“A specter is haunting the world. The specter of capitalism.” That statement from Marx’s and Engel’s Communist Manifesto appears on a LED ticker during a riot sequence in David Cronenberg’s latest, which gains a powerful resonance considering the state of our current economic affairs. Cronenberg takes Don DeLillo’s prescient 2003 novel Cosmopolis and gives it the cinematic treatment it richly deserves. Few filmmakers have the talent for tackling “unfilmable” books (like William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch or J.G. Ballard’s Crash) and remaining faithful to their source texts and themes while retaining their own unique directorial style like Cronenberg does. His movies are works of fierce intellectualism—ones that combine existential ideas with outrageous body shock horror. This adaptation of DeLillo’s novel is one of his most challenging and daringly brilliant films to date.
Cosmopolis is a bleak film with certain chilly, comic interludes. The narrative concerns a young uber-billionaire financier named Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) as he tries to obtain a haircut. This mundane task turns into a surreal odyssey as he gets stuck in the mother of all traffic jams due to a presidential cavalcade, then mounting anti-capitalist riots, and finally from a funeral procession for famed Sufi rapper Brutha Fez (a surprising and welcome cameo from K’naan), whose music Packer plays in his private elevator. Pattinson performs competently here, with Cronenberg using the actor’s vacant gaze as a strength to portray the icy detachment that the character exudes. Packer’s indifference to the sprawling mess of humanity around him is fascinating, as his character is one who exists to satiate any appetite, be they sexual or a desire for destruction. The actor gets to be more vampiric here than anything portrayed in the Twilight movies. Though he spends the majority of the film trapped in his decked-out/hi-tech limo, itself a champion design of decadent futurism, the character remains never less than engaging. With the anarchy running rampant outside of his techno womb, the film’s apocalyptic howl of fury towards those in societal power becomes readily apparent.
This film isn’t always easy to digest, as the majority of the dialogue is lifted from the page verbatim in a mix of inventive technobabble speak and philosophical posturing. Certain scenes take on the appearance of dadaist performance art. Cronenberg handles all this in an assured manner, never letting the film sputter out of control. With his confident direction, the material definitely stays on a comprehensible plane, inviting the audience to thrill in its bracing ideological prowess. A sequence with Vija Kinsky (Samantha Morton), Packer’s chief advisor, covers various complex capitalist theories while she and Packer remain oblivious to the ongoing chaos outside the limo is a startling and powerful scene—one that could easily function as its own bravura short film.
This film’s allusions to the Occupy Wall Street movement are made more cogently here than anything Chris Nolan feebly attempted in The Dark Knight Rises. The political showdown of the 99% vs.1% is made symbolically in the final scene of the film, where Packer meets his would-be assassin, Benno Levin (Paul Giamatti). Their exchange of class warfare and personal distress is a knock-out scene, taking up 22 minutes of the running time. Looking suitably disheveled and covering his head in a dirty towel, Giamatti personifies the screaming mad street-prophet image while enacting vicarious vengeance on the upper class.
This is a film purposefully designed to polarize audiences. The structure seems to operate on its own internal logic, yet if you can get on board the film’s groovy wavelength, it will provide for a very rewarding experience. At the risk of overselling it, I can confidently say that David Cronenberg has crafted a modern classic—another masterpiece in his impressive crown of jewels. As it stands so far, it is my favorite film of the year.
Limité Rating: 5/5
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: David Cronenberg
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Sarah Gadon, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel, Kevin Durand, K’Naan, Emily Hampshire, Samantha Morton, Paul Giamatti
Site: cosmopolisthefilm.com
Release Date: August 17 (NY, LA)
