Movies: Cosmopolis

"I wanna be special, so f…g special, but I am just a creep". "Cosmopolis", David Cronenberg`s newest flick (imdb), reminds me of this Radiohead line ("Creep"  youtube). The movie, based on the same named novel by Don DeLillo (wikipedia), reports a day in the life of a multi billionaire fund manger who is traveling in his stretch limo through Manhattan to get a haircut. But, maybe the film describes just the dream of a 20 something guy who is still living with his mother. At least, there is a lot of evidence for that.

The flick has a dreamlike style. Persons, known to the character, appear & disappear suddenly & randomly during the drive, the fund manager temporarily materializes in a discotheque, then he appears again in his limo. The structure of the movie, which doesn`t really have a plot, resembles the structure of dreams which usually don`t follow a strict line and are in most cases very random.

Another piece of evidence is that the places and incidents are pathetic. The film doesn`t show the extremely ritzy & classy world you would expect from a multi billionaire asset manager. Quite contrary, "Cosmopolis" exhibits a poor and pathetic world, maybe similar to the real places the dreamer lives in, who isn`t capable of imagining the world of a financial market mogul, even in his dreams. How many real world billionaires happen to eat in the dives the movie´s character choses? The hair dresser's, which is the character's destination, isn`t a ritzy spa with models serving the sophisticated wishes of the sophisticated clientele, no - it `s an old man in an empty salon, which might have seen its last customer months ago. There are plenty of computer screens inside the limo but they don`t show the usual stock market symbols, commodity futures quotes and interest rates, no, they look more like computer games to entertain toddlers. Even the sex scenes were dull & boring, but what can you expect from a 20s something who is still living with his mother.

The movie site IMBD claims Cronenberg wrote the script in six days. That explains sentences like: "Everything is barely weeks. Everything is days. We have minutes to live." What about the rising life expectancy? And driving through the crammed canyons of Manhattan isn`t really a sign of time pressure. It´s just smug nonsense.

"The movie would have been better, if it would have played on a stage", commented my girlfriend. I agree. Since almost nothing happens,  all the audience gets is a series of dialogues on film. Cronenberg used the flick to tell his paying customers how he, and book author DeLillo, sees the world. Both don't like this kind of creep represented by the flick´s leading character. Who would after all that mess? But why should I sit in a cinema theater to watch some actors reading senseless dialogs? Maybe I would have spent my time better if I would have gone to a hairdresser.