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LOS ANGELES, May 30 (UPI) -- The body modification subculture has evolved in the modern era with advances in cosmetic surgery and piercing. Crimes of the Future, in theaters Friday, takes body modification to the next level with potential future developments. In a disease-ridden future, some humans are developing new organs. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) is a performance artist whose partner-surgeon Caprice (Lea Seydoux) publicly removes his new organs for paying crowds.
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An underground government agency, the National Organ Registry, wants to identify and log Saul's new growths. Meanwhile, grieving father Lang Daughtery (Scott Speedman) wants Saul and Caprice to perform an autopsy on his son, whose murder occurs in the opening scene of the film.
Writer-director David Cronenberg has explored the melding of biology and technology in films such as Videodrome, The Fly and Existenz. Crimes of the Future also pushes his aesthetic to the new limits of modern filmmaking.
Crimes introduces the various machines Saul uses to cope with the pain of his body growing the new organs. A bed looks like a beetle shell and manipulates his body while he sleeps, with biological tubes piercing Saul's skin like the equipment of Existenz.
A chair called The Breakfaster makes it look like Saul is sitting on bones, which gyrate and shift his body while he eats to maximize his body's digestion. Then there's the Sark autopsy machine, which Crimes of the Future shows in action.
The graphic deployment of these machines ought to titillate Cronenberg fans. By now, audiences should know if they don't have the stomach for this.
Cronenberg creates an immersive world in which the viewer can believe this is the evolution of human biology and technology. In this future, some people volunteer to add new organs, internal or external, for self-expression.
For body modification enthusiasts, this cast surely includes the biggest celebrity names to ever depict the practice in Hollywood. The viewer is treated to beautiful people enjoying the inflicting of gaping wounds on their visages.
It probably won't win over any converts among non-modified viewers. However, depiction is not endorsement, anyway, and it is an illuminating view into that world if one can handle the graphic imagery.
Like Cronenberg's Crash, Dead Ringers and A History of Violence, Crimes of the Future also explores the connection between violence and sex. Lab assistant Timlin (Kristen Stewart) suggests "surgery is the new sex," but it seems that Saul and Caprice already discovered that.
Between Cronenberg's world-building and Mortensen's performance, Saul's pain and illness is palpable throughout the film. The whole movie feels like the fog a chronic patient must endure.
The plot and mystery of Crimes of the Future doesn't quite live up to the vivid world Cronenberg created. Saul and Caprice's self-discoveries are the focus as they encounter other characters and push the boundaries of their own art.
As such, the film's ambiguity may leave some viewers unfulfilled. However, Crimes of the Future is a compelling vehicle through which to question who we are and where we are going.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
