Climax

(1945) dir Edgar G. Ulmer w/Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake [68 min; DCP]

(2018) dir Gaspar Noé w/Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smile, Claude Gajan Maull, Giselle Palmer [93 min; DCP]

The latest from cinematic boundary-pusher Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void) takes place over the course of one drugged, debauched, and disturbing night in 1996. A French dance company, set to perform a piece that fuses many disparate styles, joins together to celebrate the end of rehearsal but their party devolves into a psychedelic-propelled nightmare when they realize that the sangria they’ve been guzzling is laced with potent LSD. 

From his first film through today, Noé has been violating every possible level of good taste in pursuit of an often-nihilistic filmmaking philosophy that completely ignores what is accepted in polite society. Unsurprisingly, this typically brutal-yet-beautiful film contains a trigger for just about everyone and is categorically not for the easily offended – a transgressive horror film where everything is rooted in reality. On the other hand, the film also contains some of the most exuberant and joyful dance photography that you will see on film this year. Noé sets out to plumb the depths of hallucinatory dread and real-life disaster while also embracing the ecstatic experiences brought on by the best trips and he succeeds with one of his most gorgeous and challenging films to date.