- A History of Violence
In this week’s paper, J.R. Jones has a long review of Maps to the Stars, the new film by Canadian master David Cronenberg. The director’s long, varied career has yielded some of the most exciting and rigorous films in recent memory, from his early body-horror chillers to his recent psychological surveys of the social world. His style isn’t readily defined, and he always seems to have one foot in the mainstream and another in the underground. In a recent survey, the critic J. Hoberman wrote Cronenberg is “not a commercial director with artistic aspirations so much as an avant-garde filmmaker who has contrived a commercial career, in part by remaining in Canada.” As such, the director has amassed a singular body of work, as varied as it is vast. You can catch my five favorite Cronenberg films below.
- A History of Violence (2005) Cronenberg’s recent films have become a bit less inscrutable and perhaps more legible, but they aren’t any less weird. In the case of this seemingly conventional thriller, the weirdness derives from the thematic and stylistic cliches that seem somehow alien and even threatening in the director’s hands. The film appears as both simple, plain ol’ entertainment and as a self-reflexive art piece that holds a mirror to its audience. Of course, it isn’t both, but Cronenberg’s genius lies in making it seem like it is.
