(This is Climax film review, which is a 2018 French musical horror art film that contains drugs and sex scenes)
We(ok, maybe some of us) used to have some of those bad acid trips when we go to clubs etc. Then imagine if this incident happened to a group of dancers, who become so high that interesting things start to happen! As weird as it may be, this is the basic premise for Gaspar Noé‘s latest French art film. The director who is famous for delivering unconventional films has given us this weird art film that may pull you into their dreamlike hallucinations! It even stars Sofia Boutella as one of the lead dancers! Without further ado, let’s delve into the Climax film review below to find out how high we get from watching it!
Premise
When a group of dancers decides to gather in a remote school building to rehearse some dance moves, they do not expect that their drinks would be laced with LSD. This causes everyone to enter some hallucination dream-like state that begins to bring horror and revealing a human’s true colour openly. Could any of them survive this wild drugged night?
Climax Film Review
This is less a film, more a documentation of what it’s like to have a monumentally bad acid trip while you’re stranded in a hostel with a bunch of young, hormonal dancers. What could go wrong? Obviously everything.
Honestly, there ain’t much to talk about for the plot it’s very barebones and something you just have to experience for yourself should you choose to. What I will talk about is the way it is presented, sometimes manic, sometimes hyper-focused. What do I mean? There are certain scenes you get multiple cuts where all the scenes just focus on different characters and what they’re doing, these are static shots. The rest of the film…. My god. They’re just long moving one takes throughout the party. I swear the main chunk of the film is this long one take that’s at least…. 30 mins? And the camera moves around the whole building during this sequence, following different characters in very natural transitions and even filming upside down when things get really hectic. It is a visual, technical spectacle. I do not know if there’s any digital stitching of scenes together but if it’s really a long one take… Bravo to the cameraman and the performers.
I do like the way the characters are set up and their complex relationships to one another shown too. These are all established through a series of interviews and dialogues between characters which are shown in the style of the aforementioned flurry of quick-cut static shots. An excellent example of show not tell I think. Its hard to follow with so many characters but if you’re paying attention you should catch the gist of who likes who, who wants to fuck who, who hates who etc.
I heard someone comment as we were leaving the cinema “this film wasn’t made to entertain, it’s made for film festivals”. I have to agree. This film is very intense and many times uncomfortable but the sheer level of talent from the performers and the technical prowess and psychedelic set design makes this a very unique experience. I’m glad I caught it in cinemas at least once.
