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eXistenZ
(rating:8 out 10)
(1999,directed by David Cronenberg)
TV rots your brain, so
many would say. And many think video games do about the same. But what if TV wouldn't rot
your brain, instead it grows a tumor in your brain, making you hallucinate to the point
you don't know what's real: Such was the scenario of David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME
(1983), and what that movie did for television, eXistenZ does for video
games with equally mindbending, thought-provoking results. eXistenZ is an
earnest mindfuck which leaves you wondering what's reality at all, to what extent are we
ourselves or just actors and where will technology take us.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, who challenges herself with every role she plays,
is Allegra Geller, an idolized game designer introducing her latest creation, eXistenZ.
During the presentation, one of the fans in attendance attempts to kill her and she's
taken into hiding by Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a new-hire working for Geller's company,
Antenna. It alls sounds straightforward, except the "game" in question is an
actual biological organism which has been genetically engineered--they call it the
"MetaFlesh Gamepod". It plugs into a "Bioport" at the bottom of one's
spine, then the game is activated by arousing the Gamepod's nipple-like
"buttons". If you're familiar with Cronenberg's imagery, the moment you see the
MetaFlesh Pod you know it's one of his movies. The story then follows Allegra and Ted as
they play eXistenZ and begin to discover eerie similarities between the
game and reality, to the point in which they (and the audience) can't tell what's truly
real and what's just game.
The MetaFlesh Gamepod
This premise, the questioning of reality, seems to be very hot of late.
Take the recent film, THE MATRIX, and the upcoming one, THE
THIRTEENTH FLOOR. Unlike those films, eXistenZ doesn't rely on
computer visual effects, actually helping this film more than those effects did for the
others. The MetaFlesh Pod writhes sounds like an actual living thing. And the assassin's
gun is made of bones from a mutated amphibian creature--it actually shoots human teeth as
bullets. Cronenberg's films have always been surreal, aware that underneath the fabric of
our reality lie issues of fear, dread, rage, absurdity, aberrant sexuality (is sexuality
fundamentaly abberant?) and paranoia. As the film progresses, all the characters begin to
suspect each other as being the enemy.
I won't ever look at Chinese food the same way again after seeing this
movie.
Not only is the technology in eXistenZ surreal, the
characters are several steps off normal. Allegra seems to be addicted to her own games.
Ted Pikul seems extremely naive, perhaps suspiciously so. Within the game, characters act
as poorly drawn drones, waiting for dialogue cues to act their parts, yet later in the
film, "real" characters become indistinguishable from "game" ones.
Cronenberg enlists some very talented actors in basic cameo roles, like Willem Dafoe as
the gas station attendant, Gas (get it?), and Sara Polley, last seen in GO, appears as a
saucy PR girl, but only for about 5 minutes. The issues of acting and role-types are
fascinating in this film, making me wonder that at times in real life we are simply
trapped in our own self-imposed roles and are forced to act dramas, comedies and
tragedies.
eXistenZ is not so much about video games but about
the coming of immersive cyber-communities and virtual worlds. These trends are
fast-growing--consider the online universe called Ultima Online, the chat worlds of
America OnLine and IRC, and all the other cyber realities/games being worked on for future
release. The film points to the unfortunate realization that many people will seek these
realities the same way a junkie seeks a heroine fix. These realities are places where one
can be anyone they choose: The disabled man will be able to walk;the cowardly man will be
able to save the day;the conservatinve housewife will be the ultimate vixen and the mousy
quiet kid will act out violent, serial-killer fantasies. Many works of Sci-Fi have dealt
with this subject matter, which leads to the argument that living and striving in a world
we have no control over is the ultimate act of bravery and the most personal confrontation
we can ever undertake.
It wouldn't be a Cronenberg film without sexual connotation: The
bioport doubles as an erogenous zone with its anus-like appearance. On one scene, Ted
drives his tongue into Allegra's bioport--you can pretty much read the subtext there. The
MetaFlesh Gamepod itself, when activated, acts and writhes in sexual ecstasy. And looking
at Allegra Geller entranced in her own video game, you could swear she was being tickled
in all the right places. Addiction has a certain sexual connotation to it--the craving,
the consumation, the ecstasy, the possibility for self-destruction. Cronenberg has always
been attacked for making "depraved" films (remember the reviews and general
controversy over CRASH (1997)?) but the thing is he doesn't talk about
anything that isn't already deep within us. How many of us are out there, acting fantasies
of dominance, submission, crossdressing, homosexuality and humiliation? And how many of us
act with feigned outrage at the depictions in Cronenberg's films? Hypocrisy is a
by-product of deep self-denial sometimes.
When eXistenZ was over, and I stepped outside into the
"real" world, I felt disconnected, full of a puzzling feeling that my reality
could be just some game I'm not aware I'm playing. In one of the film's key scenes, Ted
Pikul "awakes" from the game and finds himself disoriented, his eyes perceving
reality in a new light. eXistenZ will leave you wondering, that perhaps
our "reality" is just some game being played in an universal GamePod, and
perhaps fearing that just around the corner, some crazy fanatic will raise an organic gun
at you and yell: "Death to the Demon."
Armando Valle.
May 18,99
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