I enjoyed this movie for the most part but I also know it’s very weak by Cronenberg standards. That’s a very contradictory thing to say but hear me out. Is The Shrouds better than Maps To the Stars? Yeah. Should it be mentioned in the same breath as something like Dead Ringers? Absolutely not. I know this movie is pretty flawed, kind of uneven and takes forever to end. The performances & chemistry between the actors leaves a lot to be desired at times as well (I guess Viggo Mortensen was busy?). The basic premise, about a unique cutting edge way to grieve & obsess over deceased loved ones is certainly interesting but it’s hardly the most intriguing thing about the movie. It’s only been a day since I’ve watched this so my opinions are super fresh and could change over time but right now I feel like this is nothing more than a very interesting idea executed by someone that’s bored. The emphasis on things like A.I. & voyeurism felt 15 years too late (is David Cronenberg turning in to our slightly out of touch uncle posting out of date memes on Facebook??). The most common early criticism of The Shrouds is that it’s Cronenberg simply going through the motions and just “playing the hits”. I’ll be the first to admit that the director does borrow heavily from his previous films. At times The Shrouds plays out like Dead Ringers & eXistenZ with some new seasoning (even the sex scenes are right out of Crash). But after decades of countless filmmakers stealing & heavily borrowing from Cronenberg on the most surface level - I think he’s allowed to reference himself. At least he understands his work and his own style. I can’t say that about most filmmakers that namedrop the body horror icon as an influence (Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Evolution is really the only semi-recent film worthy of a Cronenberg comparison).
Outside of the similarities to his other films, the movie is incredibly meta. Not only does Vincent Cassel play a former industrial filmmaker, but his character kind of looks like Cronenberg. There’s even a line in The Shrouds where someone says to Cassel/“Cronenberg”: you’ve made a career out of bodies. David Cronenberg is a complex & layered guy that shouldn’t be defined by one thing, but anyone familiar with him knows that “body horror” is his most common descriptor. It’s the safest thing to say about him and his work. This is clearly a personal film for him. Part of the story involves a mysterious entity stealing the main character’s data. Could part of The Shrouds be David Cronenberg throwing a shot at folks stealing his ideas for the last 50 years?
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Vincent Cassel as David Cronenberg |
There’s two movies playing in theaters right now (Cuckoo & The Substance) that everyone is calling Cronenberg-esque when in reality they just come off as movies made by people that think David Cronenberg’s only claim to fame is gore. Look - I get it. I understand why things that are gross & visceral are compared to his work but most of the time they’re more Brian Yuzna/Stuart Gordon knock-offs than they are David Cronenberg knock-offs (It should be noted that he is a fan of recent stuff like Titane & The Substance which probably wouldn't exist without his work)…
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Videodrome/ The Substance |
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The Fly / The Substance |
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Scanners / The Substance |
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Society / The Substance |
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From Beyond / The Substance |
Personally, my favorite thing about this movie is the humor. The dry, awkward perfectly timed humor is The Shroud’s saving grace. David Cronenberg is no stranger to comedic moments even in his most dramatic films. But his latest felt like a full-on dark comedy.
And I don’t know how intentional this was (and I could be completely off in my assessment) but Cronenberg captured a lot of great modern architecture in the background without presenting it as something bad or evil. At this point I don’t think it can be denied that modern architecture gets a bad rap in film. Whenever anything is presented as bad or evil or cold, directors always make it a point to show a modern building under shitty lighting at unflattering angles. All modern architecture isn’t bad but you wouldn’t know that watching most modern movies. I don’t know about you all but I’d love to live in Vincent Cassel’s home in the film over some dusty Brooklyn brownstone. But that’s just me (an architecture graduate with 20 years of design experience).
This sounds shitty but if you go in to The Shrouds with low expectations you’ll probably end up enjoying it. Just don’t expect vintage Cronenberg.