Climax Movie Review

9/10

Suspiria meets Enter the Void.

Climax is a spectacular film on capturing the descent to psychedelic insanity. Fusing a brilliant cast of dancers against a backdrop of chaotic drama, Gaspar Noe’s film is an incredible achievement in minimalist filmmaking. Because for a story that takes place in just a few locations, there is so much madness going on to make it feel so alive and electrifying.

Let me preface the rest of this review with my belief that this film isn’t going to be for everyone. To put it simply, it gets crazy intense and if you’ve didn’t like Suspiria, chances are you’re not going to enjoy Climax either.

But for those that are interested, both films revolve around dancers which in turn are used to evoke disturbing and confronting scenes. However, Climax is a different film altogether because of its writer-director Gaspar Noe, but one might notice a clever nod to the Suspiria in the opening scenes of this film.

Regardless, I’ve come to see Gaspar Noe as almost a mad genius who features psychedelic drugs in his works to explore untouched realms of obscure filmmaking. To some, this could be off-putting and indeed absolutely crazy. But for me, I find it thoroughly entertaining on so many levels apart from just the story.

From a filmmaking standpoint, Gaspar Noe is just unbelievable to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that used more complicated and extended continuous takes than Climax. Similar to what I loved about his film Enter the Void, Climax builds upon his floating camera technique that just hovers and observes characters but my God is it ever more insane with his new film.

I can’t imagine how many rehearsals, retakes, time, and effort was spent making this film. Despite it all taking place within one building, I can quickly gather that there had to have been numerous amounts of planning to get everything right. From this perspective, the filmmaking alone is worth a watch.

But if you’re interested in something completely different from traditional mainstream cinema and don’t mind venturing into the chaotic unknown, I can’t recommend seeing Climax enough.

This film does get pretty intense but thankfully it’s just over 90 minutes which I think was a very wise choice.

See it.

Trailer: