In a big way David Cronenberg’s movies are really about transformation on some level that can be entirely physical and utterly disgusting, but can also be more metaphorical and meaningful depending on the viewer. Some people don’t see it as readily but others tend to pick up on the trend quickly since he doesn’t exactly hide it but he also doesn’t just come out and say it all the time. That’s the benefit of a movie however, it allows people to make up their own minds about what’s happening and what’s really important versus what the director wants you to think is important. Cronenberg has made it a habit to showcase his transformations in a way that carries more meaning than words can say at times, and he’s become very, very good at it over the years since he’s created many movies that people still remember to this day.
Here are his five best movies.
5. Eastern Promises
Keith Phipps of Rolling Stone comments on this movie in a way that makes it clear that many people came to think about this movie in a way that leaves one thinking that it’s more than little disturbing and definitely the kind of movie that makes you question what might be going on underneath the surface of society. Nikolai is undoubtedly the best character in the whole movie since he has to play both sides being an undercover FSB agent and has to be utterly convincing since his life and a few others tend to hang in the balance based on the deeds that he’s assigned to do and the things he actually does.
4. Cosmopolis
Richard Brody of The New Yorker seems to think that this movie was great largely because Robert Pattinson wasn’t at his best, which is odd enough to say, but then again it kind of fits for this movie since it’s a bit odd as well. When a billionaire starts to see his fortune suddenly sloughing away in one day he loses not only his money, but his wife and just about everything he can stand to lose as the day just keeps getting worse. Even the idea that there’s been an assassin hired to kill him doesn’t seem to faze the guy as he meanders through his day, wondering just why he’s going broke and when it will end. By the end of the movie we find the assassin holding a gun to his head and the main character seeming ready to bite the bullet.
3. The Dead Zone
It should have been easy to predict that a lot of movies, both old and new, would be attributed to President Trump when he took office since now everything that’s been predicting a troublesome and dangerous leader is attributed to the POTUS. Evan McGarvey of Culture is just another such individual that drew a correlation between a movie president and the current president since in this movie Johnny not only gains the ability to tell the future, he happens to foresee what will happen when one man becomes the president of the United States, and the nuclear holocaust to come is something he plans to avert.
2. The Fly
This is one of the classics thanks to the original, but this version wasn’t too bad either since it took the original story and turned it into something insanely gory and disgusting but altogether great since not only is Jeff Goldblum a great actor but he had Geena Davis to back him up as well. The idea of combing the DNA of a fly and a human is something that one might not think would be all that great, but when you think of the evolutionary adaptations that a fly has that allows it to survive you might think twice. Of course there are a lot of disgusting things about flies as well but in a horror movie one can’t be all that picky.
1. A History of Violence
Sometimes it’s necessary to hide who you are since you might not want to be found by the people that mean to do you harm. The only problem with trying to stay hid is that sooner or later you might cross paths with someone that will force that secret into the open and thereby ruin the safe zone that you spent so much time creating. In this movie Tom, or Joey to be clear, has tried to outrun the violence that he practiced for so long and manages to create a family and a name for himself that is anything but violent. But when pushed one night by two would be assailants he kills them both with such brutal efficiency that it’s not long before his name is in the news and those that have been looking for him start to close in.
Cronenberg can definitely tell a good story.
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