a website by billimarie.

Just so you know. I may or may not know exactly what I’m talking about in the following paragraphs.

okay. well. I hate when people supposedly “review” shit but actually just give long summaries of what happened. Quick recap for the slackers: young guy gets killed while coming down DMT and trying to sell 50+ MDMA. turns out his punk-ass friend (who, by the way, has a milf for a ma) turned him in. druggie-homeless-bff Alex is pretty upset. Lil sis is, too. She’s too busy having boring stripper sex with her semi-pimp to get the phone call. But then she does. Oh, I forgot to mention the awesome trippy hallucinatory effects. As well as the transitions. So this guy is dead and pretty much just spying on everyone, or so we can assume, because at the end there is a penis inside a vagina and he is basically reborn as is sister and best friend’s kid? Oops. Spoiler.

I think you will love and hate this movie, simultaneously, like I did. Why? Because I know you. And I know you’ve looked into the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and you’ve considered realities beyond the sober one we’re used to, and I know you’ve either experimented or are currently experimenting with drugs/sex. Why the fuck else are you watching this movie!?

anyway. With a bit of editing, trimming, this could have been PERFECT. The transitions were awesome at first–woah, strobe lights! sweet. and now we’re floating above the city! wee.–but then they quickly became tiresome. Way too long. Too repetitive. And too many in too many intervals. (That’s what she said…? Yikes.) Pacing, scarcity, and precise points would have made these transitions not only beautiful but spiritually orgasmic.

I loved the narrative. I don’t just mean the story, but the way the story was told: favorite scene, where we’re voyeurs into his past and he dips into the pool, then comes back up in the tub. Awesome. Loved going back and forth between past, present, future…then again, what is time really but an illusion? To this dead guy, time is irrelevant–and so, it becomes irrelevant to the story.

the aborted fetus. I didn’t know it still had that shape when it’s that tiny. It was a really sad and somber scene, even if all we were looking at was a VFX rendition from various zooms and angles. As someone on IMDB mentioned, it definitely reinforced my stance on abortion. which I am keeping vague on purpose.

great moment in the film: intense drug dealer grabs that semi-conscious guy off his couch and seduces him into snorting more…whatever that powder was. Was more than a fantastic character moment, but a great visual metaphor for the entire movie: the depressing, seedy nature of illegal drugs in general, especially considering a place like Japan (Tokyo) where these drugs are even more illegal than they are here. And just the culture of this hardcore scene which is all about trying to experience a higher version of life, but ultimately ending up emptier, depressed, and without purpose. please be careful what you get addicted to.

now. everything you’ve been waiting for. THE LOVE HOTEL. Woah, awesome. Sex in a myriad (not really) of ways. I was totally down with the glowing genitalia, especially the vaginas, but the dicks…they were like meaty glow-sticks that ultimately didn’t work as well. And I don’t think snapping them in half and shaking them around while you rave would have worked. I liked the idea they were ultimately going for: this glowing light inside us, inside all of us, that actually is us. Beautiful whispers of wispy, trailing smoke brights, gently seeping out of us women while we have sex. Yes. Nice.

Then of course, that punk-ass Victor getting his karma in the Love Hotel: sucking off those guys in the elevator. Sister and Alex finally getting it on. I really hope he took a shower before this all started happening. Did anyone else laugh at the CGI penis/vagina scene? Totally out of place. I guess they wanted us to see the semen spurt out of his cock and deep into the thralls of her vagina so we would definitely know that a.) she’s probably preggers, and b.) brother is now becoming son in this twisted story of life, sex, love.

I recommend this movie for the colors and visual effects. I found out about this while researching movies that actually show what tripping is like–I was planning on doing it for my own film, but I’ve changed my mind after seeing this. That DMT scene in the beginning is excellent. Perfect blend of convoluted, quick, resonant, echoing thoughts mixed in with an array of colors, music, lights, vibrations, patterns, life, general awesomeness. 10/10. If you’re on the fence about investing ten minutes of torrent download time for this movie, the DMT scene definitely pushes you towards that “download” button. It probably also pushes you more into the “try DMT” lane, in general. But you were probably already there if you’ve heard of this movie.

Besides the DMT scene (which is in the first 10 minutes of the film, don’t worry), the camera movements post-character’s death and the lens distortions and compositions really add to the trippiness. It’s not too drastic, at least not to the point where you’re thinking, “geez, some teenager’s shitty photos just became high-class pieces of crap with their brand-new fisheye lens.” The film definitely got the proportion distortion down, as well as the simultaneous muddy, highly saturated vision. I also really enjoyed being able to see more than one vantage point with the way they comp’ed all these shots together.

Gorgeous cinematography, and I for one really enjoyed the first-person angle pre-death. Post-death, the ethereal slow, gliding movements were surreal. And the locations? Jesus. I fucking love colors, lights, and shiny things. Maybe I should move to Tokyo? Here are a few of my favorite colorful locations.

Opening credits. Wow. Immediate pull. Sounds flashes club fast fast fast more lots colors movement motion in your face full immediate ENTER! Echoes precicely the club drug scene the film pulls from. (Make sure you watch the video below in HD FULL SCREEN)

I think somewhere along the way in this review, I changed my mind. The parts I thought I hated, I now am only somewhat annoyed at. And the parts I thought I loved, I actually double-love. Triple-love, perhaps. I’m not sure why people watch this while high or tripping, because this film really in itself is a trip. Gaspar Noé accomplished exactly what he intended: to create a movie which realistically portrays not only the illegal drug club scene, but shows you exactly what a trip is like. Seriously impressive, considering all that went into it: the “out of body” transcendent movement, visual effects, lighting, color, set design, sound, music, editing. He even got the nostalgic family/childhood splices, too.

Here’s one of my favorite scenes. It was a dick of a time creating this animated gif, so I hope you shove it around tumblr with my name attached to it: