CRIMES OF THE FUTURE – a film by David Cronenberg – SPOILERS

Not nearly as gory as, for instance, Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, this story might be an attempt by Cronenberg to envision the impact of his work in a stylized future, and seems closely related to his one-minute short film THE DEATH OF DAVID CRONENBERG (which he co-directed with his daughter Caitlin) in which Mr. Cronenberg gets to observe himself after death.

In a time in which physical pain is a thing of the past and humans are impervious to infection, Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and former trauma surgeon Caprice (Léa Seydoux) use Tenser’s mutating body as the basis of their performance art. Pain still happens for some people during sleep, and Tenser is one of those favoured with unconscious agony. He has purchased a self-adjusting Orchidbed made by a company called LifeFormWare. It monitors his neural activity, repositioning him accordingly, allowing him to rest.

Tensor has another machine that helps him eat. About twelve minutes into the film, while he is having a mechanically-assisted breakfast, in a scene that illustrates her lack of true involvement with Tensor’s artistic activities, Caprice quietly dines alone, sitting on the kitchen counter, ingesting (among other things) a strip of undercooked bacon.

Tenser grows new organs from time to time. The function of these organs is undetermined, and Caprice extracts them surgically as part of their performance art. Before extracting the organ, Caprice tattoos it arthroscopically for purposes of identification. Inspired by Caprice, the National Organ Registry requires all such neo-organs to be marked with a distinctive tattoo. The NOR fears that “some of these neo-organs might establish themselves genetically and then be passed down from parents to children, who would then no longer be, strictly speaking, human, at least in the classical sense.”

The Organ Registry is run by Wippet (Don McKellar), a quintessential promoter and financier obsessed with what he terms “inner beauty”. He is assisted by Timlin (Kristen Stewart) who thinks of herself as an aspiring performance artist, but has in reality evolved into an emotionally carnivorous (and very hungry) creature. The best scene in the movie has to be the one where, during a conversation about illicit genetics, she advances steadily toward Tenser like a snake intending to swallow him whole at the first opportunity. (It brings to mind that scene in Episode Three of KILLING EVE in which Villanelle swims purposefully through a crowd to reach her intended victim, Bill Parnell.) Both Wippet and Timlin idolize (and possibly fetishize) Tenser and his art.

Detective Cope (Welket Bungue) of the New Vice Unit regards the performances of Tenser and other similar artists as “repulsive” and describes why his department was created. “Human evolution,” he explains, “is the concern; that it’s going wrong; that it’s uncontrolled. It’s insurrectional.” Cope has what is probably the most important discussion in the film with the National Organ Registry folks who try to explain why spontaneous organ growth is art and why it must be catalogued.

WIPPET: “It’s like discovering a new species of animal.”
TIMLIN: “Well, more like discovering a new Picasso.”
COPE: “How can a tumorous growth be considered art? Where is the emotional shaping? The philosophical understanding, which is basic to all art?”
[Timlin scoffs and Wippet sighs.]
TIMLIN: “He [Tenser] takes the rebellion of his own body and seizes control of it. Shapes it; tattoos it; displays it; creates theatre out of it. It has meaning, very potent meaning, and many many people respond to it.”

Cope is not entirely wrong in perceiving a threat to the established order. A kind of grassroots version of ORPHAN BLACK‘s Neolutionists is working to accelerate what they believe to be the natural course of human evolution. Doctor Nasatir (Yorgos Pirpassopoulos) convinces Tenser to undertake an autopsy (alien autopsy?) on one of these artificially enhanced beings, a young boy. There is some question if the boy was modified before or after birth. He was human, but, like a shark, could, before his death at the hands of a xenophobe, digest almost anything. Fortunately, a couple of technicians from LifeFormWare, Router (Nadia Litz) and Berst (Tanaya Beatty), whip an out-of-date automated autopsy device into usable condition. (Berst and Router are – more or less – Tenser’s special effects people.) At the same time, Caprice is inspired by a display of self-mutilation by another artist and insists on taking control of the alien autopsy. It is a “juicy part,” she explains.

Lang Dotrice (Scott Speedman), the “father” of the modified boy, offers Tenser a purple nutrient bar that, when consumed, either kills, or begins to modify the genetic structure of the person who consumes it. (This is the mechanism through which the genetic revolution is spread.) Dotrice puts this question to Tenser: “Hasn’t it occurred to you,” he asks, “that you may be interfering in a natural process that you should surrender to?” Tenser initially declines the purple bar, but is eventually persuaded by Caprice to try it. We don’t find out exactly what effect it has on him.

Cronenberg’s films are designed to be watchable on all devices. He told Perry Nemiroff of Collider: “Even as far back as Shivers and Rabid, my first two sort of commercial movies, I was always aware that more people would see it on television than they would on a big screen…because in those days the television screen was 4:3, it was very square, but we were shooting more wide screen, so I made sure that those movies were framed in such a way that they could be shown on television and still not be sort of deranged in terms of the framing and the composition. So for me, this is not a new thing. I assume that more people are gonna see Crimes of the Future on their Apple Watch than are gonna see it in a big theater.”

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CRIMES OF THE FUTURE can be streamed on HULU in the US, and on Apple TV in Canada. The film is also available on DVD and 4K Blu-ray.