 Day one, the Neon Demon, suggested by Liam Knight. As for putting on makeup while talking about it, I've never used any of these before, don't know what I'm doing, and can't even use this mirror while I'm doing it because I have to read the teleprompter. So that'll be fun. Get ready with me. Where to start? I don't know. So the Neon Demon is a lot like its depiction of high fashion, gorgeous, brutal, and probably bad for your health. It's another in a long line of films about models that are really about how exploitative and frankly evil that industry is, and I do mean long line. When I asked the week I reviewed Discord if there has ever been a film about models that wasn't trying to tear the profession down, the most recent example someone came up with was 1957's Funny Face. Of course, most of those films don't feature necrophilia, so I guess that alone justifies the Neon Demon's place in the heap. But also, maybe it justifies just lighting the whole heap on fire. You know, depends on what you think about what I just said. I couldn't help but wonder on that note about how Amazon decides on its content warnings that it shows at the start because I would guarantee you that Netflix would have called that out right up front. There's a lot of shit that I think they would have called out that Amazon's tagging crew seems to just slot it under sexual content, but it's not the right description. Admittedly, much of the most heinous stuff happens, at least somewhat off-screen, but make no mistake, this is deeply fucked up and if you plan to see it, you should go in eyes wide open. Ooh, that looks real bad. Eyes wide open, but maybe you're shut. You see, the pulsing electronic soundtrack is a nice addition, sure, but sound off, you're not subjected to all of those conversations about beauty and how amazing it is to be beautiful and how much it sucks to not be as relayed by absolutely gorgeous people. But it's not just beauty, it's natural beauty, which cannot be manufactured and isn't everything because it's the only thing. And on the one hand, sure. Like, what would you expect a fashion designer to say? But on the other, there's no interrogation of that idea. Do you put this on your face? I don't know. No one comes to the defense of people who aren't naturally beautiful. Refn apparently made this movie because he was concerned about what the fashion and beauty industries are doing to women's psyches because he has daughters in this. What happens when men have daughters? But it's not clear to me how this movie is supposed to help them. Like, not have self-image that gets destroyed by Instagram or whatever. I mean, if you think about what happens in the movie, it is definitely saying things that people are harmed by society's obsession with beauty and that beautiful people can be harmed by society's obsession with their beauty. And also, it's kind of bad that people who are naturally beautiful can just get ahead in life. But is any of that really worth saying? And when worth saying like this in a package that also says things like being a literally cutthroat psychopath is the way to get ahead if you're not naturally beautiful and everyone is a predator. Men don't pretend not to be but women who are nice to you. Just really want to fuck you. I'm not, I'm not sure that any of these are intended messages per se, but I didn't have to do any work to get to them either. They're right there on its surface. And honestly, there is nothing at all beneath it. And maybe that's the point that it's intentionally empty because it wants you to think about how empty it is and then project that onto fashion and beauty in general. But also, that's kind of bullshit, right? Like, I don't think this movie is beautiful to make a point. I think it's beautiful because Nicholas Wynne Refn is an incredibly talented filmmaker. And honestly, everything he makes is beautiful. Every fucking frame of this movie is a painting, but not for any reason other than he has the ability to make every frame of painting. If we're being totally honest, I think the best version of this would actually be the Neon Demon, the coffee table book. You could grab a still from each shot, print it on fancy paper, give it a nice binding, and then you would have something that a certain type of person would gladly put in their living room. I don't know. I would want to be in that person's living room necessarily, but you know what I mean. I think it would actually make the case against fashion better in that format by virtue of being closer to how we typically consume fashion. Imagine having a book that you just want to look at like two thirds of, but you really want to look at that two thirds of. You know that if you turn the wrong way, you will be subjected to some deeply unpleasant imagery, but it's okay because you learn how to avoid that. You make the conscious choice to look at the pretty things and ignore the fucked up stuff that you know is just a page or two away, right? Like, that's interesting. The action of avoidance says something, and a really great movie could have some version of that by including scenes that someone might just want to skip over, or like a performance from someone you hate, but you just want to deal with because you want the good fuzzy feelings or even, you know, if you know that people had been exploited, but you feel like you have to do it. I don't know, we talked about separating art from artists. Anyway, The Neon Demon isn't a great movie, so it kind of doesn't matter. It's not even a good one. Like, I know I talk about being a style over substance guy, but that has limits, and this movie goes way past those limits. So here's the finished look. 3.5 out of 10. I look amazing tonight. Thank you to my patrons, my mom, hammering Marco, Kat Zarkata, Benjamin Schiff, Anthony Cole, Magnolia Denton, Elliot Fowler, Greg Lucina, Kojo, Phil Bates, Willow, Einsword, Riley Zimmerman, Claire Bear, Taylor Lindy's, and the folks who'd rather be read than said. If you like this video, great. Suggest what you want me to review in 3 days below. I don't know. Cool. See you then. Bye.