David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of Ballard’s novel about individuals developing sexual and emotional attraction to vehicular destruction was much-maligned by some critics (not me).
The sexually adventuresome couple James Ballard and his wife Catherine, James Spader and Deborah Kara Unger prove unconvincing only when they’re fucking while describing sex in po faced, clinical terms.
But the point of the movie is not to transfer arousal from the characters to the audience but to explore the notion that one’s sexuality — and identity — can, and does, change with our exposure to elements that are unexpected, but in other circumstances otherwise mundane.
Featuring controlled yet fearless performances and technical mastery over the material — including what needs to be shown, and what doesn’t– Cronenberg’s film earned special award for “daring” at the 1996 Cannes Film Fest, and it continues to push all the right buttons today.
