{"id":9111,"date":"2010-09-14T15:54:12","date_gmt":"2010-09-14T14:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=9111"},"modified":"2010-09-14T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2010-09-14T14:54:12","slug":"enter-the-void-gaspar-noe-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2010\/09\/14\/enter-the-void-gaspar-noe-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter the Void"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ambitious and technically dazzling, the latest film from director Gaspar No\u00e9\u00a0is also a disjointed exploration of life after death.<\/p>\n

Since attracting controversy and acclaim with Irreversible<\/a> (2002), Noe has returned to similarly grandiose themes and, like his previous film, presented them within a contemporary urban world.<\/p>\n

Set in contemporary Tokyo,\u00a0Enter The Void<\/strong> focuses on a young American drug dealer (Nathaniel Brown), his sister (Paz de la Huerta), and the various people he comes across whilst peddling his wares.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When a deal goes bad in a night club early on in the film, Oscar is shot and becomes a disembodied soul who can observe his loved ones and acquaintances like a ghost.<\/p>\n

As this spectral journey progresses, we also get flashbacks of Oscar\u2019s childhood and numerous other meditations on his life and ultimate death.<\/p>\n

What makes the film particularly striking from is that we see much of it through the eyes of the protagonist, a conceit which is sustained with consummate technical skill by No\u00e9\u00a0and his crew.<\/p>\n

Much of the film is a master class in cinematography, visual effects and editing, to the point where it could become a case study in film schools for those curious as to how various sequences were executed.<\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0stylistic\u00a0virtuosity is matched by a grimy setting: a dank, urban underbelly filled with dirty toilets, strip clubs and all manner of shifty people doing dodgy things.<\/p>\n

Although likely to turn off some viewers, as a depiction of that world it is convincing, despite all the visual trickery used to present it.<\/p>\n

The performances are solid: Brown makes for a sympathetic protagonist, with a performance heavily reliant on his voice work, whilst del la Huerta portrays the emotional and physical demands of her role with considerable courage.<\/p>\n

The wild, freeform way in which No\u00e9\u00a0explores death itself as some kind of existential, hallucinogenic trip is hugely ambitious, even if it doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n

Clumsy references to The Tibetan Book of the Dead and the loose nature of the narrative means that after about an hour the film starts to splutter and fracture.<\/p>\n

But despite this, long stretches of the film are a remarkable assault on the senses.<\/p>\n

Filled with strobe lighting effects, hypnotic sounds and even sequences set inside the human body, it is arresting, hallucinatory and disturbing, sometimes all at once.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

This is precisely the kind of film that should be experienced in the cinema for the full effect and some sequences linger long after the end – one recurring scene was so effectively shot and edited, it jolted me out of my seat more than once.<\/p>\n

Some will dismiss the ideas presented in the film as drug-fuelled pretension, but as a visual representation of what could happen when we die it is a fascinating and bold exploration of what is still a taboo subject in Western culture.<\/p>\n

Compared to how many mainstream films feature death as something to be laughed at or perversely enjoyed, especially modern horror franchises, this makes the film all the more unusual.<\/p>\n

Enter the Void has had a troubled journey to the screen with various cuts shown to different festivals over the last year, suggesting even No\u00e9\u00a0might have got lost inside the material.<\/p>\n

A more definitive director\u2019s cut might surface in the future, but it is rare for any modern filmmaker to attempt this kind of material, one of dazzling technical skill and intense philosophical ambition.<\/p>\n

It might not always work, but the finished film is unlike anything I\u2019ve seen in recent memory. For that, at least, it deserves considerable credit.<\/p>\n

Enter the Void<\/strong> is out at selected UK cinemas on Friday 24th September<\/em><\/p>\n

> Official UK site<\/a>
\n> Enter the Void<\/a> at the IMDb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ambitious and technically dazzling, the latest film from director Gaspar Noe is also a disjointed exploration of life after death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,5,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}