Crimes Of The Future on 4K Blu-ray – The DVDfever Review – David Cronenberg

Crimes Of The Future shows that if David Cronenberg hasn’t turned your stomach in the past with his films like Videodrome, he’s sure to do it with this one.

Children can cause concern for their parents at any time, but especially for mum Djuna (Lihi Kornowski), when young son Brecken (Sotiris Siozos) is brought in from the beach, then seen biting into a plastic bin after being told not to eat anything he finds in the sea.

Without going into detail about their story further, because spoilers, performance artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen – Green Book) is lounging around in some sort of incredibly weird, ungodly creature which acts as a bed. Jeez, just get down your local Bensons For Beds (other stores are available), or similar. However, the plot description does state this is about humans adapting to a synthetic environment, and how our lead shows that his talent is to sort-of metamorphosise. He’ll grow additional organs and tumours in his body, and then his lover, Caprice (Lea Seydoux – No Time To Die), will have them removed.

She demonstrates this open-chest surgery in full view of people. This gives him some ecstatic pleasure, while the paying audience gawp on. And who’s doing the surgery? Robots with all the dexterity of the Scutters from Red Dwarf!

In this future, organs can also be tattooed, so if those are created them disembowelled, you get bonus points!

Later, we see a man who – when it comes to listening – is all ears… EWWW!!! I’ve seen some freaky shit from Cronenberg before, and this really does zoom it ahead a few notches. And just as Saul enjoys the surgery, before long, others want to get in on the act! What a bunch of weirdos! That said, it does remind me of Drive, and all the bizarre surgery involved in that one.

In Crimes Of The Future, though, it’s like there’s a competition as to who can ruin their body the most, with all kinds of adaptations, as well as this being the only way they can ‘feel’ something.

I could go into further depth about the ins and outs of the plot, but it’s best to know as little as possible, and then try and fill in the gaps afterwards. However, as always when I’ve seen a Cronenberg movie, every actor always appears as treating the bizarre premise as something completely reasonable. This one also includes a couple of government bods who get involved, one being Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper) as Timlin. Personally, Kristen Stewart could be in every film and it would be awesome, and I think she’s at her most stunning in Equals.

Overall, this is certainly engaging, but I’m still quite unsure what I think about it, based on one screening. It does look utterly stunning, though, especially on this glorious 4K pressing.

There’s also one scene that seemed completely ridiculous, but I’ll put this behind a spoiler header:

The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, in 2160p high definition, and I’ve already gone into detail about the quality. The sound is largely ambient audio rather than a special effects-type film and brilliantly complements the film, with the main music theme is one that’s still playing in my head .

The extras are as follows, and there’s a few items lower down in this list which I haven’t yet seen, but there’s so much content to dive into immediately, and kudos to Second Sight for packing so much in. If only all film studios did this! The overall score will reflect the amount of content:

• Undeniably a Love Story (7:27): Writer/Director David Cronenberg talks about how he had an idea for the plot of this film, after reading about microplastics being found in the bloodstream

  I’d like to say that this is the first interview I watched on this disc, but then I have a thing about Kristen Stewart…

• Things Change (9:14): Viggo Mortensen talks about how technology changes over time, which can lead to repression by the authorities, but also rebellion by artists against that repression. In fact, this is a little bit of a rambling interview, but he does enjoy working with Cronenberg, and has done four times, also in A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, and A Dangerous Method.

• The Chaos Inside (6:48): Léa Seydoux talks about how she enjoyed working with Viggo, and compliments Cronenberg on working with his unique vision, and how it was a challenge to do so.

• The Heat And The Grime (7:16): A great interview with Kristen Stewart, talking about how we’ve been on the path to destruction for a long time, and how our disconnection and separation through technology of our bodies is something happening around now, so Crimes Of The Future feels like a relevant movie for our times, also with perhaps a link between Saul and Cronenberg, as she feels it’s about an artist in the end of his life.

• The Bureau Man (26:59): Don McKellar talks about how, apparently, he has the most lins in the film, because his character babbles a lot.

• Painkiller (10:19): an interview with producer Robert Lantos.

• The Most Wonderful Dream (17:34): an interview with cinematographer Douglas Koch.

• The Code of David (22:58): an interview with editor Christopher Donaldson.

• New Flesh, Future Crimes: The Body of David Cronenberg (22:51): A video essay by Leigh Singer.

• The Making of Crimes of The Future (21:50).

• Production Design Materials (7:55): CGI renderings of the ‘bed’ in the film, how Saul fits into it, the ‘Scutters’, and how to work out removing someone’s organs.

• The Death Of David Cronenberg (0:58): The director sees himself alone in his bed, dead, and investigates. That is so bizarre to witness.

• Audio Commentary: by Canadian writer and filmmaker, Caelum Vatnsdal.

Crimes Of The Future is out now on Limited Edition 4K Blu-ray Boxset, 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray.

Cert:
Running time: 107 minutes
Year: 2022
Chapters: 12
Cat.No: 2NDBR4194
Distributor: Second Sight
Released: September 11th 2023
Picture: 2160p High Definition
Language: English
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Widescreen: 1.85:1 (ARRIRAW (3.4K))
Subtitles: English SDH
Disc Format: BD100

Director: David Cronenberg
Producers: Panos Papahadzis, Steve Solomos
Screenplay: David Cronenberg
Music: Howard Shore

Cast:
Saul Tenser: Viggo Mortensen
Caprice: Lea Seydoux
Wippet: Don McKellar
Timlin: Kristen Stewart
Lang Dotrice: Scott Speedman
Router: Nadia Litz
Berst: Tanaya Beatty
Cope: Welket Bungu
Klinek: Tassos Karahalios
Djuna: Lihi Kornowski
Brecken: Sotiris Siozos
Adrienne Berceau: Efi Kantza
Dr. Nasatir: Yorgos Pirpassopoulos
Tarr: Jason Bitter
Odile: Denise Capezza
NVU Agent: Mihalis Valasoglou
Beauty Spa Woman: Penelope Tsilika

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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