Climax

Starring: Sofia Boutella, Kiddy Smile, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Giselle Palmer, Taylor Kastle, Thea Carla Scott, Sharleen Temple
Directed by: Gaspar Noe
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Horror, Music
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of French dancers have a party after a long day of rehearsals. Their levity soon turns to horror when they realize that someone spiked their sangria with LSD.

Review:

Tim: I'd never heard of Gaspar Noe before sitting down to watch Climax. I appreciated this disturbing movie because I'd never quite seen anything like it. I'd read afterward some criticism about this film because it was derivative of his previous work. Since I can't account for that, I'm just going to stay firm with my initial impression. Perhaps he's done this exact same thing before, I'll let more passionate Gaspar Noe fans debate that.

This movie doesn't have much of a narrative, but it's such a psychedelic experience that you hardly notice. Noe combines music, disruptive visuals and colors, and some disturbing events to create a movie that probably feels like a bad trip (or what I'd imagine since I've never done any kind of drugs- just say no). The movie doesn't always make sense, it's hard to understand what is going on, you have moments of curiosity sprinkled with moments of horror- the whole thing is such a visceral experience. You might not like any of the characters and barely be able to identify some of them once the movie gets going, but you're not bored, you're not reaching for your phone or a distraction. You're pulled into the events on screen.

I really appreciated how much time Noe took to establish the characters on the front end. He does this by giving them ample time to talk to each other. This is a bit winding as the camera spins around, capturing snippets of conversation here and there. It's not always compelling, but it gives you a sense of who these characters are and what they're doing here. This isn't quite the accomplishment Noe wanted it to be- outside of a handful of characters, I wasn't able to track who was who and what their backstory was. It's better than not doing it, though. It might run on a little long, but there's some great human moments in the early stages. You see these people for who they are- young people with some amount of life experience (some of it traumatic) and yet not fully equipped with all the tools of fully functioning adults. There's a lot of focus on relationships, on judging each other. It all felt authentic to that period of life. This is a large cast, which does add to the disorientation once things get going and start to fall apart.

Sofia Boutella is the only cast member I was familiar with and I was less than enthused about her performances in the films I did see. I thought she was good here- she's definitely in the lead role and makes the movie better. She might not be great, but it was an effective performance and I give her credit because it's due. The rest of the cast worked well- there were a couple of standouts, but everyone gave worthwhile performances.

The bulk of the film is this twisting, psychedelic, spinning portrayal of this group of people as they descend into paranoia, fear, violence, and ultimately, murder. This is handled fine- I didn't always believe the events on screen, but they mostly worked within the context of the film. There was this continuous dull sense of dread- you knew things were going to get worse, you knew mistakes were going to be made, you just didn't know when and you didn't know who would fall victim. That was one of the great things about this movie- the cast was expansive, so you were never quite sure what was going to happen. In so many horror movies about groups, it's utterly predictable- they will get picked off one-by-one until only one or two (or if the film is really unique, three) people remain. I never felt that predictability here. The LSD prevented that from happening. Would no one die? Would every one of them die? Would some survive? Who? How many people? That drove the story and for that reason, it was easy to stay focused on the story.

I can't say I really "enjoyed" Climax and it's not a film I would want to revisit any time. I'm somewhat curious to check out Noe's other films to see if this is just another version of something he's already done. If that's really the case, it might slightly shift my view of this film. However, looking at this movie from my lens- my first experience with Gaspar Noe, I can say that he might not be great filmmaker, but he's got a unique vision and this movie felt unique, which is always an accomplishment.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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