Crimes of the Future

This is what the work of a visionary filmmaker looks like. Forget the new flesh. Long live the old Cronenberg.

Crimes of the Future is Cronenberg to the core, complete with its fair share of authorial flourishes (the moaning organic bed that its characters sleep in is a five-alarm nightmare unto itself) and slogans (“surgery is the new sex”). At the same time, however, this hazy and weirdly hopeful meditation on the macro-relationship between organic life and synthetic matter ties into his more wholly satisfying gross-out classics because of how it pushes beyond them.

Cronenberg has crafted a story that brings together what we do to our bodies to feel and look good – though that’s sometimes in the eye of the beholder – and the synthetic materials that play a key role in both our modern lives and environmental crises.

At his most memorable, Cronenberg creates viscerally unforgettable images that horrify, yes, but they also provoke with big, shocking ideas about our very selves – the monstrousness of disease, the perhaps inevitable hybrid of the corporeal and the mechanical, the determination of the self. With Crimes of the Future, we’re left with a remove from the material, where no matter what happens, it’s all just performance art.

More distancing than disgusting, Crimes of the Future strings together great body horror ideas but does little with them.

Cronenberg certainly still knows how to create arresting imagery and craft stories that can make the audience squirm, but the story that isn’t being told with Crimes of the Future is far more interesting than the one he has decided to focus on, which often feels like regurgitating concepts he’s already handled before.

Crimes of the Future is a load of crap. I would like to find a more civil way to describe even a sick and depraved barf bag of a movie like this one, but it defeats every reasonable attempt to try.

Among Cronenbergs top 3, 4 films . And that says something , man's oeuvre is massive at this point . The trick of this film is the ruthless integration of the ecology / human garbage bin Mashup with Cronenbergs normal themes of exploration of sexuality and human boredom and such . It's like a bit of the Fly , Cosmopolis meeting up with the gravity of Aronofskys " Mother " . And with that last bit I mean the film leaves you with a very eery feeling that humankind is beyond salvation in this iteration of our planet . Just as Arons Mother , I'd say this film is more Eco- Right wing than hippie green left . More Paul Ehrlich , less AL Gore .

I want to preface by saying that even though I'm giving this movie a 6 I still think it's worth watching even if you're not a Cronenberg fan. So long as you're someone who enjoys weird movies with disturbing images and themes, I think you'll find something to enjoy here. Visually speaking I think this is Cronenberg's best looking film. Lots of really beautiful shots with interesting lighting and color palette. I watched it on 4k physical disc and while I don't think there is any HDR, the colors still looked great and the picture was very crisp and detailed. The set pieces and props (beds, operating table, surgical arms) are all very fleshy and bony, standard cronenberg. There's plenty of interesting and bizarre dialogue throughout the movie, but I'm sure plenty of people will find it rather slow. I found the story and theme of the movie (humans evolving past their modern biological form, developing new organs, and governments wanting to regulate/prevent it) to be rather interesting, however my biggest gripe with the film is there's not really any major climactic point in the movie, at least that's how it felt to me. The film just sort of ended when I wasn't expecting it to. I would have much preferred a more climactic moment near the end or an "oh s***" moment for some of the main characters, but we never really get it. When it comes to the main characters all the performances are good to great, with a standout being Kristen Stewart's role. Her portrayal of that character being a nerdy, awkward, *very* sexually frustrated office "bureaucrat" who constantly chokes up when speaking really stole the show for me. Kristen's character was easily one of my favorite parts of the movie. All in all I'd probably give it a 6.5.

It's interesting. But if you want to make something profound it has to resonate on some level with human drives and wiring or social structures or something humanly relatable. There is never a sense of why anyone would want to mutilated themselves or care about extra organs. All that human talent focused on something that seems silly, rather than actually satisfying some basic need.

Crimes of the Future is just like Flux Gourmet, has a great idea, but the idea poured into the story poorly. Although I love the idea of "surgery is the new sex", yet I barely finished the movie. The director still has his old craziness but not the same story flair.

Sub par nonsensical meandering story with sub par direction. Disappointed in Cronenberg, this movie feels like it started off as a short concept film that was painfully transformed into a feature but without the actual mental gymnastics and labor to do so to execute anything decent. Pretty repulsive at times to borderline unwatchable at others. Horrible and pointless with broken themes and disjointed continuity and flow.