The Neon Demon (2016), R, ★★★

Elle Fanning as the next supermodel.

Ok...I will save my emotions later in the review because I'm at a loss for words sitting on a chair typing how I feel towards this material. It took me a while to have at least a speck of composure and eloquence to honestly sell on the fact as to why I like this movie. I am not an expert on fashion but researching the fashion industry, it is an aggressive field because beauty, experience and decorum blends into maybe what a definition of what a supermodel is. Plus, I suppose, behind-the-scenes, there is hostility towards one another to see who will rise up to the top of the industry with magazine contracts, fashion runaway shows and maybe be a part of a campaign. But, The Neon Demon generates that competitive drive into a whole other dimension that is both visually fascinating and twisted.

Jesse (Elle Fanning) is a beautiful, young, blonde teenage model that is an amateur as she is being accompanied by her photographer, Dean (Karl Glusman). She is practicing her poses as she wants to put her headshot in her portfolio before her interview. It also gives Dean an advantage because it allows him to practice his craft. After the photoshoot, she struggles to get the fake blood off her and Ruby (Jena Malone), a makeup artist, offers to help her. Ruby and we, the audience, learn that she moved into Los Angeles at a junkie hotel. Ruby invites her to a party and there she meets veteran models, Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote). Sarah is obsessed with her extensive plastic surgery and Gigi always brings up the fact that the only thing that matters who one has sex with.

After a successful interview at a prestigious modeling agency with Roberta Hoffman (Christina Hendricks), Jesse and Dean celebrate by driving up to the Hollywood Hills and looking down at the city. Jesse is confident that she can make money off her looks and looks up to Dean for moral support. Later on, Ruby meets with Gigi and Sarah and she comments that Jesse is rising in the fashion world quickly, which annoys both Gigi and Sarah. After a successful audition with the unnamed fashion designer (Alessandro Nivola), Jesse is immediately hired and Sarah is infuriated. That's the business. It's cutthroat.

Jena Malone as the makeup artist. 

Ok, this is one of the most screwed-up movies I have ever seen. I though this movie was going to be standard based on its premise of a young and beautiful girl moving to town chasing her biggest dream of her life. However, director Nicolas Winding Refn takes down a gutsy road that no other filmmaker could be gratified with because it would have probably tarnished his or her reputation. He captures the style and essence, with the help of cinematographer Natasha Brier, the meticulous and beautiful glorification of success in the fashion industry while Jesse walks on the runway or just enters. But, they both capture the isolation and darkness of what it might do to them both psychologically and physically.

The performances are actually quite good and deserve merit. Elle Fanning has an innocent presence on-screen but as her character's success catches up to her, she is warranted some danger when the movie continues on. Jena Malone gives the best performance as an artist who is both encouraging and a vulnerable. Abbey Lee from Mad Max: Fury Road and Bella Heathcoate ( how do I say it nicely?) capture the unfairness and hostility of models who maybe unfairly is passed over and the boiling anger takes over especially in the third act. Keanu Reeves has a small role as the sleazy hotel manager and Karl Glusman is quite good as the photographer.

All right...now onto the third act. It takes quite a turn as Jesse dumps Dean as he asks her if she wants to be like them and she responds that they all want to be like her. I question that scene because I felt that was so abrupt of a turn that the psychological horror just begins with not much execution. Speaking of horror, it does turn into that genre with so much nasty behavior and unsettling scenes that you will throw your arms in the air and become disgusted. I believe Refn takes the themes of competitiveness, narcissism, hostility and obsession that it sums up to a bloody psychosis of female violence. You have to go with it cerebrally, otherwise, you will get lost.

This is a violent dark comedy that is set in the fashion industry that is both unsettling and haunting, yet it is a cerebral experience in the end that you debate with a person over a cup of coffee. It is self-indulgent in its framing of style over substance, indicative that Refn can visually shoot a movie. Even though the characters are thinly written, their characters are understandable as to why they are thinly written because few of the characters are shallow. Accompanied by Brier's gorgeous cinematography and Cliff Martinez's euphoric score (I have to admit he needs an Oscar nomination. It will probably be the sole one.), Refn distributes the gruesomeness into puerile situations that is so bizarre and twisted that you have to sit through the fact to enjoy this ride. This movie sums up the marriage of Black Swan and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. It is also one of the few movies that you will expect and understand people to hate but have a great debate.

***