Cosmopolis (2012)

Watching a David Cronenberg film can be like eating cinematic roughage, you know there are nutrients in there but they are not always that tasty and can be tough going down. Comopolis is about a 28 year old billionaire currency manipulator taking meetings in his limo and being driven around Manhattan all day as his life and business collapse around him amid 'occupy wall street' type protests and a credible assassination threat. The characters for the most part aren't all that likable but serve as types, representative figures in a sort of late capitalist Canterbury Tale, the Chief of Security, the Chief of Finance, the Chief of Theory, all articulating a certain mindset, all in an exaggerated way, like threads in a fabric of madness. Though stylized it helps that these figures are often played by quite capable actors, Juliette Binoche, Kevin Durand, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti. While it might have been more interesting to have someone like, I don't know Joseph Gordon-Levitt or even Armie Hammer in the lead, there is a certain satisfaction in Robert Pattinson playing the part in the midst of the Twilight craze, wondering how many of his young fans were tricking in laying down their money for an often unpleasant work of philosophical dialogues. ***