A remarkable number of the films by David Cronenberg could easily be called "Crimes of the Future." In fact, he already used the title once before, on a short feature in 1970. His latest film, also called "Crimes of the Future" but unrelated to the earlier work apart from the title, continues his long fascination with the possibilities of the human body, explored in films such as "Videodrome," "The Fly," "Dead Ringers," "Crash," eXistenZ" and many others.
Cronenberg wrote the script for his latest "Crimes of the Future," originally titled "Painkillers," back in the late 1990s, and it was producer Robert Lantos who suggested both that Cronenberg return to the project and lift the title from the earlier film.
Set in an unspecified future, the film follows Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen, in his fourth Cronenberg film), a performance artist whose work involves the fact his body can grow new organs. His partner Caprice (Lea Seydoux) performs surgeries to remove them as public events. This gains the attention of two bureaucrats from the new National Organ Registry, Timlin (Kristen Stewart) and Wippet (Don McKellar), who both quickly become fans of Tenser's work. The story also includes an underground alliance of people attempting to digest plastics as food, a cop from the New Vice Unit and a pair of service technicians who are also assassins. The film has a mordant sense of humor, a hypnotic gracefulness and a startling emotional sincerity. From a filmmaker who can lean toward the cerebral, it has an unexpected amount of heart.
