Cronenberg takes us into ‘Crimes of the Future’

Above : Léa Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart star in “Crimes of the Future,” which opens Friday. (Photo/Neon)

All movie fans remember their first David Cronenberg film. And that’s true even for those don’t know who he even is.

My first viewing of a Cronenberg work was 1977’s “Rabid.” It was part of a drive-in horrorfest, though I can’t remember the companion film. Likely something directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.

“Rabid” featured porn star Marilyn Chambers. So what 20-year-old could resist that?

Over the years, Cronenberg – who is Canadian – gradually evolved from a strict chronicler of horror (films such as “The Brood,” “Scanners” and “Videodrome”) into a more mainstream filmmaker (albeit with a still-strange bent).

He directed an adaptation of the Stephen King novel “The Dead Zone,” the Jeff Goldblum-Geena Davis version of “The Fly,” the adaptation of the stage musical “M. Butterfly” and two films with Viggo Mortensen, “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.”

All, in one way or another, explore some sense of the world that is far from mainstream. And now we have a film that pushes the limits of taste even further, “Crimes of the Future,” which opens Friday.

Mortensen (yet again) stars as a performance artist who, according to Rotten Tomatoes, “publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.” A secret group then turns up “to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.”

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote, “Cronenberg sardonically comments on cosmetic surgery, environmental destruction and the feeling of all artists, himself included, that putting your work before the public is akin to being operated on in the city square.”

Stephanie Zacharek of Time.com wrote, “In movies, a vibe can often carry you much further than ideas can, and ‘Crimes of the Future’… has vibes to spare.”

Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail wrote, “Every millimeter of this film is filthy, decayed, polluted. And thank god for that.”

I’m in. How about you?