DVD Review: Enemy (2013)

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Less a literal adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel The Double than a grand psychosexual puzzle that centers on the paranoid fears of a man having trouble reconciling his desire to be single with the commitment he’s made in life as a husband and expectant father, Enemy is an avant-garde exploration of a character’s dueling war within his own subconscious brought to cinematic life.

Topically, Enemy channels some of the same irrational, Freudian fears of gender dominance, submission and control, as well as the mother-infused madonna/whore complex that Nicolas Winding Refn chronicled in Only God Forgives.

Yet Denis Villeneuve’s deft navigation between both the surface-level literal storyline as well as the subversively allegorical one going on simultaneously in our character’s eye is vastly superior in his admirably unpretentious existential art film masquerading as a straightforward thriller.

Easily dissected by those willing to put everything together from the repetitive symbolism and lines of dialogue together along with his painstakingly well-composed mise en scenes that are filled with posters and visual cues to help you along the way, Enemy is that rare film that treats its viewers with sophistication.

Laying out its plan from the start as a bit of chaos in need of deciphering, Villeneuve and his screenwriter Javier Gullón respect their intellect enough to meet the film halfway, understanding the scientific and evolutionary significance of a key motif used throughout the film that likewise has some mythological roots, which you can apply to make your own.

Cinematically intertextual, Villeneuve’s influences are apparent throughout the piece, most notably via Enemy’s obvious nod to Vertigo in the set-up of a college professor who one day spots his identical double onscreen in a film he rented from a video store (that had a carefully placed poster of not only Vertigo but also Attack of the 50 Foot Woman).

Yet just like there are two layers to the movie, there are layers of influences as much more subtly, Enemy meanders down the same psychic, stylistic and thematic pathways of David Cronenberg’s Spider, David Fincher’s The Game, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.

Released after another acclaimed venture also starring the criminally underrated lead Jake Gyllenhaal, Enemy is the filmic yang to the yin the director had previously released via the Hollywood revenge-fueled kidnap mystery Prisoners.

While that film was far more classically structured and clearly defined, Enemy is like the palette cleansing, admittedly somewhat autobiographical (and likewise slightly self-indulgent) art project you make with your friends outside the confines of the studio system.

Like Winding Refn’s God follow-up to Drive, Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing post-Avengers, or Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis, Full Frontal, or any number of works that he’s done for the hell of it, Enemy let the filmmaker clean out the creative cobwebs, exploring his own worst fears, enemies and dreamscapes among the safety net of likeminded friends.

From the name of the DVD that Gyllenhaal’s professor is advised to check out to the number of months a character is pregnant (that’s repeated in another revealing moment to describe how long another character has been gone) and the recurring motifs that echo throughout, some filmgoers might be tempted to throw their hands up in frustration due to (perceived) mental exhaustion.

Yet whereas some prefer the Prisoners paradigm where everything is spelled out in a different but equally impressive opus, others are sure to be seduced by the mystery that plays out on a number of levels throughout Enemy and admire its decision to trust its audience to figure it out for themselves (which is the perceived "enemy" of traditional storytelling).

Honestly, of course there are many interpretations to Enemy and indeed the fun of this kind of film is finding your own way as what you make of it reveals more about you than watching a majority of straightforward narrative features any day of the week.

Nonetheless, viewers needing a definitive answer will be pleased to know that the director has revealed in more than a few interviews what the overall key to the movie is, which I alluded to in my opening paragraph and therefore felt was obvious enough to qualify as spoiler-free.

While I question the chronology of the events depicted, wondering if – for a film that focuses so much energy on repetition – our character may have experienced some of these "incidents" before, Enemy remains a highly recommended, highly effective reel work that begs to be dissected thoroughly with friends, enemies, actors, professors, and doppelgangers in your subconscious mind and real life alike.

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DVD Review: Infected (2008)

On DVD 5/19/09

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When a city official tipster phones in with a conspiracy theory involving "creatures," "other-worldly elements" and the highest levels of corruption, it seems like it's the type of story that should be handled by Ben (Gil Bellows), the journalist who runs the fictitious "Mysteries of Science" desk at The Boston Daily.

Instead, water department worker Taylor Lambert (Neil Napier) didn't waste his time contacting the news of the weird readers and instead moved directly to Ben's co-worker and (conveniently) Ben's ex-- the news-hungry reporter, Lisa (Maxim Roy).

However, when Lisa winds up meeting her source in person, she's stunned when the man who told her to wait in his office for proof soon coolly assassinates the mayor and a few other individuals in order to obtain a vial of blood from the neck of the mayor.

Fully convinced that the horrific "Boston Plague" sweeping through the setting of this Genius Products and RHI Entertainment release Infected is part of a governmental conspiracy involving a wealthy organic farmer and bottled vitamin water distributor-- once Taylor becomes a hunted man, the baton (or evidence) is passed along to the journalists Ben and Lisa as they find themselves paired up once again. Initially simply chasing the same story, soon the two begin running for their lives when they uncover more about the monstrous "infection" that is threatening to take over the rest of the planet.

Director Adam Weissman's Canadian filmed work begins impressively with stellar production values for what had originally been a small screen television movie. Indeed since it's heavily CGI driven, Infected's transfer to disc is so gorgeously vivid that it's logical to assume it was taken from a largely digital or possibly high definition source as the widescreen and technical aspects of the picture and sound of the DVD are first rate.

Additionally--although I worried it would be a silly little "Creature Feature" from the get-go-- I was immediately taken it by the film as something that felt more like a hybrid between a John Grisham novel and a Philip K. Dick story blended together on film and understood what drew talent such as the Golden Globe and Emmy nominated Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini to the work.

Unfortunately, my fascination with the initially action-packed conspiratorial tale began to dwindle until it ultimately flatlined in the final act as-- instead of the intense build up that had been established while trying to figure out how to survive this mutant plague and likewise expose the truth-- soon Infected just devolves into a gross-out B-movie slithery, slimy, creature fest.

For-- although the plot had begun to jump ship with the arrival of likable Breakfast Club star Judd Nelson's nuttier-than-a-fruticake nonsense spouting character-- it grows increasingly hokey to the point of awe that it would have been financed in the first place and furthermore that it required FOUR writers to construct the eighty-nine minute feature.

And despite the fact that I was impressed by the tactics applied in the beginning at both the script and editing level as fact-gathering and action goes hand-in-hand when a young woman tries to get Taylor the proof he needs, quickly it just becomes an endless parade of "yuck."

Never one to reveal major plot spoilers, I won't fill you in on the level to which the fate of the world rests in the hands of our journalists since soon brain power is usurped with guts and the plot doesn't matter at all when the opportunity to amp up the gore is utilized to the max in a revolting finale.

Likewise, when you piece together the whole story in the end (if you can), you'll realize that it's a work that's neither fit for the paper's "Mysteries of Science" or "News" desk. In fact, I'm still confused as to what it was trying to be. I do know however that it's a movie you should definitely avoid watching at night alone with the lights off.

All in all, an uneven work that wasn't sure if it wanted to go for creepy but smart or creepy and overwhelmingly stupid-- unfortunately, Infected ends up switching sides to the latter category roughly midway through the picture, never looking back as it goes into third rate science fiction autopilot. And while the "Creature Feature" CGI wizards had a blast creating the slithering mutant/human hybrids (including a surprise juvenile trick that gives new meaning to the phrase "boob job")-- unfortunately, we're never given the chance to have the same fun.