'Crimes of the Future' review: An absolute masterpiece

New Delhi

David Cronenberg presents a unique vision of the future in his latest film 'Crimes of the Future' (no connection to his eponymous 1970 feature, except the grotesque things done to the human body). Even by Cronenberg's standards, 'Crimes of the Future' is a particulalry weird film. There is oodles of gore in the film with disturbing visuals like organs in a cut open belly, scalpel scraping the bone in a foot, heads being drilled into -- and it is all very disturbing -- but there is a thematic depth here in 'Crimes of the Future' that keeps the film engaging even during the most disconcerting sections.

Unknown years into the future, the climate change that scientists have been warning us about for decades has struck with full force and has not only screwed up the vegetation and ecology, but also human bodies. Many people need the assistance of machines and computers to perform basic tasks like eating breakfast and having a sound sleep. However, the ability to feel pain has all but disappeared, and surgeries can now be performed without anesthetics. This has enabled the arrival of a new kind of performance art. It includes performers doing mutilations to their bodies like sewing up their eyes, which is rare these days but has become the norm in the seedy future 'Crimes of the Future' lays out. 

Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and Caprice (Léa Seydoux) are such performance artists. In their case, it means Saul uses his rare condition called “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome”, which keeps growing organs inside his body that may or may not be tumorous. The performance involves Caprice, a lapsed surgeon, cutting open Saul's abdomen and theatrically extracting it out as audiences watch with rapt attention. They refer to each other as just partners, but they live together and their relationship is erotically charged. In one scene, they lie together after cutting open different parts of each other's bodies. Their faces appear to have an after-sex glow. As one character says, surgery is the new sex. 

'Crimes of the Future' does not have much of a plot and even character, and if that is all you look for in a movie, it is certainly not for you. If you have seen Cronenberg movies before, particularly those that came early on in his career, this film is like a return to that purity. But even more than those movies by the director, this film is less interested in the events than reflections on some challenging ideas. It is more of a sensory experience than anything else. A collection of philosophical musings by a filmmaker returning to the genre that he kicked off and that in turn made him so successful. 

The cinematography (by Douglas Koch) and production design (by Carol Spier) paint a bleak world with muted colours like dun brown and ochre and even machines are not spick and span glittering metal things, but seem as though made out of fossilised bone. This is not the future most of us would wish live in, but from a distance, it seems alluring somehow. 

Despite the gore and despite scenes of sexual practices that we from the year 2022 would call deviant (you never know what we might come to accept in the future), 'Crimes of the Future' is often a stunning film. A masterpiece.