With Cannes officially up and running, we’re starting to get our first reviews in for some of the biggest releases of the year. Yesterday saw the generally favorable first reactions toWoody Allen’sCafe Society, the umpteenth sophisticated comedy from theAnnie Hallhelmer, and today, we’re getting first word on what directorJodie Foster, along with co-starsGeorge ClooneyandJulia Roberts, have in store for us withMoney Monster.
For many, however, the big title on the list isNicolas Winding Refn’sThe Neon Demon, which starsElle Fanningas a budding model who enters a glitzy, grotesque world of fame, sex, drugs, and corrupt aesthetics, with help from the likes ofJena Malone,Christina Hendricks,Bella Heathcote, andAlessandro Nivola. We’ve seen a good helping of marketing from this film already, and now we have a new international trailer for the film, which includes mostly familiar images of mirrors, blood, and crazy wardrobes. You can check out the new trailer below.
It’s worth noting that Refn broughtOnly God Forgivesto Cannes and that it was, with little exception, savaged by critics at the festival; reports poured in on the wave of boos that accompanied the film’s end credits. I wasn’t crazy about that film but it was hardly anything less than a mediocrity, and had a few genuinely enthralling sequences in between the repressed brooding and face-smashing. My hopes are much higher for this film, which would seemingly more directly confront Refn’s newfound relationship with fame and money, as well as his own glamorous kind of style. If nothing else, when the title bows at Cannes next week, the film should provide a healthy dollop of advanced Argento-worship.
Here’s the new international trailer forThe Neon Demon:
Here’s the official synopsis for Refn’s latest:
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
