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Beauty Is the Beast

Uninitiated viewers likely won't know what to make of "The Neon Demon," the latest offering from Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn ("Bronson", "Drive").  Upon reflection, it's probably safe to say that even a familiarity with Mr. Refn's previous work may not adequately prepare you for his latest.  It's the story of a young girl making a foray into the perilous Los Angeles modeling world, but whether it's much more - or much less - than that isn't entirely clear.  "The Neon Demon" is alternately beautiful, bland, shocking, inscrutable, clever, tedious, thought-provoking, derivative, singular, and self-indulgent, but these moments don't necessarily add up to a satisfying whole.  Perhaps they aren't meant to...and potential audiences should gauge their interest in the project based on their tolerance for such uncertainty.

We meet Jesse (Elle Fanning, "Maleficent") as she undergoes seemingly typical rites of passage for a young model: awkwardly artsy photo session, meeting with cutthroat agency rep, casting calls, and run-ins with established models.  Said models, upon sizing up Jesse's beauty, are either fawning or jealous, and this sets up a dynamic that plays out over and over throughout the film: characters observe Jesse's appearance and react to it based on their own needs and biases, but there is never any sense of connecting with her as a person.  There isn't even much of a person there to connect with: the film treats Jesse as a commodity or an element just as much as the other characters do, so we never learn anything about her beyond her age, her hometown, the fact that she's an orphan, and her belief that beauty is all she has to offer.

Reinforcing this belief is a parade of characters including the modeling agency rep (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) who dispassionately sizes her up and signs her on, the photographer (Desmond Harrington, Dexter) who sees her as a literal canvas for his artistic vision, and the makeup artist (Jena Malone, "Donnie Darko") who lusts after her and satiates her desire in an unexpected and disturbing manner. There's also the designer (Alessandro Nivola) who tells Jesse's boyfriend that without her physical allure he would see nothing to value in her, and the rival models who see her beauty as something they can take for themselves, just like stealing another girl's clothing at a fashion shoot.

There are pieces of "The Neon Demon" that are potentially intriguing but don't seem to fit in or go anywhere, such as an animal attack in Jesse's tacky rented room, or the seedy motel manager (Keanu Reeves) who's unquestionably a reprobate and possibly something much worse.  These compartmentalized components contribute to a feeling of shifting momentum throughout the film that's ultimately befuddling and unsatisfying; it's tempting to think that the film is on the verge of being "about" something but it never quite gets there.

Perhaps "The Neon Demon" is intended to be a visual essay collection, a series of cynical vignettes exploring some of the ways that we react to physical beauty.  The film certainly has some striking passages, and there is pleasure in witnessing the perfect composition of many of the shots and setups.  From a story perspective it's ultimately more of an allegory than a traditional work with a strong storyline and solid character development.  Viewers with the patience for such things may enjoy the slick production and the occasional black humor of "The Neon Demon;" others will prefer to pass it up in favor of artistic endeavors where the beauty is more than skin deep.