The Neon Demon

Ange

Rising Star
Aug 22, 2016
221
424
So, did any of you see it? And if so, what did you think?

I personally thought Fanning looked great, but still obviously not a HF model, esp. When surrounded by women who had more of the body for it. I get kind of irritated when they do that in movies, but whatever.

I left the theater with a gross feeling in my stomach since the movie was a bit graphic, but it was definitely memorable. I liked it.
 
There's a bit of discussion in both Abbey Lee and Elle's threads i believe.
I personally disliked the movie, I'm not saying it was bad really because it was very different I guess I just did not enjoy it. It felt too pretentious to me wjth how edgy it tried to be for my taste.

But Abby Lee looked hot a f :jizz: made the movie completely worth seeing to me
 
There's a bit of discussion in both Abbey Lee and Elle's threads i believe.
I personally disliked the movie, I'm not saying it was bad really because it was very different I guess I just did not enjoy it. It felt too pretentious to me wjth how edgy it tried to be for my taste.

But Abby Lee looked hot a f :jizz: made the movie completely worth seeing to me

Thanks for the heads up. I did a search to see if I was posting old news, but I don't want to be redundant :)
 
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I haven't seen it, nor do I plan to. I've heard it's awful and know so many girls (including a few girls with threads in our 'models' section) who literally walked out of the cinema in disgust mid way through.
 
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I haven't seen it, nor do I plan to. I've heard it's awful and know so many girls (including a few girls with threads in our 'models' section) who literally walked out of the cinema in disgust mid way through.

Thanks for your candor.
I was wondering what the girls in the industry were really thinking of it.
As far as artsy films go, it wasn't so bad. It was very visually striking, but as I said, a lot of gross moments.
Also, not the kindest critique of the fashion industry, but in my opinion, not a total waste of a film either.

I can definitely see why some would walk out though!:run:
 
I haven't seen it, nor do I plan to. I've heard it's awful and know so many girls (including a few girls with threads in our 'models' section) who literally walked out of the cinema in disgust mid way through.

I am curious to go and see the movie just to see what could have made the HF models walk out in disgust.
 
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I haven't seen it, nor do I plan to. I've heard it's awful and know so many girls (including a few girls with threads in our 'models' section) who literally walked out of the cinema in disgust mid way through.
Is more of the disgust revolved around a wrongful portrayal of the industry/models or of the actual gore? Just curious - haven't seen it yet, I assumed it was to the fashion industry/models as Black Swan was to professional ballet/ballerinas
 
Is more of the disgust revolved around a wrongful portrayal of the industry/models or of the actual gore? Just curious - haven't seen it yet, I assumed it was to the fashion industry/models as Black Swan was to professional ballet/ballerinas
Not a model, a ballet dancer, but I'd say the same reasons as Black Swan. My ballet teacher made my entire class promise to never watch Black Swan because of how pathetic it is. That being said, I watched it and I loved it. It's not fully correct but it was entertaining nonetheless.
 
Without giving too much away, there's a violent moment that made a woman in front of my row leave.
Also, when I say artsy, I do mean that it walks a line between realistic and fanciful, but the dream-like moments are more like a nightmare than anything.
There is also a bit of gore.

The movie is from the same director that did Drive, Bronson, and that wrote Only God Forgives.
His stuff tends to be violent and visually striking with a lot of odd lighting and bold color palettes.

It's not an easy watch, but like I said, at least it wasn't forgettable like so many films.

If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, don't waste your money, because you probably will (justifiably so) hate it.
 
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I like to read the Wikipedia summaries of movies I don't think I'll spend time or money on...this left me nauseous just reading. I'm not even going to pirate this, it's so icky.

A young and aspiring model named Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved to Los Angeles. After her first photo shoot, she meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who introduces her to fellow models Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) at a party. The girls attend akinbaku bondage show, bathed in flashing red and white lights.

Jesse gets signed by an important modelling agency and is sent to a test shoot with a notable photographer, Jack (Desmond Harrington) who, upon seeing her, calls for a completely closed set, douses the studio lights, and covers Jesse in gold paint. Afterwards, Jesse goes on a date with her friend Dean (Karl Glusman), who served as the photographer of her first shoot. When she returns to her motel room, she finds that it has been ransacked by what turns out to be acougar. The unsavory manager, Hank (Keanu Reeves), refuses to help her and demands that she pay for the damages. Unknown to Jesse, these are later paid for by Dean.

Jesse goes to a casting call for a preeminent fashion designer (Alessandro Nivola), at which Sarah is also present. The fashion designer pays no attention to Sarah when she walks for him, but is entranced by Jesse and tells his assistants to have her measured. Distraught, Sarah flees into a nearby bathroom, where she tears up her portfolio of headshots and smashes a mirror. Jesse finds her in the bathroom, and Sarah asks her how it feels to be the one on whom everyone lavishes attention and praise. Jesse tells her, "It's everything." Sarah lunges toward her, and Jesse accidentally cuts herself on a shard of glass from the mirror. Instead of helping Jesse, Sarah tries to drink her blood.

Later, Jesse attends the fashion show, where she encounters Gigi, who is also modeling for the show. Gigi tells her about all the work she has had done to her face to make her look more beautiful, and expresses disbelief when Jesse tells her that she has never had any kind of cosmetic surgery. The designer tells Jesse that he wants her to close the show, and gives her an opulent dress to wear. During her runway appearance, Jesse sees a hallucinogenic vision of a glowing triangular structure, and kisses her reflection inside a mirrored prism. After the show, Jesse and her friend Dean go out to a bar, where the designer is having drinks with Gigi and another girl. The designer denigrates women who have had cosmetic surgery as being artificial beauties. In contrast, he praises Jesse's natural looks and declares that "beauty is not everything, it is the only thing." When Dean challenges this assertion, the designer pointedly asks him whether he would be interested in Jesse if she were not so beautiful. Dean tries to convince Jesse to leave, but she rejects him.

After returning home to the motel, Jesse has a nightmare of Hank coming into her room and making her swallow a knife in a violent manner. She wakes up in time to hear someone, maybe him, trying to enter her motel room. She is able to barricade the door, but is forced to listen as the intruder instead breaks into her next-door neighbor's room and assaults her. Terrified, Jesse calls Ruby, who tells her to come to her place for safety. After Jesse comes to the mansion that Ruby claims to be house-sitting, Ruby tries to initiate sex with her, but is rejected. Upset, Ruby leaves for her second job as a makeup artist for a morgue. There, she pleasures herself with a female corpse while thinking about Jesse.

When she returns home, Ruby is greeted by Jesse, who notes how other women would do anything to have her looks, but will only ever become second-rate versions of her. Inside the mansion, Jesse is then attacked and pursued by Gigi and Sarah. They eventually corner her outside, and Ruby pushes her into the empty swimming pool, fatally injuring her. The three women are shown approaching her body with knives. Ruby is then seen bathing in Jesse's blood, while Gigi and Sarah shower together to wash the blood from their bodies. Some time later, Ruby is alone in the mansion when blood begins to cascade from her genital area, and she is next seen lying awake in what is presumably Jesse's unmarked grave.

The next day, Gigi and Sarah arrive for a photo shoot at a seaside mansion. In the midst of the shoot, Gigi falls ill and begins heaving, forcing her to leave the set. Sarah finds her in a bathroom desperately trying to vomit, eventually vomiting up one of Jesse's eyeballs. She then begins screaming "I need to get her out of me", before stabbing her own stomach with scissors and cutting open her own abdomen, dying in the process. Sarah watches Gigi die and then eats the regurgitated eyeball before shedding a tear and silently returning to the set.

...that escalated quickly.

And still, the most unrealistic plot point is the idea that Elle Fanning would ever be a more successful model than Abbey Lee. :lol:
 
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I like to read the Wikipedia summaries of movies I don't think I'll spend time or money on...this left me nauseous just reading. I'm not even going to pirate this, it's so icky.

A young and aspiring model named Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved to Los Angeles. After her first photo shoot, she meets makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who introduces her to fellow models Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) at a party. The girls attend akinbaku bondage show, bathed in flashing red and white lights.

Jesse gets signed by an important modelling agency and is sent to a test shoot with a notable photographer, Jack (Desmond Harrington) who, upon seeing her, calls for a completely closed set, douses the studio lights, and covers Jesse in gold paint. Afterwards, Jesse goes on a date with her friend Dean (Karl Glusman), who served as the photographer of her first shoot. When she returns to her motel room, she finds that it has been ransacked by what turns out to be acougar. The unsavory manager, Hank (Keanu Reeves), refuses to help her and demands that she pay for the damages. Unknown to Jesse, these are later paid for by Dean.

Jesse goes to a casting call for a preeminent fashion designer (Alessandro Nivola), at which Sarah is also present. The fashion designer pays no attention to Sarah when she walks for him, but is entranced by Jesse and tells his assistants to have her measured. Distraught, Sarah flees into a nearby bathroom, where she tears up her portfolio of headshots and smashes a mirror. Jesse finds her in the bathroom, and Sarah asks her how it feels to be the one on whom everyone lavishes attention and praise. Jesse tells her, "It's everything." Sarah lunges toward her, and Jesse accidentally cuts herself on a shard of glass from the mirror. Instead of helping Jesse, Sarah tries to drink her blood.

Later, Jesse attends the fashion show, where she encounters Gigi, who is also modeling for the show. Gigi tells her about all the work she has had done to her face to make her look more beautiful, and expresses disbelief when Jesse tells her that she has never had any kind of cosmetic surgery. The designer tells Jesse that he wants her to close the show, and gives her an opulent dress to wear. During her runway appearance, Jesse sees a hallucinogenic vision of a glowing triangular structure, and kisses her reflection inside a mirrored prism. After the show, Jesse and her friend Dean go out to a bar, where the designer is having drinks with Gigi and another girl. The designer denigrates women who have had cosmetic surgery as being artificial beauties. In contrast, he praises Jesse's natural looks and declares that "beauty is not everything, it is the only thing." When Dean challenges this assertion, the designer pointedly asks him whether he would be interested in Jesse if she were not so beautiful. Dean tries to convince Jesse to leave, but she rejects him.

After returning home to the motel, Jesse has a nightmare of Hank coming into her room and making her swallow a knife in a violent manner. She wakes up in time to hear someone, maybe him, trying to enter her motel room. She is able to barricade the door, but is forced to listen as the intruder instead breaks into her next-door neighbor's room and assaults her. Terrified, Jesse calls Ruby, who tells her to come to her place for safety. After Jesse comes to the mansion that Ruby claims to be house-sitting, Ruby tries to initiate sex with her, but is rejected. Upset, Ruby leaves for her second job as a makeup artist for a morgue. There, she pleasures herself with a female corpse while thinking about Jesse.

When she returns home, Ruby is greeted by Jesse, who notes how other women would do anything to have her looks, but will only ever become second-rate versions of her. Inside the mansion, Jesse is then attacked and pursued by Gigi and Sarah. They eventually corner her outside, and Ruby pushes her into the empty swimming pool, fatally injuring her. The three women are shown approaching her body with knives. Ruby is then seen bathing in Jesse's blood, while Gigi and Sarah shower together to wash the blood from their bodies. Some time later, Ruby is alone in the mansion when blood begins to cascade from her genital area, and she is next seen lying awake in what is presumably Jesse's unmarked grave.

The next day, Gigi and Sarah arrive for a photo shoot at a seaside mansion. In the midst of the shoot, Gigi falls ill and begins heaving, forcing her to leave the set. Sarah finds her in a bathroom desperately trying to vomit, eventually vomiting up one of Jesse's eyeballs. She then begins screaming "I need to get her out of me", before stabbing her own stomach with scissors and cutting open her own abdomen, dying in the process. Sarah watches Gigi die and then eats the regurgitated eyeball before shedding a tear and silently returning to the set.

...that escalated quickly.
WHAT THE FUUUCKK. Damn I really loved Black Swan and was unfazed by it - and similar movies - but I'm actually shocked and speechless just from that summary.

I am so glad I did not see that with friends in theaters.:run:
 
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From the commercials, I was really excited to see this movie. But before I went to the theater to see it, I read a summary just to see if i could handle it and I got grossed out just by some of the descriptions. I showed my friend some of the 'highlights' of the summary and needless to say, we saw another film. Such a shame because it looked so visually appealing from the trailer.
 
@vie @Ange @Sadistic

It was mostly to do with the utterly ridiculous portrayal of the industry. The insinuation that young girls are given excessive amounts of privilege and are exposed to this incredibly glamorous - albeit fucked up - world, only to be preyed upon by everyone around them. Sure, there's corruption in the industry, but not to this extent, and it gets tiring to be constantly fighting stereotypes on your own when they keep being enforced to mass audiences through channels like cinema. I think a few of the girls I spoke to felt it was offensive to reduce them - as models - to a weak player in someone else's game, that it gave modelling a cheap name as a profession and undercut any validity of what they work so hard for. Basically, it gave the mass public (and also their family and friends who know what they do for a job, but don't necessarily understand the technicalities of it) yet another scare propaganda insight into the modelling industry.
 
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@vie @Ange @Sadistic

Sure, there's corruption in the industry, but not to this extent, and it gets tiring to be constantly fighting stereotypes on your own when they keep being enforced to mass audiences through channels like cinema.

There's corruption in most industries to some extent - it's just that cinema and the media like to focus on certain areas - usually more glamorous ones. I think there's also an element of jealousy - the fashion industry is (rightly) very selective so people like to focus on it being 'so corrupt' so they can tell themselves it's a bad area they wouldn't want to work in anyway.

I bet the proportion of sleazy office managers is just as high or higher than sleazy photographers; I've never worked in fashion and I still encountered a lot of creepy, manipulative or crazy people during my working life. People are variably bad and good throughout all walks of life; we just like to pretend it's only a few select areas..
 
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@vie @Ange @Sadistic

It was mostly to do with the utterly ridiculous portrayal of the industry. The insinuation that young girls are given excessive amounts of privilege and are exposed to this incredibly glamorous - albeit fucked up - world, only to be preyed upon by everyone around them. Sure, there's corruption in the industry, but not to this extent, and it gets tiring to be constantly fighting stereotypes on your own when they keep being enforced to mass audiences through channels like cinema. I think a few of the girls I spoke to felt it was offensive to reduce them - as models - to a weak player in someone else's game, that it gave modelling a cheap name as a profession and undercut any validity of what they work so hard for. Basically, it gave the mass public (and also their family and friends who know what they do for a job, but don't necessarily understand the technicalities of it) yet another scare propaganda insight into the modelling industry.

So did someone get the idea for this screenplay in bar, write it on a napkin, then misread "nepotism" for "necrophilia?"
"colorful film about the drama and problems a new face encounters after breaking through quickly (after a single test shoot) and in relation to necrophilia."

justttt stop.

I liked Black Swan because I knew where everything was, the train, the neighborhood. I love ballet, in general. I loved their Yumikos and Ugg boots and that they were skinny. I don't even mind the story, "you're the one in your way," which is unfortunately relatable. I hated the shock violence though. It seems like 25% of movies now have some sort of graphic rape or really perverse violence (I'm not talking about Iron Man punching something but swallowing knives, ripping out veins, being beat with blunt objects, et cetera.). I'd walk out of Neon Demon; that kind of thing is over my limit, I don't want it in my head.
 
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I like to read the Wikipedia summaries of movies I don't think I'll spend time or money on...this left me nauseous just reading. I'm not even going to pirate this, it's so icky.
Too funny! I'm also a Wikipedia movie-plot junkie. I rarely watch movies or TV, mostly because a) I don't usually have 2 hours to devote to a movie, and b) even when I do, I just get distracted soooooo easily, so it's not even worth it. I literally can only concentrate on a movie if I'm sitting in a theater. Ha. Anyways, information overload. I'm sorry, I haven't really talked much today.

And still, the most unrealistic plot point is the idea that Elle Fanning would ever be a more successful model than Abbey Lee. :lol:

THIS.
I keep asking myself whooooo the actual, blood hell cast this thing....
 
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THIS. I keep asking myself whooooo the actual, blood hell cast this thing....

Well we are living in a world where Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner are more successful (famous/recognized) models than Abbey Lee already...
 
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I'd like to see a movie about the chubby, plain daughter of a celebrity parent (or parents) who decides she wants to be a model, but everyone realises that she has no talent and she gets laughed out of the industry never to be heard from again, except the odd appearance in gossip magazines when they run a "Celebrities with their children" feature.

Genre would be Fantasy, unfortunately.
 
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