"The Neon Demon" Review - From the Vaults

At the risk of sounding a pretentious, wanky dickhead:

"The Neon Demon" is not a film which you see. It is a film you experience.

I knew it'd be weird.

I did not know that it would be this weird.

You will not see a more stunning film to look at this decade, and it's worth it for that ice-cold, pulsing 80s soundtrack alone. My friend and I knew it was Cliff Martinez from the first note...

It's coherent in so far as it has three acts, characters, an underlying central theme, many pieces of symbolism and beautiful visions.

However.

The thing is a twisted neon nightmare which washes over you like a flurry of bright, beautiful, neon madness. Every time I think I saw a theme, got something, understood something or was delighted by Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves (yes, Keanu Reeves is in this, and he's amazing) or the visuals, it'd take a turn into Bananas-ville through the side-street of Batshit Country.

It's the most arty thing I have seen at my usual arty picture house (The Picturehouse, fittingly) and it's a difficult one to recommend. If you didn't like "Drive", then stay the hell away from this. If you did like "Drive" then... I don't know?

It's like a Giallo film made by Takeshi Miike.

I think I liked it.