Enter the Void (2009)

Release Date: 5 May 2010


What's It About: Hallucinogenic drug dealer Oscar is shot to death during a police ambush at a Tokyo bar whilst dealing drugs. His spirit exits his body and he flies around the neighborhood watching the people around him as they deal with the aftermath of his death and experiences flashbacks to key moments in his childhood.


The Good: Visually stunning and impressively realistic, Enter the Void sports a dazzling series of visual effects that mimic the sensation of taking hallucinogenic drugs in the series of organic shapes, lights and fractals. The film is shot in first person, and even features the character blinking occasionally. The scenes are very dark and gritty, depicting the general squalor underground figures on the street level tend to live. The depiction of death and the out of body experience is also worthy of note.


The Bad: The film is excessively long, and scenes are very slow and build little in terms of the overarching plot. The acting is not good, but one could infer that this helps to illustrate the awkwardness between people in normal real life social interactions. The film is also quite speculative, which some may not like. It deals with topics surrounding murder, rape, sex and violence. There is an abortion scene.


Best Performance: Nathaniel Brown as Oscar. He falls into his unusual acting role well, and when the camera shows his first person view (when he washes his face at the start of the film, for example), he plays the first-person view naturally. As the dead Oscar flying around Tokyo, there isn't much acting going on, as we still see things from his point of view, but his interactions with other characters continue, to an extent.


Should I Watch It: Certainly a unique film, Enter the Void is one of my favorites, if not for it's difficult access due to its runtime and slow and sometimes boring pacing. However, this is no criticism as normal life is not always exciting and interesting. The visual effects and their concept and execution are highly imaginative and thought-provoking, and there is a sense of the slowing of time when lights strobe and voices begin to repeat and run onto one another. In an industry saturated with the same tired tropes and cliches, I welcome a work that tries to be something different and daring, even if it isn't objectively good.


Post-Credits Scene: No


Similar Films: Knight of Cups (2015), Requiem for a Dream (1998), Altered States (1980)


Trailer: