'Neon Demon' is the definition of killer fashion
If looks could kill, it’d be Neon Demon.
Forget the non-existent plot line, the cringe-worthy dialogue, or the frenetic pace of the entire lookbook of a film.
Because only when you see it for what it is – a fashion escapade – will you begin to appreciate what filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has accomplished. That’s more than 120 minutes of visual porn: a sartorially stunning, savagely sexy, and altogether scintillatingly sinister piece, one that satisfies the fashion famished. One which closely resembles any Steven Klein photoshoot that can be seen in publications from Interview to V.
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Refn savvily utilizes fashion as a means of expressing an extension of one's inner psyche. A gown then, becomes the id, makeup the super-ego, and towering stilettos and heels, the ego. Outward appearance, then, becomes essential in this film, one that shows just how it can be possible for pretty people to look so ugly even with $10,000 dresses.
Jesse, played by a doe-eyed Elle Fanning, and her own style evolves from the beginning to the end of the film. She's 16, fresh to L.A., pure. She's Lolita, the new, underage girl on the block. To nail this on the head, Refn makes it a point to make her look youthful and innocent, her look entirely easy, breezy, boho. It's more Isabel Marant, less Roberto Cavalli.
Which makes the opening scene all the more shocking. We're introduced to Fanning while she quietly lies in a blood-soaked bathtub. She sports a cobalt latex dress. Her hair is knotted in a beautiful, complex braid. It contrasts with her teeny-bopper makeup, which might as well have been a complete Snapchat filter, bejeweled with a pop of a bubblegum pink lip and matching eye shadow.
It's as if Refn is foreshadowing what's to come and who she's growing into. That is, any of her devilish nemeses, a squad composed of a makeup artist named Ruby, played by Jena Malone, Sarah, played by real-life model Abbey Lee and Gigi (Bella Heathcote).
Their style is more Gianni Versace and a bit out of place for a city like LA, dresses slinky, flashy, killer. It completely personifies who they are as beings and makes a very key point of the film, how beautiful people can still be really ugly.
Fanning ingratiates herself into the industry and her new friends by the end of the film. In one pivotal scene at a diner, she walks in sporting a slinky, plunging neckline with gold sequins and smart cigarette trousers. She's empowered. She's sexy. She's cutthroat. And she knows it. She's fashion.
At one point in the film, a designer whose obvious inspiration is Tom Ford, makes the belabored point: “Beauty isn’t the only thing, it’s everything."
It's as if Refn himself was reviewing his own film and its purpose.
Neon Demon, like most of these vapid characters, is obsessed with beauty, fashion, allure and pretty much nothing else.
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David joined the Mashable team as its first fashion hire. He's written for the Wall Street Journal, Elle, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Details, Nylon, Refinery29, Fashionista, and covered the men's market at Women's Wear Daily. David has appeared on E!, Vh1, the Style network, and was a stylist at Capitol records.
