I drank the potion she offered me, I found myself on the floor
Added 7/30/2009
Demonlover: 4 out of 10: Wow what an overlong train wreck of a movie. Before I begin to scratch the surface of the ineptitude of this film let me explain the few things Demonlover does right.
Demonlover does some things very well. It has individual scenes that work on their own either as erotic vignettes; (Chloe Sevigny playing videogames in the nude , an Asian girl seducing a French man at a club after his lover leaves.) or plot actions (dosing a bottled water with Halcion) before the film ventures down the rabbit hole twenty odd minutes in.
So how can a thriller dealing with bondage and Hentai and starring Chloë Sevigny, Gina Gershon, and the hot redhead from Devils Advocate, Connie Nielsen, possibly go wrong?
Well for one thing, there are cloistered nuns that know more about marketing animated porn online than writer/director Olivier Assayas does. I often complain about movies where the writers and director have clearly never worked in an office (13 Going on 30 for example) but this is over the top. The French, as an example, are worried about a secret website that makes lots of money. If the website makes lots of money wait for it it probably is not a secret. Moreover, I am sure that cornering the online Hentai traffic is an unattainable goal. After all, how hard is it to draw new tentacle porn?
In addition, I doubt many corporate spies scale the sides of buildings or poison colleagues. Moreover, with the silliest script this side of The Core you cannot depend on the ever confusing and contrived plot.
I know I praised the sex scenes above but with this cast, I was expecting more, a lot more. Also I often did not know where the movie was taking place. (are they in Tokyo or France is a popular game you can play.)
Then there is the car chase, at the end, that looks like an outtake from Vanishing Point. (As Tom Servo would have said Meanwhile in another decade)The film is overlong, very confusing, somewhat boring and the characters IQs seem to drop every scene. After the fifteenth fade to black transition, I actually screamed end already at the screen.
In reality, this seems to be a badly done remake of Videodrome. Olivier Assayas is clearly no David Cronenberg. He cannot even tell a simple story in a believable and entertaining manner. Or take advantage of three of the hottest actresses in the business.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Demonlover
Added 1/18/2009
This is a haunting, intriguing, well-written film, much more intellectually developed than could be determined by the name. Chloe Sevigny gives an outstanding performance. Since seeing Ms. Sevigny in "Zodiac", "Brown Bunny", "Shattered Glass" and now in "Demonlover", I have become her biggest fan. She gives a chillingly cold-hearted performance in "Demonlover".
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Dystopia of the New Millenia
Added 4/3/2007
Demonlover is a very modernist film which deserves to be alligned with the great dystopic novels of the previous century, "We", "the Iron Heel", and particularly "1984" with one proviso its primary impact as opposed to literary is videogenic.
It tells the story of a corportate executive, appropriatly female, who will go to any lengths to succeed according to her on self-defined, narcisstic standards at odds with her objective appearances and in stark contrast to others expectations. Brash and domineering she uses a free floating cynicism to treacherously sell her corporate secrets to others for monetary gain thinking self-assuredly that her private intrique and machinations are curiously invioable, just as many criminals do. This is the first half of the film, in the second part of which so many critics don't like, all this ballsy swagger is shown to be an act of utter self-deluding fantasy; she has underestimated her antagonist and she instead of manipulating the system for her own gain she devolves into a most contemptible slave to it. A powerful morality tale for the times.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Intriguing, But Unsatisfying
Added 8/22/2006
I watched this film from start to finish, which suggests I found it interesting enough to stick with. But, I was also totally perplexed by its many nonsensical plot twists. For example, it took me far too long to figure out that it takes place in the "high rolling" world of corporate financed porn (an intriguing idea, given the fact that I had no idea such a world existed - I always thought of the porn industry as much more contained and independent).
DEMONLOVER is a little too stylized for its own good - its focus on form completely overwhelms its paper thin storyline. Connie Nielson is very good, but could have been so much better with a stronger script. I debated giving it only 2 stars, but felt the performances merited a stronger rating.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Jumbled mish-mash that garbles its promise
Added 8/6/2006
Where's the emotions and motivations for this contorted mess? Great camera work and suberb dramatic talent wasted on a plot that defies logic.
1 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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I drank the potion she offered me, I found myself on the floor
Added 7/30/2009
Demonlover: 4 out of 10: Wow what an overlong train wreck of a movie. Before I begin to scratch the surface of the ineptitude of this film let me explain the few things Demonlover does right.
Demonlover does some things very well. It has individual scenes that work on their own either as erotic vignettes; (Chloe Sevigny playing videogames in the nude , an Asian girl seducing a French man at a club after his lover leaves.) or plot actions (dosing a bottled water with Halcion) before the film ventures down the rabbit hole twenty odd minutes in.
So how can a thriller dealing with bondage and Hentai and starring Chloë Sevigny, Gina Gershon, and the hot redhead from Devils Advocate, Connie Nielsen, possibly go wrong?
Well for one thing, there are cloistered nuns that know more about marketing animated porn online than writer/director Olivier Assayas does. I often complain about movies where the writers and director have clearly never worked in an office (13 Going on 30 for example) but this is over the top. The French, as an example, are worried about a secret website that makes lots of money. If the website makes lots of money wait for it it probably is not a secret. Moreover, I am sure that cornering the online Hentai traffic is an unattainable goal. After all, how hard is it to draw new tentacle porn?
In addition, I doubt many corporate spies scale the sides of buildings or poison colleagues. Moreover, with the silliest script this side of The Core you cannot depend on the ever confusing and contrived plot.
I know I praised the sex scenes above but with this cast, I was expecting more, a lot more. Also I often did not know where the movie was taking place. (are they in Tokyo or France is a popular game you can play.)
Then there is the car chase, at the end, that looks like an outtake from Vanishing Point. (As Tom Servo would have said Meanwhile in another decade)The film is overlong, very confusing, somewhat boring and the characters IQs seem to drop every scene. After the fifteenth fade to black transition, I actually screamed end already at the screen.
In reality, this seems to be a badly done remake of Videodrome. Olivier Assayas is clearly no David Cronenberg. He cannot even tell a simple story in a believable and entertaining manner. Or take advantage of three of the hottest actresses in the business.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Demonlover
Added 1/18/2009
This is a haunting, intriguing, well-written film, much more intellectually developed than could be determined by the name. Chloe Sevigny gives an outstanding performance. Since seeing Ms. Sevigny in "Zodiac", "Brown Bunny", "Shattered Glass" and now in "Demonlover", I have become her biggest fan. She gives a chillingly cold-hearted performance in "Demonlover".
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Dystopia of the New Millenia
Added 4/3/2007
Demonlover is a very modernist film which deserves to be alligned with the great dystopic novels of the previous century, "We", "the Iron Heel", and particularly "1984" with one proviso its primary impact as opposed to literary is videogenic.
It tells the story of a corportate executive, appropriatly female, who will go to any lengths to succeed according to her on self-defined, narcisstic standards at odds with her objective appearances and in stark contrast to others expectations. Brash and domineering she uses a free floating cynicism to treacherously sell her corporate secrets to others for monetary gain thinking self-assuredly that her private intrique and machinations are curiously invioable, just as many criminals do. This is the first half of the film, in the second part of which so many critics don't like, all this ballsy swagger is shown to be an act of utter self-deluding fantasy; she has underestimated her antagonist and she instead of manipulating the system for her own gain she devolves into a most contemptible slave to it. A powerful morality tale for the times.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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