Ian’s review published on Letterboxd:
61/100
”You have to PLAY the game, to find out WHY you're playing the game.”
This is hands down one of the weirdest films that I have ever seen. Given the fact that it’s David Cronenberg going completely bonkers in existential crisis and mixture of body horror; I should have expected at least that. There isn’t a single moment where I thought I knew what was going to happen next and to be totally honest; I don’t think I could even tell you what even DID happen after watching it all unfold. There’s a weird mixture of The Matrix here and while I do think that the similarities really stop at the surface level, eXistenZ doesn’t really knock the whole aspect out of the park for me.
Not to say that the entire film was a big jumbled mess, but I just wish there was some sort of cleaner narrative line because I didn’t really find any sort of interest in what was going to happen. I was sort of watching it so that I could *know* what happened instead of being excited for it. Not quite sure if that is the best way to describe it but that’s how I felt. Although, for the first part of the film I was really intrigued and it sort of lost me, so maybe that was all part of the plan in order to describe how we get lost in a fixed reality and the more we’re in it the more we loose focus….but I think it definitely could’ve been better.
I do have to say though that Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh are pretty solid here. Chemistry is really off the charts and they hold it all together effortlessly. I think with Cronenberg I find myself really actively interested in his stuff for a good part of the film and then there’s a turning part where I either fall in love or fall off the hype train. Maybe I’m wrong in that and just need to round out his whole filmography, but eXistenZ is a solid flick and if for anything descends a watch for simply it’s strangeness.
