`EXISTENZ' TWEAKS THE (COMPUTER) GAMES PEOPLE PLAY.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic David Cronenberg's latest ickfest, ``eXistenZ,'' is probably his most erotic movie. There isn't really much sex in it, but if virtual reality games are your thing, it's a nonstop orgy. Besides, after failing to convince us that auto wrecks were sexy in his last film, ``Crash,'' anything the brilliant but, um, uniquely fixated fix·ate v. fix·at·ed, fix·at·ing, fix·ates v.tr. 1. To make fixed, stable, or stationary. 2. To focus one's eyes or attention on: fixate a faint object. director tries to do is bound to seem sensual by comparison. Even when it inevitably turns your stomach. The film is set in a near-future when interactive games can be plugged directly into people's central nervous systems and played in a kind of hyper-realistic dream state. It revels in such fun-sounding biotech diversions as surgical body penetrations, MetaFlesh game-pods and the cool-to-say, ooky-to-see umbycords that connect the other items together. There are also gristle gristle: see cartilage. guns made out of human flotsam A name for the goods that float upon the sea when cast overboard for the safety of the ship or when a ship is sunk. Distinguished from jetsam (goods deliberately thrown over to lighten ship) and ligan (goods cast into the sea attached to a buoy). , mutated creatures that provide assembly line parts for those game-pods, and yucky, venereal-like diseases that the pink, fondle-ready little playthings can catch. If you're still reading, this movie is probably for you. Actually, ``eXistenZ'' (pronounced like the first three syllables of existential, which it kind of, sort of is) registers on the benign end of the Cronenberg gross-out scale. There are no exploding heads (``Scanners''), no giant talking bugs (``The Fly,'' ``Naked Lunch''), and the bioport spinal jacks that people plug their umbycords - love that word! - into are not nearly as nauseating as the gut cassette slits in ``Videodrome,'' the Cronenberg film ``eXistenZ'' most resembles. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Allegra Al·leg·ra A trademark for the drug fexofenadine hydrochloride. fexofenadine hydrochloride Allegra, Telfast (UK) Pharmacologic class: Peripherally selective piperidine, selective histamine Geller, a brilliant virtual game designer who is attacked - with a gristle gun, of course - during the first public demonstration of her new masterpiece, also called eXistenZ. It seems the Realist Underground considers her the antichrist Antichrist (ăn`tĭkrīst), in Christian belief, a person who will represent on earth the powers of evil by opposing the Christ, glorifying himself, and causing many to leave the faith. , responsible for seducing millions into the vivid but imaginary worlds of her games, and they've offered a fortune for her assassination Assassination See also Murder. assassins Fanatical Moslem sect that smoked hashish and murdered Crusaders (11th—12th centuries). [Islamic Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 52] Brutus conspirator and assassin of Julius Caesar. [Br. (Cronenberg has said that the film's story, the first original he's written since the 1983 ``Videodrome,'' was inspired by the Salman Rushdie Noun 1. Salman Rushdie - British writer of novels who was born in India; one of his novels is regarded as blasphemous by Muslims and a fatwa was issued condemning him to death (born in 1947) Ahmed Salman Rushdie, Rushdie situation). Geller escapes into the countryside with an inexperienced bodyguard, Ted Pikul (English actor Jude Law), and her wounded master game pod. After an unnerving un·nerve tr.v. un·nerved, un·nerv·ing, un·nerves 1. To deprive of fortitude, strength, or firmness of purpose. 2. To make nervous or upset. encounter with a grubby mechanic/bioport installer (Willem Dafoe in high creep mode), she and Pikul go into the game in search of permanent damage. From that point on, every aspect of their reality is called into question. But then, where did that two-headed mutant amphibian amphibian, in zoology amphibian, in zoology, cold-blooded vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia. There are three living orders of amphibians: the frogs and toads (order Anura, or Salientia), the salamanders and newts (order Urodela, or Caudata), and the they encountered while on the lam come from? The game's virtual world boasts geek-filled electronics stores and the ultimate disgusting Chinese restaurant See:
But that doesn't mean that the more philosophical ``eXistenZ'' is all that smarter than ``The Matrix.'' It sometimes hits on brilliant ideas - I especially liked the bits when Geller and Pikul, not fully in control of their game-world behavior, felt like actors trapped in a movie they knew was bad. But there are pat notions aplenty a·plen·ty adj. In plentiful supply; abundant: "There were warning signs aplenty for their candidates as well" Michael Gelb. here as well. Although modern computer technology has refreshened the concept of worlds-within-worlds-of-illusion for the movies, it's a decades-old standby in science fiction literature, and sharp new insights on the subject are hard to come by. Whatever its weaknesses and transgressions, though, ``eXistenZ'' can be pleasurable in a weird, sometimes mystifying mys·ti·fy tr.v. mys·ti·fied, mys·ti·fy·ing, mys·ti·fies 1. To confuse or puzzle mentally. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. To make obscure or mysterious. way, which is more than can be said for most recent Cronenberg. Must be the umbycord. THE FACTS The film: ``eXistenZ'' (R; violence, language, sex). The stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Christopher Eccleston, Willem Dafoe, Sarah Polley. Behind the scenes: Written and directed by David Cronenberg. Produced by Robert Lantos, Andras Hamori and Cronenberg. Released by Dimension Films. Running time: One hour, 37 minutes. Playing: Selected theaters. Our rating: Three stars. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law star in ``eXistenZ.'' |
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