The Neon Demon

Audience Reviews

View More (804)

Haley S This was a huge waste of time. It was shockingly bad. The critics who thought it was genius, must have been high, VERY high. I fast forwarded often bc it was so sloooow, and I hated the "look" of the film. Reminded me of a movie made in the 40's on very old film. Dialogue was minimal, action non-existent, as was a plot or point. But, quite glad to see Elle Fanning's acting skills have improved greatly since this was made. It isn't engaging in the least, and no one in the film made me care about them or what happens to them. I didn't like or dislike any of the characters. It reminded me of something an adolescent boy who wanted to go into filmmaking someday, would have made. If he wasn't very talented or intelligent. It really seemed so dated, and poorly made. It wasn't artistic, it was just a waste of time. The movie's only redeeming quality was, you get to see a lot of pretty blondes naked women tho. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 10/17/25 Full Review Kai H Last third of the movie is not worth it. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/29/25 Full Review acsdoug D Ponderous. Slow. Uninteresting. Neither the twist at the end nor the presence of beautiful naked women could redeem it. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 07/11/25 Full Review Walter R Pretensioso! A ideia é boa, mas foi mal executado do início ao fim O diretor quis que parecesse um filme de arte e exagerou na mão. Não vale a pena perder tempo. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 05/10/25 Full Review Ola G Following the unexplained deaths of her parents, 16 year-old aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) has just moved from a small unnamed town in Georgia to Los Angeles. She meets photographer Dean, who does her first shoot, and makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone), who introduces fellow older models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee), who are interested in her physical appearance and in her sexual experiences, which Jesse pretends to have had. Jesse is signed by Roberta Hoffman (Christina Hendricks), the owner of a modeling agency, who tells her to pretend that she is nineteen and refers her to a test shoot with notable photographer Jack McCarther. The shoot is successful, and Gigi and Sarah envy Jesse's youth. Jesse goes to a casting call for fashion designer Robert Sarno (Alessandro Nivola) where Sarah is also present. Sarno pays no attention to Sarah but is entranced by Jesse's beauty. Distraught, Sarah asks her how it feels to be the one everyone admires. Jesse admits, "It's everything," and Sarah lunges toward her. Jesse, pulling away, cuts her hand on a shard of glass. Sarah sucks the blood from Jesse's hand and Jesse rushes back to her motel and faints, hallucinating as she sees abstract imagery. At Sarno's fashion show, Gigi talks to Jesse about cosmetic surgery. As Jesse is closing the show, she has hallucinations of abstract triangular shapes and reflections of herself. After the show, Jesse goes out with Dean to a bar, where Sarno negatively contrasts Gigi's surgically-enhanced looks to Jesse's natural beauty. Dean finds the conversation unpleasant and attempts to leave with Jesse, who refuses, now espousing a narcissistic persona... The Neon Demon received a mixed response from critics. Much like Refn's previous film, Only God Forgives, the film received both boos and a standing ovation during its premiere at Cannes Film Festival. Rotten Tomatoes consensus reads, "The Neon Demon is seductively stylish, but Nicolas Winding Refn's assured eye can't quite compensate for an underdeveloped plot and thinly written characters." Writing a four star review in The Guardian, Mark Kermode said it was "a film driven by the same guilty pleasures that have long underpinned Refn's work", and had particular praise for the performance of Malone. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film five out of five stars, stating, "When the film reaches its logical end point, Refn just keeps pushing, and eventually lands on a sequence so jaw-dropping – almost certainly a sly, glossy-magazine refashioning of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's groundbreaking surrealist short Un Chien Andalou – that all you can do is howl or cheer." Tirdad Derakhshani, writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, called Refn a "bold visionary artist... able to revel in the culture of instant gratification while also subjecting it to critique", giving the film three and a half out of four stars and calling it a "brutal masterpiece". Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald wrote positively of the film's visuals and experimental filmmaking, writing, "To complain that The Neon Demon lacks substance or that it doesn't have anything to say about our cultural obsession with beauty is to miss the crazy, cracked pageant unfolding in front of you. Not all movies are intended to be read like books; some are meant to be experienced," going on to call it a "film that is guaranteed to elicit strong reactions." He awarded the film three out of four stars. The Telegraph's Tim Robey deemed The Neon Demon the "most offensive film of the year," specifically citing its necrophilia sequence as exploitative, though he conceded it is not "any fault of Malone’s, who commits herself utterly to making it an anguished, desperate, if inevitably revolting minute or so of screen time. It’s a question of context, and how this scene – which stands alone, advancing nothing in the overall arc of the story, and is one of very few not to feature Fanning – slots into the film’s overall thesis." (Via Wikipedia) Nicolas Winding Refn is a filmmaker that never takes the easy road always adding provocation in all sorts of forms and shapes to push the boundaries as much as possible. I like that. Does it work? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But, he is not afraid of creating his own visual path no matter what. With the psychological horror art movie "The Neon Demon" he has truly worked with symbology and metaphors both obvious and hidden in the storyline. Some of it are clear at first sight, some needs to be processed and maybe even researched to grasp. "The Neon Demon" is a slick alienating neon drenched film with beautiful cinematography and as mentioned a provocative script/scene structure. But, it's also clearly a polarizing film you can call pretentious, sensationalistic and self-indulgent. Or as one reviewer said "or a bold haunting hypnotic work of suspense.". Refn has pushed the actors to really go out of their comfort zone putting them in several graphic scenes that not everyone would've said yes to. Refn´s comment on the fashion industry and models is quite harsh, but also questionable. The lovely Elle Fanning is great as Jesse, while most of the other cast members becomes more like extras as their characters are not very fleshed out. To me the gorgeous Abbey Lee as Sarah is the one that stands out next to Elle Fanning. She's also great. Once you have seen "The Neon Demon" you will never forget it. Whether you like it or not. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 05/02/25 Full Review Raven L so so slowwww. had some beauty in it, ethereal and mysterious but each scene just went wayyy too long. trying to be artsy but just got dull and then feeble attempts to be shocking with nonsensical and meaningless scenes Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/10/25 Full Review Read all reviews

The Neon Demon

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Most Popular at Home Now