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Waste of time

One of my all time favorites.

A different way of telling a story

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Crimes of the Future (1970) ** (out of 4) Normally I'd use this portion of my review to describe the "plot" of the film but I must admit that I have no idea what the plot of this film is. Basically it takes place at a disease clinic where several people are staying and we're introduced to a doctor and a mysterious disease that has killed off sexually active women.CRIMES OF THE FUTURE was the second feature film from director David Cronenberg and it's a lot like his first STEREO. Both films are very experimental and I'm going to guess that you could show both of them to a hundred different people and you'd probably get a hundred different explanations of the plot. Heck, you'd also probably get quite a few walk-outs because neither film is what you'd call normal or for the mainstream.I honestly felt the same for both pictures. I honestly respect both of them a lot more than I was actually entertained by them. I thought Cronenberg did a good job with the direction and there's no doubt that you're watching a film from someone with a vision. I also thought the performances were nice. There was a bizarre atmosphere to the film as well, which is something else I liked. With that said, did I enjoy watching the film? No, I didn't. Would I ever watch it again? No, I wouldn't.

I'd like to preface this review by saying I'm a big fan of Cronenberg and have seen and enjoyed many of his films (M. Butterfly, Eastern Promises, History of Violence, eXistenZ, Videodrome, etc.). With that out of the way, this movie does not, in any sense, stand up to any of his later work -- poor acting, ridiculously drawn out scenes that do nothing to advance the plot, similar sequences needlessly repeated 3 or 4 times, pretentious psychobabble narration, and, to top it off, the movie is shot entirely on a university campus with a budget of what I'd estimate to be less than 5 dollars.Although the movie is short at 70 minutes, very little actually happens. The length and sparseness of the scenes seem to betray that Cronenberg was desperately trying to fill out time by stringing footage together -- one scene that stands out in my mind involves an unnamed character repeatedly removing and replacing socks and underwear from a leather bag for no apparent reason.If this movie wasn't directed, written, and edited by Cronenberg, whose later work truly is stellar, it would have certainly been forgotten as a standard or even totally sub par student film.

Like Apocalypse Now, The Shining, (Fassbinder's) Satan's Brew, and others, this movie makes you feel like you're watching the state of insanity as rebellion. The protagonist in Crimes of the Future, Adrian Tripod is free from all judgment. It is exhilarating and hilarious to watch him respond to his environment. Cronenberg's writing of the voice-over narration is frightfully intelligent and ahead of its time. I believe this short film will gain popularity exponentially in the next ten years with its inclusion on the Fast Company DVD. Ronald Mlodzik's performance is overwhelmingly detailed and his delivery of the narration (if it is him) has more confidence, if not arrogance than anything I've experienced in cinema. Perhaps Alexandra Stewart in Chris Marker's San Soleil can rival, or Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. You must see this!!!

Well, my favorite Cronenberg anyway. The dialogue is incredibly detailed, with a seemingly pseudo-scientific bent which in fact, actually makes some sense if you pay attention! Many obscure facets of telepathy research are examined in a very Burroughs/Ballard style of writing, coupled with an intense strangeness to the multiple voice-over narration. This is of course, all helped out by the setting in a nightmare near-future after a major cosmetics related catastrophe has wiped out most of the female population. The men in the film have, by a natural balancing process, become more feminine; more androgynous. However, there is a secret lurking in this research institute- a fresh, organic, young, female secret... a secret worth dying for, maybe. Truly fantastic experimental cinema that outre' film fans everywhere should at least check out! Note: one of the subtly eerie things about this film is the lack of sound other than the voice-over. A recording by the San Francisco-based avant-garde soundtrack group SPOONBENDER 1.1.1 called 'Stereo Telepathy Academy' was released this year. It seems that the group took advantage of the fact that there is no sound in Crimes Of The Future, and wrote a score for the film. They performed it live while the film was projected. I have it and have been lining it up to my DVD of Crimes at home! Awesome!