This one's by Ben nicholson who writes for Static Mass. Definitely agree with it, watching the film, as with any of Cronenberg's films is really what cinema is about. A journey and challenging.
Cosmopolis
Adapting Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, Cronenberg’s crafted a bewildering existential drama that will linger in the mind for days and demand more than one viewing.
http://staticmass.net/blu-ray-dvd/cosmopolis-dvd-2012-review/
Sorry, can't agree about the review. I've read the book (& all DeLillo's work) & hugely admired it & am looking forward to seeing the film. (I don't watch films in public venues.) Seems like Pattinson would be a perfect fit to play Packer, definitely a financial vampire.
But to me the review is not really about the film at all. It doesn't address anything more than Ben Nicholson's experience in viewing the film, i.e. his tastes in movies, music, etc., his habits & amusing (to blogfans) quirks & habits. Maybe in this age of populist web opinions, that's what "sells", but other than to say he likes the film, I find no particular insights into its strengths & qualities, which is regrettable as I'm sure this film could use all the intelligent boosting it can muster.
Seconding; that review was heavily padded with unnecessary personal detail, and very short on insight into the quality of the film. But then again I wouldn't really criticise them for it; it's hard to get the balance right between analysing qualitatively about a film without doing what is now considered the biggest possible faux pas, the dreaded spoiler, now considered the major [and for some people, the only] important measure of whether a reviewer is professional or not in the task. The pedantic habit of writing anything so long as it doesn't spoil the film is endemic now even among those considered professionals...
shareThis one is also good:
Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg) [107.5 points / 10 votes]
"In the year of “Big Data” and Nate Silver, the film that speaks most strongly to today’s world is one that exists in a completely artificial one -- David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, a work as radical as anything he’s made since Videodrome, and in many ways that film’s inverse. A rip-roaring comedy about the psychology of data and capitalism, Cosmopolis takes us through the journey of a billionaire whose belief in digital patterns is questioned when he is unable to comprehend a disastrous fall in the yuan.
In Cronenberg’s world, digital life is a cracking façade: monotone dialogue pops like a screwball comedy, the limousine slowly deteriorates into a piece of junk, and our protagonist’s body physically corrodes in the most absurd of ways.
Cronenberg’s control of each facet of his film is pristinely precise. The performances by its marvelous cast work through the extremely complicated dialogue without ever once flinching (most notably the bravura performances by Robert Pattison and Sarah Gadon). And Cronenberg emphasizes the artificial in every frame while slowly allowing glimpses of creeping humanity like little pinpricks.
Edited and shot with razor-sharp skill, Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel might seem like the film the Occupy Wall Street movement has been waiting for, but it’s more of an attack on our constant investment in the signs, symbols and patterns of digital life today. Two characters realize they both have asymmetrical prostates, and one demands to know its meaning; the response: “Nothing... a harmless variation.” The most unsettling thing in Cronenberg’s vision of the future is realizing that not everything can fit neatly into models."
http://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2013/02/2012-film-of-year-countdow n-12.html
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117947638/
An eerily precise match of filmmaker and material, "Cosmopolis" probes the soullessness of the 1% with the cinematic equivalent of latex gloves. Applying his icy intelligence to Don DeLillo's prescient 2003 novel, David Cronenberg turns a young Wall Street titan's daylong limo ride into a coolly corrosive allegory for an era of technological dependency, financial failure and pervasive paranoia, though the dialogue-heavy manner in which it engages these concepts remains distancing and somewhat impenetrable by design.
While commercial reach will be limited to the more adventurous end of the specialty market, Robert Pattinson's excellent performance reps an indispensable asset.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/cover-story/1918862 91.html
Best Adapted Screenplay
...
What should have won overall: David Cronenberg’s script for Cosmopolis makes great a so-so Don DeLillo novel, although its real power emerged when the actors came to speak their lines. Who knew Robert Pattinson was put on earth to deliver overly-stylized DeLillo dialogue?
Best Actor
...
Who should have won overall: As much as I want to say Denis Lavant, for his literally shape-shifting work in Holy Motors, no performance was as exciting as Tim Heidecker’s raging wealthy dickhead routine in The Comedy. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Robert Pattinson wuz robbed—for Cosmopolis...
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Excerpt of review by: Veronika Ferdman
“In a world that is overrun by images and sounds (although Eric’s limo has windows that can darken and block out the outside world) the interior of the vehicle still contains LCD screens that infiltrate the space, bringing him a barrage of the day’s news, images of the Rothko chapel that he’s so keen on purchasing, the stock exchange, etc. Immolation is a horrific and bold act of protest and pain.
But his Chief of Theory has a point: When an action is repeated over and over it loses some of its urgency and meaning, even something as horrific as this. And when through the aide of technology our lives are inundated by the same images we become inured to violence, beauty—everything. That is not to say that an act such as immolation loses all meaning, but when it’s not happening to you directly, and this is not the first time something like this has happened, and you know that it will happen again, its imprint on the heart and mind is limited. Ephemeral.
And thus, although Eric’s would-be assassin, Benno Levin, is presented as an anomaly (as is, comically, Eric’s prostate) these occurrences are just part of smaller subsystems. (Certainly, Eric is not the only man in the world with a misaligned prostate.)”
http://www.cosmopolis-film.com/2013/08/featured-review-notcoming-com.h tml
http://www.xpressmag.com.au/index.php/eye4/film-reviews-2/4767-cosmopo lis
In Pattinson, Cronenberg has found the perfect vehicle for his post-millennial musings. With his angular, off-the-shelf, pretty-boy features and his cold, empty gaze, Pattinson doesn’t so much give a performance of alienation as live it. His Packer, with his looks, his intellect, his acumen, and his wealth, is an example of perfection; and perfection, Cronenberg says, is something not quite human. In his drive to find some kind of actual connection with the world, Packer is willing to - and more than capable of - destroying every element of his carefully constructed life, and it’s this that ultimately drives the narrative.
Reactions to Cosmopolis have been mixed, and that’s understandable; it’s an opaque film that demands close scrutiny, and its clinical stylings, deliberate pacing, and oblique narrative are not particularly welcoming. Make no mistake, though; this is Cronenberg at his most fascinating, and those with patience to tackle this conceptual puzzle box will be well rewarded for their efforts.
_TRAVIS JOHNSON
COSMOPOLIS @cosmopolisfilm
.@altfilmguide's translation of Cosmopolis review: "A Cronenberg as brilliant as he is taut." Pattinson "impeccable" http://wp.me/p1he1K-1pV
REVIEW: David Cronenberg filmed ‘Cosmopolis’ with an incredible ingenuity
translations from Alt Film Guide:
3 out of 5 stars
An early Cosmopolis review has come out via Studio Ciné Live‘s Fabrice Leclerc. Directed by the iconoclastic David Cronenberg, who adapted Don DeLillo’s novel, and starring Robert Pattinson, Cosmopolis is definitely one of the most eagerly anticipated films at the Cannes Film Festival 2012.
The headline of Leclerc’s brief, three-star (out of five) Cosmopolis review reads: “A Cronenberg as brilliant as he is taut.” Leclerc then begins his review by explaining that Cronenberg and DeLillo are “manufacturers of fantastic, unhealthy, and at times somber environments, of the science of language, and of totally chaotic characters. And of controversy as well.”
Referring to Cosmopolis as a “ghostly and hypnotic” tale, Leclerc adds that Cronenberg had adapted to the letter DeLillo’s “ultrarich prose, filming with an incredible inventiveness this stifling and disturbing airtight environment.”
As for Robert Pattinson, Leclerc says he’s “impeccable” until Cosmopolis‘ last segment, when, “lost in a verbal torrent,” Pattinson “seems, all of a sudden, to be no longer in control.”
Leclerc wraps up his review with the following: “As always with Cronenberg, there are no half-measures, no second gateway, no escape. Cosmopolis is to be experienced in full or not at all. Take it or leave it.”
I would debate with Mr. Leclerc that Eric Packer no longer in control at the end is the right move. But I have to wait until I can see the film. ;)
The reviews for Cosmopolis will start pouring in and Studio Ciné Live (French) offers up the latest. They give the film 3/5 stars and bottom line the film to there’s no in between with a Cronenberg film. It’s you take it or leave it. We’re going to take it.
Greg Dinskisk @GregDinskisk
@anythingplusmor So was Antiviral/Cosmopolis. Did you see either of those? ;)
Paul @anythingplusmor
@GregDinskisk Parts of COSMOPOLIS, and am interested in seeing the rest if it. Cronenberg's newest interested me.
Greg Dinskisk @GregDinskisk
@anythingplusmor It's great, better too the more one reflects. Maps to the Stars is my #1 most anticipated of the year. Sounds fab.
Cronenberg and Pattinson are headed back to Cannes:
Variety is weighing in on prospects for Cannes, and says MTTS is a definite contender:
“Maps to the Stars” (David Cronenberg). A perpetual Cannes competition bridesmaid since 1996′s controversial “Crash,” the cerebral Canadian auteur reteams with his “Cosmopolis” star, Robert Pattinson, in this satirical takedown of the entertainment industry. Entertainment One has North American rights to the film, which also features Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon.
Possibly competition-bound is “The Rover,” Australian director David Michod’s follow-up to his acclaimed crime drama “Animal Kingdom”; it stars Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, who could find himself on the Croisette for both this and “Maps to the Stars.”
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/cannes-prospects-foxcatcher-inarritu s-birdman-likely-headed-to-the-croisette-1201147926/
[deleted]
10/10
http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f4/t001888.html
Cronenberg has a history of getting career best performances out of his lead actors - think James Woods in Videodrome, Christopher Walken in The Dead Zone, Jeff Goldblum in The Fly et al - and Robert Pattinson is no exception.
Pattinson is excellent as our protagonist, Eric Packer. (...) So it is with Pattinson - his self loathing, disenfranchised schtick meshes effortlessly with Cronenberg's trademark austerity. Pattinson and Cronenberg are just a great fit. In any case, it's difficult to see prior contender, Colin Farrell, being better than this.
unoneed2now ‏@Unoneed2know
So proud that Rob is no longer Twi guy. He's David and limo guy. #cosmopolis
MelN ‏@Mel452
#Cosmopolis RT @Meli1518 Yeahhhhh RT @CynicallyConvy: Last scene of the movie was legit. People aren't lying. rob shined like the Chrysler building
Cosmopolis Film Blog ‏@cosmopolis_blog
Lots of laughing tonight at 6:30pm Lincoln Ctr, NY. People got humor @kgirl1899: I couldn't stop laughing.. Cosmopolis s amazingly funny!
Packy Pie ‏@_LittleLovely_
@Queenbeee78 The NY Cosmopolis screening...70% of the audience were male. DC fans, I guess. But I'm sure after the movie, Rob fans as well
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Brian Crowley @RUN_BRC
@RussellHFilm you liked Cosmopolis??
Russell Hainline
@RussellHFilm
Second best film of the year. Brilliant. RT @RUN_BRC: @RussellHFilm you liked Cosmopolis??
Kurt @KurtisMassey_
Cosmopolis is such a good film, ugm
Greg Dinskisk @GregDinskisk
@RussellHFilm Haven't seen THE COUNSELOR yet, but COSMOPOLIS is my #1 2012 film, so I'm sure it is ;)