Review: THE NEON DEMON is a Stunning Yet Shallow Examination of the Price of Fame

There’s no denying that Nicolas Winding Refn is easily one of the most fascinating filmmakers working today. A polarizing cinematic voice who often focuses on style over substance, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Refn’s latest movie, The Neon Demon, is yet another stunning escapade through a neon-soaked landscape that’s as hauntingly beautiful to watch as the film’s ethereal protagonist played by Elle Fanning.

While there are a lot of things that Refn does nail in regards to the experience of moving to Los Angeles in hopes of following your dreams, the reality is that the filmmaker doesn’t really say anything new about that journey with The Neon Demon, making for an unfortunately shallow experience that left me somewhat unsatisfied by the time the film’s conclusion rolled around.

The Neon Demon follows Jesse (Fanning), an underage girl from Ohio who has just moved to California in hopes of working as a model. As she tries to acclimate herself to this vicious world, she befriends a makeup artist named Ruby (Jena Malone), who acts as Jesse’s protector while making her way through the ranks in the dangerous world of modeling. Ruby also introduces the ingénue of her competition, Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote), two veteran catwalkers who (surprisingly) are threatened by Jesse’s arrival, afraid of being edged out by her youthful, fresh-faced beauty that seems to overwhelm anyone she comes in contact with. Jesse has “it,” and that scares the hell out of the desperate Sarah and Gigi.

We watch as Jesse catapults to the forefront of the Los Angeles modeling scene with unusual ease (her career transition is the cinematic equivalent of watching someone slice through warm butter with a hot knife—just way too easy), and see how that change takes hold of her personality, transforming the seemingly nice Midwestern gal into another self-centered and vapid entity who knows she’s worshipped by men and women alike. But as the saying goes, “pride goeth before destruction,” and we see how Jesse, like many other folks in Los Angeles, is eventually consumed by the destructive nature of this dog-eat-dog city, quite simply because she doesn’t know any better.

Throughout his career, many have said that almost all of Refn’s work up until this point was squarely fixated on creating a cool, masculine world built around male experiences, so if The Neon Demon is Refn’s counterpoint to his previous efforts, it’s a shame he didn’t dig a little deeper here, considering the amount of talent he assembled for his latest project. This is really a missed opportunity for Refn, which made The Neon Demon so much more frustrating for me as a viewer. Because while I absolutely reveled in the film’s bewitching visuals and Cliff Martinez’s synth-pop score that oozes with a raw, night club-esque sexuality, I came away from the whole experience thinking, “So what?” Refn says absolutely nothing here that we didn’t already suspect about this world, nor does he make an attempt at the complex nature of women and their attitudes toward their female counterparts, making The Neon Demon an affair that only goes skin-deep with any of its material.

To make a movie about bloodthirsty models isn’t exactly earth-shattering at this point, so while I appreciate the idea behind the story of The Neon Demon, I hoped for a more original vessel to carry Refn’s message from start to finish. There are a million creative jobs in Los Angeles that are just as cutthroat and haven’t been the focus of a film’s narrative time and time again, so it would have been cool to see something else from a director who has generally strived to give audiences something a bit outside the norm. The Neon Demon just feels too “safe," if you can even say that about a film that features a necrophilic sex scene.

Refn delivers precisely what you’d expect from him in the way of a horror movie, and that’s frustrating because there are moments when The Neon Demon could be downright great, but instead the story just coasts along without really giving those key moments a second thought. For example, a scene featuring a mountain lion that invades Jesse’s hotel room could have been an allegory to highlight the idea of feminine rage and power, but instead, it just happens and that’s about it—essentially becoming another toss-away moment.

That being said, there’s no denying that on a visual level, The Neon Demon is a masterpiece and may be my favorite-looking film from Refn to date. The way he toys with the juxtaposition of color palettes, often playing deep and rich colors against shockingly white or hauntingly black backgrounds, lends itself nicely to Refn’s hypnotic approach to cinematic storytelling. Cinematographer Natasha Braier is worthy of any praise she receives for her work on the film, as she vividly captures Los Angeles’ many looks and gives them new life, making for a wholly fresh vision of a city that we’ve seen in thousands of movies.

Ultimately, I’m of two minds on The Neon Demon; it’s hard not to get pulled into anything Refn does, whether you love it or hate it, and I’d definitely watch it again once it starts making the rounds on cable. On the other hand, Refn essentially treats the film as one big vanity project, never quite giving us any satisfying storylines or character arcs. I really was excited to see what Refn’s sensibilities would bring to the world of horror when The Neon Demon was first announced, but unfortunately, all we get is a beautiful-looking film, and not much else.

Movie Score: 2.5/5