Hi! You’re reading an entry in the Jscars 2022, a series on my favorite movies of the year 2022. Go to my profile to view the previous entries!
“Surgery is the new sex.”
You know what’s cool? Evolution. And I’m not just saying that because it ties into the movie I’m talking about. I really do think evolution is a fascinating concept, even if I don’t fully understand. If anything that makes it more fascinating. And within the topic of evolution, I find myself thinking about human evolution pretty often. Have humans started to evolve, and if not when will they? But at this point, seeing as how many people have chosen to react to anyone different than them, it’s safe to say that the next step in human evolution is not going to come quietly. It’s going to come with a loud and violent pushback.
In the world of Crimes of the Future, the human body is beginning to evolve and shift, sped up by advancements in biotechnology. In response, the government has adopted agency and regulations to try and track and restrict the activities of so-called “evolutionary anarchists” and keep a record of every new organ that has been grown. Throughout all of this the main character Saul Tenser finds himself in the middle, as he both consults with the government about infiltrating a group of these anarchists while also being part of a world-renowned performance art act focusing on his evolving body. That was a little more plot summary than I’ve given for most of the movies in this series because frankly I had to give it to discuss all the different questions this movie raises. I mean, just from that summary alone some pretty heavy topics are clearly being discussed. The role technology will play in human evolution. How the government and world will respond (and has responded) to new ways of life and being. And the role art and creativity can play in how we navigate all of these landscapes. It’s honestly somewhat overwhelming the amount of pressing topics this film raises, yet it somehow manages to carefully balance all of them at once, never letting it feel overbearing during the actual runtime.
But as much as I do love this movie’s more existential questions, I can’t pretend that’s all there is to it. No, there’s another reason that’s a lot simpler. And in all honesty it’s that this movie is erotic as hell. (Yes “erotic” is the word I’m choosing to use because it still lets me sound kind of dignified.) When Kristen Stewart kneels down and whispers the phrase “surgery is the new sex”, you wouldn’t expect to end up believing her, but I definitely did. This is where David Cronenberg’s experience making sensual movies definitely comes into play, because portraying the act of performing surgery in a way that even suggests sexuality is not something most directors would be able to do. But maybe it’s the fact I already find the leads attractive, maybe surgery really is the new sex, but he makes it work. Granted, the movie also recognizes how absurd this is, and is surprisingly comedic throughout the whole runtime because of it, implementing a lot of very dry humor that hits pretty hard. One particular scene where Saul says he’s “not so good at the old sex” stood out pretty heavily in this category.
Whether it’s because of it being sexy and funny or because of the many tricky moral questions it raises, Crimes of the Future is a movie that has continued to live in my head since I first saw it. I’m not certain I’m any closer now to untangling it all than I was in that moment, but sometimes I think that’s fine. Sometimes a movie’s goal isn’t necessarily to provide an answer for every one of its questions. Considering the confusing and often contradictory nature of the future Crimes of the Future proposes, maybe it’s best that the movie itself be the same.