Climax is a French psychological horror film directed by Gaspar Noe. The plot revolves around a dance troupe that unknowingly ingests LSD during an after-performance party, from their things quickly spiral out of control.
This will not be for everyone; I can’t stress that enough. Personally, I found it quite hard to get through and did almost turn it off a few times.
My main reason for this was the lack of any kind of narrative. Other than the dancers ingesting the drugs there is no real sense of plot from there on out, events happen, but they all feel disconnected and isolated perhaps by design. As well there are long drawn out dance sequences which border on the tedious frequently throughout the film and it makes the film a slog to get through.
There are a few tense scenes, such as when the kid dies or when the angry mob almost makes one of the girls kill herself. However, the issue with these scenes is that though well executed because they are so removed from everything else and almost abstract they lose all kind of meaning.
Moreover, don’t even get me started on the ending which is as smug and pretentious as you can get.
Overall, from my perspective this film has a lot of issues, however these issues seems deliberate, so, maybe someone lese with different cinematic sensibilities would like this film, but personally I found it a confusing, pretentious, mess.
Pros
Sofia Boutella
A few tense scenes
Cons.
It makes no real sense
The lack of a coherent narrative really hurts it
The ending is incredibly pretentious
It feels deliberately confusing
1.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 