I described this as a crime of the present. A decade before the debut of MST3K the only joy derived from this film was our comments and the laughter of the audience.
I'd like to preface this review by saying I'm a big fan of Cronenberg and have seen and enjoyed many of his films (M. Butterfly, Eastern Promises, History of Violence, eXistenZ, Videodrome, etc.
Coldly pragmatic clinic doctor Adam Tripod (a perfectly haughty pantomime portrayal by Ronald Mlodzik) goes searching for his unhinged dermatologist mentor Antoine Rouge, who has vanished in the wake of a catastrophic plague created by cosmetic products that has killed off the entire population of sexually mature women.Writer/director David Cronenberg does an expert job of crafting a cold'n'clammy feeling of total amorality and emotional detachment which in turn gives this oddball experimental short a distinctly chilly identity.
This line is normally where I put the plot, but the plot is unclear to me... a group of people who live in an institution for bizarre venereal diseases, perhaps?
In a future imperfect all females have perished due to a deadly chemical outbreak, leaving the male population to fend for themselves. Among them Aaron Tripod (Ronald Mlodzik), a researcher coping in the new world now devoid of a moral compass.
"Their thoughts are opaque to me," coldly notes the androgynous observer Adrian Tripod (Ron Mlodzik, who would make Michael Jackson look manly by comparison) at "The House of Skin." The patients, it seems, have started secreting some kind of foam from various orifices.
Have become a great admirer of David Cronenberg and find his films and style interesting. His films are unsettling and the subjects that he chooses to explore are very difficult ones, but that is what makes him and his films interesting.
Crimes of the Future starts out stronger, more dynamic than its predecessor, "Stereo" and indeed throughout the film there is more of an emphasis on "action" though it is a weird, distanced, poorly choreographed sort of action that could almost be at home in "Dr. Who"; but on the whole the film is very similar to "Stereo" both thematically and cinematically, apart from the major obvious difference of color film.
Spoilers herein.You might find this interesting if you are in search of something deeper in Cronenberg's mind than what is apparent in his later projects.
