My thoughts on ‘The Neon’ Demon.
The Neon Demon has swiftly cemented it’s spot in my top 10, possibly even 5 films since my first viewing a week ago. I’m going to talk about what I enjoyed, what the film represented to me and why it deserves a spot in my top 10. Warning, this post will contain spoilers for The Neon Demon.
The film did such an immensely great job in conveying the idea that the modelling industry is so relentless, it chews people up and spits them out, using their “beauty” as a vessel for attracting business; as soon as one look goes out of fashion, they throw the models away and move on to the next.
Being a teenager currently studying and having not paid attention to the modelling industry one iota until this film, I am not sure how accurately it represents the real industry, but as an audience member it feels highly dramatised and yet it also makes me feel as though it is truly revealing the dark secrets within the industry.
The use of colour, cinematography, sound design and mise-en-scene all combine to provide such a beautifully immersive experience. I was left in pure horror as the door to Jesse’s room was tampered with; I sat in revulsion at the thought of what may happen if Hank (played by Keanu Reeves) was able to break in. The film truly made me experience emotions I never thought the modelling industry would ever be able to evoke from someone.
Something I noticed about the cinematography and mise-en-scene was the fact that there was a mirror in almost every single shot. For me, I felt this represents how women in the industry, but more importantly women in general, are forced to always be looking at themselves and seeing their reflection. Typically, the more you look at something, the more normal it becomes and it loses its sense of speciality, eventually becoming and everyday, boring aesthetic. This indicates how women are forced to look at themselves in such a way that they become no longer happy with themselves. As the viewer, we are forced to watch parts of the scenes through mirrors and reflections as characters aren’t based directly within frames. This allows the viewer, regardless of gender, to be able to experience what it might be like to be a women in todays highly aesthetically focused age, and this is something I thought the film did so well and effectively.
The Neon Demon clearly displayed 3 different types of beauty. Sarah who was representing external beauty, Gigi who represented artificial beauty and Jesse who represented natural beauty.
The films also uses Jesse’s character to convey the idea that beauty, success and wealth combined can create a monster, displayed through the development of Jesse as a character. The films also tackles the idea that “beauty kills”. Beauty leads to death, it is represented almost as a trap that cannot be escaped, everyone is always looking at Jesse like the sun in a winter sky, it is inevitable that it will come with hate and yet she still chose to take the path of being a model. It makes the audience question why, even in the real industry, it is inevitable that not all will find you attractive, or you may not be what ‘they’re looking for’ and yet people are still willing to take the consequences that come with this for a chance to show their beauty off to the world. One thing the film did so well for me, is get me thinking about the modelling industry and it has really expanded my way of thinking.
The character Dean looks at Hank (Keanu Reeves) in disgust when he hints toward the fact that he is a pervert. Dean wants nothing to do with the man and thinks what he is doing is wrong and yet the irony is that he is the one that is knowingly pursuing a girl that is 16 years old. This really solidifies the concept that beauty can make you blind. Even as the audience, we see the character and we know she is 16 and yet the film does such a great job of making her truly more attractive than the other models. I found myself believing that the other characters were not as attractive and was the most attracted to Jesse’s character, yet in reality, they are all physically attractive and yet the films representation of Gigi and Sarah’s ego in the way they are so fierce in their sense of competition within the industry that it makes you doubt their attractiveness, leaving them with an expired feeling, belittling them to nothing more than “commodities”.
One of my favourite things about The Neon Demon is the symbology and metaphors planted around the story. For example, when Jesse leaves her balcony door open and finds a leopard in her room, she is frightened to death. This conceptualises the whole story in the fact that, by taking a career choice in modelling, with her beauty and inevitable jealousy that it comes with, she has allowed monsters into her life.
Later on we see a leopard in Ruby’s house indicating that she is a dangerous lady and that she is the true monster that Jesse has allowed to enter her life.
At the beginning of the film, Ruby says Jesse has “that look, like a deer in headlights”. This indicates the fact that her downfall is inevitable, a deer in headlights freezes and simply watches as its life comes to an end. This indicates from the very start that Jesse’s life is destined to come to a horrible and yet predictable end.
When Sarah sucks the blood from Jesse’s hand in the bathroom, we get the first taste of how desperate she is to be like Jesse and have her beauty. This becomes more extreme by the end with the eating of the eye ball, and we understand how truly consuming beauty can be as people become willing to do anything when envy and jealousy take over.
Finally, one of my favourite things about The Neon Demon was the soundtrack. It was so thought provoking and inquisitive, it forced me to ask questions and immersed me in every scene, every shot and every frame whilst perfectly conveying the hostile yet intricate tone of each and every character, scene and location. Pure perfection, I could not ask for a better OST.
Overall, I really enjoyed The Neon Demon and would definitely encourage everyone to watch it. Let me know what you thought with a response below.
