Climax - Lilith Likes to Watch



Title: Climax
Year:
2018
Starring: Sofia Boutella Romain Guillermic Souheila Yacoub
Director: Gaspar Noe
Synopsis: 
When a dance troupe is lured to an empty school, a bowl of drug-laced sangria causes their jubilant rehearsal to descend into a dark and explosive nightmare as they try to survive the night—and find who’s responsible—before it’s too late. - Via Letterboxd.com
Lilith's Notes: Our first Gaspar Noe, but it won't be our last.
Buy: Amazon





"I am so happy. I couldn't be happier."

Look around. Look at the state of everything. Yeah. If you wanted to let go and get a little fucked up right now, I don’t think anyone would blame you. Just use responsibly.

Now seems as good a time as any to start 2025s viewing experiences with a chaotic clusterfuck of a bang. And what better hedonistic, unhinged explosion is there than Gaspar Noe’s Climax.

The film begins with a French dance troupe being interviewed. The footage is on an old TV surrounded by classic psycho-horror films like Susperia and Possession, in a slick hint to the audience for the kind of ride we’re in for. The dance troupe dances in one single long shot. The action is frenetic, mobile, energizing and very well done. We’re shown a good time, a fun time, a place where art and camaraderie meet.

Then people start speaking. And they speak of inane bullshit and I lose all interest in these characters. Get back to dancing, please.

This is a me problem. This isn’t my scene. Clubbing isn’t my scene. Vapid fuck-boys aren’t my scene. Jealous bitches aren’t my scene. Just dance for me, puppets!

Soon, it’s realized that the punch has been spiked and everyone settles in for a bad trip seemingly woven by Satan himself.

And then Kage and I just started sending gifs of dancing scenes in movies to one another.

It’s so hard because I know there’s quality here but I just don’t care. My sympathy and empathy were lacking, even with the character you absolutely should have sympathy for.

Even when we discover who spiked the sangria, I found myself asking “Who was that character again?”

There’s some really beautiful, haunting and subtle visuals going on here. There’s a guy who’s hyper-flexible and at times looks like either he doesn’t have a head, or that his head is backward. There are physical feats that make some of the drug-fulled freak outs incredibly beautiful and poetic. There are environments straight out of Silent Hill.

I realize not finding genius in this film will probably kill whatever credibility that I might have, but I just didn’t jive with it. I wanted to. I was looking forward to attending this fucked up party, but I’ve never been much of a party goer.

I have no doubt at all that this movie resonates with a lot of people, and there is so much to respect about this movie, what it sets out to try and what it achieves. Unfortunately for me, it’s nothing, and then it’s way, way too much, which I get was the point but in my eyes it was in service of nothing.

And yet. And fucking yet, there are images in this film that will live in my mind long after this review is written, posted, and forgotten about.

And also I will go back and watch the opening dance number.

I might have already.

More than once.

We all have our vices.


Best Moment: The physicality is great. The dancing is great and some imagery is genuinely memorable and haunting.

Worst Moment: All the characters are shallow and vapid and strain my sympathy. I’m not horrified, I’m just annoyed.

LILITH'S SCORE: 2.5/5 - As an art piece with the dancing and so forth, it's fine, but as a coherent plot, interesting sex, and something that keeps your attention, we find it to be lacking.

Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.

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