Existenz

Canada 1998, 93 minutes
Dir. David Cronenberg
Rating: [M]
Genres: Science Fiction / Fantasy

Feat. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Don McKellar, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie

Aroview: Dir. David Cronenberg bestows his customary intelligence on the 'Virtual Reality' genre, yet this time complements his visceral obsessions and mad invention with a generous injection of light (and dark) relief.

Requiring participants to 'experience' VR games through a portal in their spinal cord, eminent games-designer Jennifer Jason Leigh invites squeamish novice Jude Law on an alter-worldly tour of her own invention - a creepy, dream-like universe where the usual laws of nature don't seem to apply. Both give wonderfully complex, vulnerable performances, while the whole story-within-a-story conceit serves as a supreme metaphor for the cinema as well.

NZ International Film Festival 1999
Adopt-a-Movie Kindly Adopted by Jonno Woodford-Robinson

Member Reviews

Average rating (Very Good). Showing 1-2 of 2 member reviews.

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4 stars (Very Good) Subtly effective production design, score and cinematography. Perfect performances. Involving, disturbing and darkly humorous. ~HiFi
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4 stars (Very Good) I think of this as Videodrome 3 as along with Naked Lunch, it follows the same structure. All three movies have very similar abrupt endings too! ~Pearce