Director: David Cronenberg
Screenplay: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman
Country: Canada, France, Greece, United Kingdom
Running Time: 107 min
Year: 2022
Videodrome. The Fly. Scanners. Crash. Dead Ringers. These are five of the many, many films that Canadian auteur David Cronenberg has unleashed upon the world over his 50+ years directing films. While I don’t love every Cronenberg film I’ve seen, it’s impossible to deny the craftsmanship and dedication to providing audiences with something unlike what anybody else is putting out. With the exception of a modern filmmaker like Denis Villeneuve, I’d argue that Cronenberg is the most prolific Canadian filmmaker of our times.
Most notable for his body horror films such as the aforementioned Videodrome and The Fly, the past twenty years of Cronenberg’s films have ventured into other areas, such as gangster films like Eastern Promises to historical dramas like A Dangerous Method. But in 2022, Cronenberg returned to the body horror world with Crimes to the Future.
Not to be mistaken for his 1970 film of the same name, which is unrelated, Crimes of the Future is an exploration of what art is, pollution, sex and more. The film follows Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), a performance artist, who alongside his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), put on some art shows that highlight Tenser’s ability to grow new organs, in something that’s dubbed ‘Accelerated Evolution Syndrome’. Along the way, they get involved with a cast of characters such as two investigators, Wippet (Don McKellar) and Timlin (Kristen Stewart), as well as a detective (Welket Bungué) and before he knows it, Tenser is going undercover to stop evolutionists.
Crimes of the Future is an interesting film, because while I adore a lot of the technical aspects, whether it’s the purposely flat cinematography, Howard Shore’s incredibly futuristic score or the performances all around, the disconnect I feel while watching always leaves me feeling cold. I’m sure it’s intentionally presented this way, but I found myself a little underwhelmed, even on my second viewing of the film, even though my thoughts on it are mostly positive. The film’s style and themes are all interesting, but I didn’t really connect with much of what was going on.
I’m beyond happy to see Cronenberg back in the body-horror genre, and it’s obvious that for the die-hard fans of this work, this is everything they could ask for and more. Myself, being somebody who connects with films like Crash and Naked Lunch over Videodrome or Scanners, I think a lot of what Crimes of the Future is going for doesn’t interest me, but I’m glad I revisited the film because my appreciation for a lot of the technical aspects grew even more on the second viewing.
Crimes of the Future is a film that’s divided audiences, myself included, but is a must-watch for anybody into the work of David Cronenberg, art-horror films or something different than your typical mainstream picture. It’s bold, ambitious and something I can highly recommend checking out.
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Crimes of the Future released on September 11th via Second Sight Films on Limited Edition 4K/Blu-ray, as well as standard releases for both formats. I viewed the 4K UHD and found it absolutely stunning. Although the film was shot digitally, it was mastered in 4K and the detail you can see is immense. I was blown away by the film visually, and the DTS HD MA 5.1 track is not slouch either. Shore’s score sounds marvellous on the track and it’s another winner A/V presentation from Second Sight Films. The following extras are included in the limited edition:
- Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
- UHD presented in Dolby Vision HDR
- New audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal
- Undeniably a Love Story: an interview with Director David Cronenberg
- Things Change: an interview with Actor Viggo Mortensen
- The Chaos Inside: an interview with Actor Léa Seydoux
- The Heat and the Grime: an interview with Actor Kristen Stewart
- The Bureau Man: a new interview with Actor Don McKellar
- Painkiller: a new interview with Producer Robert Lantos
- The Most Wonderful Dream: a new interview with Cinematographer Douglas Koch
- The Code of David: a new interview with Editor Christopher Donaldson
- New Flesh, Future Crimes: The Body and David Cronenberg – a video essay by Leigh Singer
- The Making of Crimes of the Future
- Production Design Materials
- Short film: The Death of David Cronenberg
Limited Edition Contents
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Marko Manev
- 120 page book with new essays by Reyna Cervantes, Tim Coleman, Joel Harley, Rich Johnson, Mikel J Koven, Phil Nobile Jr, Ian Schultz and Hannah Strong
- 6 collectors’ art cards
Audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal – This brand new audio commentary, exclusive to Second Sight’s release is by Caelum Vatnsdal, an author and historian of Canadian cinema and Cronenberg’s work. Vatnsdal’s commentary is decent, although it does feel like he’s narrating what’s on screen at points. I enjoyed hearing some of the more technical aspects of the commentary, such as how the machines used in the film are primarily CGI. Not a mind-blowing commentary, but for fans of the film, there’s some good stuff in here.
Undeniably a Love Story – A seven minute interview with David Cronenberg, where he talks about the ideas of the film and how microplastics influenced it. It was interesting to hear him talk about the struggles of bringing the machines and devices in the film to life.
Things Change – A nine minute interview with Viggo Mortensen where he touches on the production, how comfortable he felt collaborating with Cronenberg once again and how open to new ideas David was. Viggo mentions that the screenplay was written over 20 years ago.
The Chaos Inside – A six minute interview with Léa Seydoux who has nothing but praise for Cronenberg. Seydoux sounded excited at the process of experimenting with Cronenberg. It’s a fun interview.
The Heat and the Grime – A seven minute interview with Kristen Stewart. She talks about how Crimes of the Future feels like a self-reflection on Cronenberg’s career, as well as how the art in the film feels religious. It’s a really interesting interview.
The Bureau Man – A new twenty seven minute interview with Don McKellar. Far lengthier than the prior interviews, McKellar recounts on-set moments with Viggo, as well as how influential Cronenberg was to him as a filmmaker. It’s a charming interview.
Painkiller – A new ten minute interview with producer Robert Lantos, where he discusses the origins of the film, his prior work with Cronenberg on Crash, as well as the original title for Crimes of the Future, which was Painkillers. He jokingly mentions that the roles of producer and director are almost reversed when working with Cronenberg, as Lantos had to fight for scenes to stay in the film instead of cutting them, like Cronenberg wanted.
The Most Wonderful Dream – A new 17 minute interview with cinematographer Douglas Koch. He talks about the Super 8 films he made at a young age, as well as his experiences at film school. The way he discusses Cronenberg’s distaste for anamorphic lenses, how much of a fan Koch is of Naked Lunch and Spider make for a very interesting interview.
The Code of David – A new 23 minute interview with editor Christopher Donaldson who discusses his history with the work of Cronenberg, as well as how hands-off David was with how the film was edited, giving Donaldson free reign to do his job. His challenges with making the surgery sequences feel both shocking but, in line with the tone of the film, erotic are also discussed. It’s a great interview.
New Flesh, Future Crimes: The Body and David Cronenberg – A twenty two minute video essay by Leigh Singer, split into five parts, which discusses Cronenberg’s films that are centered around the human body, technology, sex and more. The video essay pairs Singer’s essay with audio interview clips of Cronenberg, as well as clips from all of his films. It’s a brilliant video essay that I’d highly recommend.
The Making of Crimes of the Future – 22-minute making of featurette with interviews from Cronenberg, Mortensen, Seydoux, Bungué, McKellar, Stewart, Speedman, Spier, Lantos, Shore and more. There’s some overlap with the earlier interviews on the disc, but it’s a comprehensive look into the film and all of the major people involved. A great inclusion.
Production Design Materials – An 8 minute gallery of renders and behind-the-scenes prosthetics for the objects in the world of Crimes of the Future. It’s a nice addition and seeing these pre-vis designs was fascinating.
The Death of David Cronenberg – a one minute short film Cronenberg initially made as an NFT, which has been included on this release. It’s… something. There’s no real narrative and it just involves Cronenberg laying in bed with a cast of his body.
I wasn’t provided with the booklet or collector’s art cards, unfortunately.
As to be expected from Second Sight Films, this is another must-own release with truly stunning video, incredible audio and a collection of bonus features that compliment the film well. For fans of Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg or physical media, this is an absolute behemoth of a release that demands to be in your collection. Pick it up!
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