--- title: The Neon Demon Review: A Slick, Fashion-World Fantasy description: Whatever the heck it is, it throws off a chilly, pleasurable sheen. canonical: https://time.com/4380107/review-the-neon-demon/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-23T21:29:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:48:49.671Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: 'The Neon Demon' Is Its Own Sleek, Glitter-Eyeshadow-Dusted Creature og:description: Whatever the heck it is, it throws off a chilly, pleasurable sheen og:url: https://time.com/4380107/review-the-neon-demon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb07fb6b5fb11dd0/6988992da988caa47e6b85a0/neon-demon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: neon-demon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: 'The Neon Demon' Is Its Own Sleek, Glitter-Eyeshadow-Dusted Creature twitter:description: Whatever the heck it is, it throws off a chilly, pleasurable sheen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb07fb6b5fb11dd0/6988992da988caa47e6b85a0/neon-demon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: _The Neon Demon_ Is Its Own Sleek, Glitter-Eyeshadow-Dusted Creature  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jun 23, 2016 9:29 PM CUT  Elle Fanning in The Neon Demon. Elle Fanning in The Neon Demon.Amazon Studios  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Jun 23, 2016 9:29 PM CUT Sometimes we want clarity and structure when we go to the movies. Other times we want visual thrills or a story that moves us. But the “What the hell did we just watch?” factor should never be underestimated: It is its own kind of exhilaration. On that score, Nicolas Winding Refn’s [_Neon Demon_](http://time.com/4343214/nicolas-winding-refn-neon-demon/ "undefined")_,_ a horror thriller set in the slick, empty Los Angeles fashion world, comes through. Elle Fanning plays Jessie, an innocent underage teen who has come to Los Angeles to crack the fashion world, and it seems she has a good shot at it: A glassy-eyed modeling agent, played by Christina Hendricks in a violet pantsuit, eyes this slim wraith of a girl approvingly and assures her she’s going to be a star. Jessie has checked herself into a cheap hotel room run by a sleazy Keanu Reeves, who accuses her of committing destructive acts she’d never dream of doing. She meets Jena Malone’s Ruby, a predatory makeup artist (to both models and cadavers—she moonlights in a mortuary) who invites her to a party. Meanwhile, two very skinny, very catty, highly artificial-looking models, Sarah and Gigi (Abbey Lee and Bella Heathcote), slink around seductively. Those are the basic elements of _The Neon Demon,_ and none of it adds up to much of anything in terms of plot. The movie’s highly stylized dream-logic aura is reminiscent of David Lynch’s _Mulholland Dr.,_ and its cool, sinister tone owes something to Irvin Kershner’s superb 1978 fashion-world thriller _The Eyes of Laura Mars._ And it’s a welcome leap from the territory of Refn’s 2013 _Only God Forgives_: That picture was murky and darkly brutal, in an art-house way, though it did offer its share of cheap, brazen thrills, including incest, eyeball-gouging and crazily beautiful flocked wallpaper. But _The Neon Demon_ is its own sleek, bikini-waxed, glitter-eyeshadow-dusted creature. This is purely an exercise in style, and what style! Refn loves coo-coo interiors, and Jessie’s deliciously dismal hotel room—a mingling of faded bird-of-paradise curtains, cheap hibiscus-printed bed coverings, and wallpaper printed with stylized, Scandinavian-influenced ferns—does not disappoint. Outside of that room, the world looks brighter and much, much slicker. Refn’s color palette could have been inspired by a junior high school girl’s lipgloss collection: Everything—including the blood that inevitably flows—is supershiny and candy-toned bright. The action here might best be described as inaction: This is a decisively static picture, more a series of Helmut Newton-style tableaus tacked together. Technically, it may barely even qualify as a movie, though that’s part of its allure. Fanning stands, blinking innocently, at the center of it all. At one point, stripped down to her blush-colored undies, she auditions for a fashion show, competing among a bevy of bland, leggy beauties. The blasé designer in charge (played by an amusingly pretentious Alessandro Nivola) sees her and falls under her spell instantly. And how could he not? Tall and fair and semi-naked, Jessie looks like an art nouveau Easter lily, all pinkish white and disarmingly vulnerable. _The Neon Demon_ isn’t much of movie, if you’re looking for an actual story. Nor is it a moralistic fable about the emptiness of Hollywood—if anything, it’s a winking mockery of that sort of thing. But whatever the heck it is, it throws off a chilly, pleasurable sheen. 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