Crimes of the FUture (2022) Review
“I’m afraid of everything.”
David Cronenberg has been hailed as “The Godfather of Body Horror” for roughly four decades at this point. So, when it was announced that the esteemed director would be returning to his roots, the hype amongst the film community was warranted to say the least. Crimes of the Future is not only one of his most haptically engaging films to date – but is a work of art that finds an auteur at odds with himself, as well as his audience. Cronenberg proves he is as focused as ever and, like everyone else, everchanging in this modern world we live in; skeptical and worried about the future itself. It’s dreary, it’s slow, and most importantly – it’s inherently a Cronenberg film.
The film takes place in an unspecified future; humanity has evolved in numerous manners – with a majority unable to feel pain or contract infectious disease. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and Caprice (Léa Seydoux) are performance artists that have taken advantage of this new world; enacting surgeries on the former in front of a live audience. Tenser has a remarkable condition in which he grows vestigial organs in a rapid manner – leading the couple to the National Organ Registry, in charge of administering state restrictions on human evolution. One of the registrars, Timlin (Kristen Stewart), becomes enamored with the couple’s craft – leading her to proclaim to Saul, “Surgery is the new Sex.” This statement itself sets the entire film in motion; blatantly clear about the themes in a very “Cronenberg-esque” manner.
This initial premise here feels as if Cronenberg is making some sort of meta-commentary on the state of “niche media” and pop culture as a whole. As Saul and Caprice garner more attention within the scene – both registrars, Timlin and Wippet (Don McKellar), become invested in the performances in different manners. While Timlin finds the couple’s artistic endeavors seductive in ways she’s never encountered before, Whippet becomes more involved in the fiscal benefits of engaging in this modern artform; he may not understand it but it gives him the attention he desires. Through this tongue-in-cheek satire, Cronenberg is able to highlight multiple manners in which people resonate with art in our modern culture; some love the art itself and others may want to take advantage of it. It’s a deeply cynical film in this regard but one that’s not far off the mark in how our modern society insists on consumerizing every tiny artistic endeavor. WIth the direction NFT’s and the Metaverse are headed – we’ve already started to see this decay in artistic literacy; Cronenberg just brings it back to the real world here – consciously brushing over a “digital” era and opting for something more inherently “human.”
Eventually, Saul is approached by Lang Dotrice (Scott Speedman) – leader of the “evolutionists”; a group of individuals that have genetically modified their internal organs enabling them to digest plastics and other synthetic elements. Lang is appreciative of the couple’s performances and inquires if they would perform an autopsy on his deceased son, Brecken, who was murdered by his ex-wife. Lang shares with the couple that Brecken was naturally born with a digestive system that allowed him to consume plastics; eventually scaring his ex-wife to the point where she broke and smothered him to death – convinced he was “inhuman.” Saul is, naturally, skeptical of Brecken's evolutionary manner; adapting from his father’s DNA in a way that defies all sense of logic or science. But in a setting that’s evolved so far away from what we know as “humanity” in this day and age, Cronenberg crafts a sci-fi world that inherently inhabits the feeling of “change” and “evolution” itself. He displays a world that is not just set in stone but one that is everchanging – and no matter which way it heads, will always still be human.
As Saul sheds his skepticism aside by the end and decides to indulge in the synthetic foods crafted by the evolutionists, a single tear is shed as he smiles; the first time he is at peace onscreen. He’s accepted all that humanity is, was, and ever will be. And I think Cronenberg is asking us to do the same.
