Directed by Gaspar Noe
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, IFC Films)
Gaspar Noe's intriguing concept of a death experience filmed entirely from a point-of-view perspective is wasted on the life of a selfish, boring drug dealer. "Oscar" is our hero, an American who lives in a grungy, one-room apartment above the glittering neon streets of downtown Tokyo. He deals drugs in the strip clubs and bars, eventually getting enough money to bring his sister to town. She gets a job as a stripper and soon gets hooked on drugs as well. Oscar is killed one night when he is set up by a friend for the police. He relives his life in a long flashback, in which we see how the death of his parents in a car accident shapes it. The narrative finally reaches the night of his death (again). He then watches from above as a sort of omnipotent presence while the lives of his sister and his friends play out after his death, until he is finally reincarnated as his own brother in one of the more preposterous endings to a film you will ever see. Filled with pornographic imagery, wallowing in the filth of the worst side of a big city, there are no insights into the after life here, it's just an excuse for flying cameras, overhead shots and handheld shaky cam work. Compare it to Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, which has a similar idea, only it is not afraid to explore the religious themes only hinted at by Enter the Void in token references to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Unfortunately, neither film is very good.
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