because oh man we see the transition of Jesse’s innocence. For example, towards the first half of the film, we see her with lighter fabrics, often dressed in more innocent and modest cuts. In the scene where she is being photographed on the mountain in LA, with the city lights behind her, she flutters her white flowy dress behind her. She reminds me of Anne Hathaway’s Good Queen in Alice in Wonderland during this scene, just because of that dress. But then, in another fashion show scene, all of the models are dressed ordinarily, but Jesse is dressed completely different to stand out. She’s wearing this metallic getup, one that looks quite badass. That marks a transition to her more bad girl looks, where she completely changes into a diva.
Characters
Jesse is our main character and we watch her transform to an innocent youth to a woman who is just like the rest of the models. Because she keeps getting all of these new roles above everyone else, she literally becomes a part of the system. No longer is she sweet and innocent. She is like the mountain lion she found in her motel room originally, ready to kill to keep her spot at the top.
I felt like the characters in general were not fleshed out well enough? We get all these pretty shots, and, yes, we get the sense of narcissism among all of these models. We’ve got the older model who is a has-been, the jealous girl, the makeup artist who also does makeup for corpses. The corpses, perhaps, are also the models—more symbolism? But outside of their jealousy for Jesse and them asking super personal and sexual questions, we don’t actually know much about them as people outside of their job. It’s like they only exist to be beautiful. That in itself is a statement.
There are very few men in this film. It’s all women in the story, and the few men who are introduced throughout are extremely creepy, rude, or predatory. So we get a lot of alone time with female characters of the story.
The club scene.
Overall Thoughts
In a movie packed full of symbolism and thought-provoking messages, it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth because of the way it depicts women. The men aren’t depicted any better, but because we get so little screen time with them, we don’t actually seem them outside of the archetypes they’re built to be. We spend a lot of time with Jesse and her crew, and while we get to spectate her gradual transformation, the remaining characters are kind of more reduced to archetypes and lack depth. It’s a really interesting premise that this movie is based upon, but I think it has to be fleshed out extremely well to be pulled of properly.
