MUBI Notebook Fantasy Double Feature Poll
In case you missed it, I participated in MUBI’s Fantasy Double Feature poll.
Cosmopolis, or Capitalism as Subversive Art
Cosmopolis is something of a behemoth of a film. It unrelentingly attacks a difficult subject and, from time to time, groans under the weight of its own ideas. Nevertheless, it offers a conceptual framework often ignored in star driven films - capitalism as it directs the art form and orders our lives. Much of the press leading up to its premiere focused on the fact that Robert Pattinson was going to be working with Cronenberg while playing against the Cedric Diggory/Edward Cullen type. After viewing the film, and I must admit that talking about this film after only seeing it once feels more than a little dishonest, I would rather propose that Pattinson does not play an opposing role; instead he perverts, and consequently subverts, the Handsome Masculine Golden Boy trope that he has adopted in his films and in his public persona.
