Taglines: The wicked die young.
The movie is about a young and aspiring model called Jesse (Elle Fanning) who has just moved to Los Angeles. She is an orphan, very beautiful and impresses everyone she meets with her beauty. She seems very shy and insecure about her looks, even though she wants to make a big career in the fashion industry. Right at her first photoshoot she meets the make up artist Ruby (Jena Malone). Ruby introduces her to two of her model friends called Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) at a surrealistic dim lit party.
Soon after Jesse gets signed by an important model agency. Her agency sends her to a test shoot with a notable photographer who closes down the set after he sees her, tells her to strip down naked and colors her golden with his bare hands before taking pictures of her. Jesse comes home to the motel she stays in but finds her apartment in a mess and something strange moving in it. She asks the manager (Keanu Reeves) to help her but he turns out to be a rude and offensive man that makes her pay for the damages to her room even after it turns out that a wild cat had gotten in and was the culprit.
Jesse goes to a casting where Ruby’s friend Sarah is also present. The fashion designer is passive and uninterested in everyone until Jesse stands in front of him. He is so fascinated with her that it makes Sarah cry. She gets hired right away and is later asked to be the highlight of his fashion show. After the casting, Jesse encounters Sarah in the bathroom who asks her how it feels when everyone is always noticing you and admiring your beauty. Jesse answers to that “It’s everything”.
She accidentally cuts herself on a glass and instead of helping her, Sarah tries to drink the blood that is pouring from the wound. After the fashion show Jesse goes to the motel in an excited and satisfied mood. She has a vivid dream of the motel manager coming into her room and making her swallow a knife in a violent manner. She wakes up in shock only to hear him actually trying to enter her apartment. She is able to lock the door so he moves on to the room next door to rape her neighbor.
The Neon Demon is a 2016 psychological horror film[4] directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Mary Laws, Polly Stenham, and Refn, and starring Elle Fanning. The plot follows an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and jealousy within the industry. Supporting roles are played by Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves.
An international co-production between France, Denmark, and the United States, the film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the third consecutive film directed by Refn to do so, following Drive (2011) and Only God Forgives (2013). In the United States, the film was released theatrically on June 24, 2016 by Amazon Studios and Broad Green Pictures. It opened to polarized reviews, and ultimately grossed a little over $3 million against a $7 million budget.
The Neon Demon
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Jamie Clayton, Karl Glusman
Screenplay by: Steven Knight
Production Design by: Elliott Hostetter
Cinematography by: Natasha Braier
Film Editing by: Matthew Newman
Costume Design by: Erin Benach
Set Decoration by: Jonathan Amico, Adam Willis
Music by: Cliff Martinez
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content, bloody images, graphic nudity, a scene of aberrant sexuality, and language.
Studio: Amazon Studios, Broad Green Pictures
Release Date: June 24, 2016
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