Demonlover

Name: Demonlover
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: September 19, 2003
Duration: 129 min
Rating: 67
Cast: Chloë Sevigny, Connie Nielsen, Gina Gershon

2003

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Ratings

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6.1	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Ratings

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Demonlover

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Movie Details & Credits

Palm Pictures | Release Date: September 19, 2003 | R

Starring: Chloë Sevigny, Connie Nielsen, Gina Gershon

Summary: A thought-provoking, radical essay on the matrix of art, life and virtual reality which deliberately toys with narrative conventions. [Palm Pictures]

Director: Olivier Assayas

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 129 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Olivier Assayas latest effort could be mistaken for a hipper-than-thou thriller. But it isn’t--it’s in fact a difficult, challenging, and troubling art film. [October 2003, p. 19]

Manohla Dargis

It's an exasperating, irresistible, must-see mess of a movie about life in the modern world and so very good that even when its story finally crashes and burns the filmmaking remains unscathed. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Disturbing, darkly beautiful. Read full review

Scott Tobias

May be Assayas' airiest work to date, an intriguing trifle that leaves its considerable pleasures to lounge around on the surface. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

I've seen Demonlover twice and still find the plot a challenge. I'd try again if I thought it would help. Read full review

David Sterritt

Never quite jells into a coherent statement. Or a coherent film. Read full review

Stephen Hunter

Meant to be a sleek, dark, disturbing David Cronenberg-style thriller, Olivier Assayas's film is just an annoying concoction. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

Jun 19, 2021

Surprisingly, the film touches on some dark and sexual themes, that you don't usually see in mainstream stuff, and it doesn't shy away from exploring them.
But I'm not sure that due to the date it was released, Assayas, despite the explicitness of certain images, didn't dare to cross theSurprisingly, the film touches on some dark and sexual themes, that you don't usually see in mainstream stuff, and it doesn't shy away from exploring them.
But I'm not sure that due to the date it was released, Assayas, despite the explicitness of certain images, didn't dare to cross the threshold by full.

And I'm not saying this because the film needed a more brutal exploration, or that it would fall in some gratuitous violence, it's just that it seems too ambiguous to me.

At this point it's not difficult to fill in the gaps, but despite being a film that feels unique in his filmography, it's not enough to stand out as something more complex and distinguishable.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

juliankennedy23

Jul 20, 2014

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Demonlover: 4 out of 10: Wow what an overlong train wreck of a movie. Before I begin to scratch the surface of the ineptitude of this film let me explain the few things Demonlover does right.

Demonlover does some things very well. It has individual scenes that work on their own either as erotic vignettes; (Chloe Sevigny playing videogames in the nude , an Asian girl seducing a French man at a club after his lover leaves.) or plot actions (dosing a bottled water with Halcion) before the film ventures down the rabbit hole twenty odd minutes in.

The general plot of Demonlover is a French conglomerate is looking to buy an adult anime company. Because of this, a rival Adult anime distributor has sent a corporate spy to put a kibosh on the proceedings. That is the story, there is some silliness about a for-pay torture and bondage site but ther story in a nutshell is an Anime buyout scheme.

So how can a thriller dealing with bondage and Hentai and starring Chloë Sevigny, Gina Gershon, and the hot redhead from Devil’s Advocate, Connie Nielsen, possibly go wrong? Well for one thing, there are cloistered nuns that know more about marketing animated porn online than writer/director Olivier Assayas does. I often complain about movies where the writers and director have clearly never worked in an office (13 Going on 30 for example) but this is over the top. The French, as an example, are worried about a secret website that makes lots of money. If the website makes lots of money… wait for it… it probably is not a secret. Moreover, I am sure that cornering the online Hentai traffic is an unattainable goal. After all, how hard is it to draw new tentacle porn? In addition, I doubt many corporate spies scale the sides of buildings or poison colleagues. Moreover, with the silliest script this side of The Core you cannot depend on the ever confusing and contrived plot.

I know I praised the sex scenes above but with this cast, I was expecting more, a lot more. Also I often did not know where the movie was taking place. (are they in Tokyo or France is a popular game you can play.) Then there is the car chase, at the end, that looks like an outtake from Vanishing Point. (As Tom Servo would have said “Meanwhile in another decade”)The film is overlong, very confusing, somewhat boring and the characters IQ’s seem to drop every scene. After the fifteenth fade to black transition, I actually screamed “end already” at the screen.

In reality, this seems to be a badly done remake of Videodrome. Olivier Assayas is clearly no David Cronenberg. He cannot even tell a simple story in a believable and entertaining manner. Or take advantage of three of the hottest actresses in the business.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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