Canadian David Cronenberg (Scanners, The Fly, Crash, A History of Violence) is one of the most intelligent, controversial and visceral Directors of the past 40 years. He is known for dealing in each of his films with the transformation of the body and mind, and the fears that such changes convey. He has won multiple accolades, amongst them a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Fest, the special Jury prize at Cannes and more than 60 nominations in the most respected festivals around the world. In 2004, English paper The Guardian ranked him 8th in their list of the World’s best Directors, and in 2007 Total Film Magazine ranked him 17th in their list of the best directors of all time.

This year he will turn 70, (on March 15) and at Nerdspan we are going to celebrate his long and thought provoking career by reviewing 4 of his most significant films. And we will begin with his latest release, the poorly received Cosmopolis.

“Time is a corporate asset now… the present is harder to find. It is being sucked out of the world to make way for the future…”

Every single day we check out our Twitter stream and E-mail as soon as we wake up. Then we get our daily fix of voyeurism at Facebook. And just before having breakfast, our brains have consumed insane amounts of data courtesy of our precious RSS feeds. At 9 AM we are already at work, sitting in front of yet another screen at which we will stare at for the next 6, 8 or even 10 hours. Time never feels to be enough as the amount of things to do stacks up faster than our capacity to bear with them. Some days we even eat at our desks in order to save some precious minutes. Computers constantly evolve to be faster, smaller and more powerful, but yet we find ourselves always struggling to catch up.

Late at night we are back at home, surrounded again by some more screens, checking out our virtual “social life” just one more time before the lights go off and we prepare ourselves for another day. We talked face to face (generally not more than three phrases) with ten, maybe twenty people throughout the day. We cared for none. This is the daily routine of most of the urban population of the world. This is our world right now; relentless, fast paced, shallow and lonely. And that is precisely what David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis is all about: Living in the first decade of the XXI Century.

Every time I skimmed though the Internet for insights about Cosmopolis, I found tons of people ranting about how boring and pretentious it was. It also has a very discouraging 5.2 score at IMDB.

I am a big fan of Cronenberg’s work, but I have to say I was very reluctant to watch this film. His prior attempt, A Dangerous Method left me with a huge feeling of disappointment and very little to talk about.

After the first 20 minutes I could fully understand why this movie had such a bad reception. First off, the film is a merciless bombardment of information. (Something very similar to what happens to Spielberg’s Lincoln) Characters talk and talk and talk some more. And secondly, 90% of the film takes place inside a limousine. For a mainstream moviegoer accustomed to grand opening crane scenes full of explosions, this film could feel as if nothing is really happening. Basically we just see a bunch of people talking inside a car for almost 2 hours.

Cosmopolis follows a day in life of a young tech entrepreneur (Robert Pattinson) as he runs his multibillion corporation from his limo while he crosses the whole city for a haircut. In his path he encounters a series of friends and associates ranging from Juliette Binoche (The English Patient, Certified Copy) to Jay Baruchel (Goon, Sorcerer’s Apprentice).

The storyline doesn’t look like much at first glance. But it’s precisely in that apparent simplicity where the value of Cosmopolis resides. In creating a accurate, poignant portrayal of everyday contemporary life from the physically restricted space of a limo.

Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) witnesses from the safety of his car how the whole world crumbles around him with the same sense of aseptic apathy that a common teenager feels when reading about the horrors in Syria from their mobile phone. Despite being the backseat of a car the main location in which the movie unfolds, we get the clear perception of what is happening in the outside realm. The scarce dimensions of the setting are cleverly expanded with Cronenberg’s use of low & high angle shots and wide lenses making Cosmopolis almost a master class of space use. The confinement of the limo never feels claustrophobic. On the contrary, it feels as a place where one could easily live in. It’s almost as if in this contemporary world, any place is good enough as long as we are surrounded by technology. If we have some screens around us, we can handle.

“Technology is crucial to civilization why? Because it helps us make our fate. We don’t need God or miracles or the flight of the bumble bee. But it is also crouched and undecidable. It can go either way”

The billionaire’s life is just an extrapolation of the existence of any urban citizen. We live in a time and place where taking a deep breath could be considered suspicious. We work while we eat, we read while we talk, and we tweet it all in real time for everybody to see. Robert Pattinson gets his prostate examined while discussing his finances and talks about his existential despair while he watches a protester immolate himself meters away from his window. Right from his limo, he is able to follow the stock market in China and have sex all with the same dosage of stoicism.

What does time mean in our days? Why do we need faster technology if the time it’s saving for us gets sucked by that very same tech? Aren’t we all turning into dogs just chasing our own tail until some undiscovered Cancer gets us while we post it on Facebook? The main lead has a terrific line where he states that we die on weekends, precisely the only days our society has left to “log out”.

“it’s not the sex you think i’ve had. it’s the sex i want. that’s what you smell on me. Because the more i look at you, the more i know about us both.and the more i want to have sex with you. Because there’s a certain kind of sex that has an element of cleansing. it’s the antidote to disillusion. the counter poison.”

Everything emotional about Cosmopolis is purposely contracted and artificial. Pattinson stalks his wife, played here with a gelid sense of sensuality by Sarah Gadon, (Antiviral, The Moth Diaries) constantly insisting her to have sex very much the same way you demand your ISP for a reconnection. Human values like death, mourning and marriage seem just another expendable spectacle to experience through a digital screen. Neon is ever present in the stunning visuals, giving this artificiality an inescapable and seductive appeal.

The relation with technology and flesh is recurrent in Cronenberg’s prior work, and in Cosmopolis we see it explored in a deeper, reflexive manner. Coming from Don Delillo’s fantastic novel of the same title, this film is full of sharp, clever lines. But this film is not all about what the characters get to articulate through their dialogue, but rather about what it’s not said or shown on screen. Hollywood blockbusters have accustomed people to close their brains and just push audiences to enjoy the show without any effort. Cosmopolis is a completely different experience. The film doesn’t spell it out for you treating you like a dummy. It only gives you half the recipe. The audience has to make out the other half.

Robert Pattinson is truly surprising as he delivers a mature, convincing as hell performance. His work is so solid, he’s not sucked up by the impressive screen presence of Paul Giamatti in the film’s memorable showdown.

“Even when you self-destruct, you want to fail more, lose more, die more than others, stink more than others.”

By all means, go rent this film. People will watch Cosmopolis 20 years from now to learn about how this generation tweeted their life away and wasted its best minds to make consumers click on ads. Very recommended for a solitary screening when in an existential mood.