Climax

Watching Gaspar Noé's films is like discovering new forms of communication. The opening dance scene is hypnotic perfection and pure ecstasy, while everything else is mainly about how far you are willing to go and how far your spectator endurance reaches. A spectacular cameraman show and epileptic choreography accompanied by techno on a trip; or in other words, Noé knows how to mix a tailor-made sangria. He collected his most frequent trademarks, scattered them at a dance party and purposefully created a hallucinogenic apocalypse with zero plot, but maximum efficiency. A wild and predatory experimental ride, incredibly progressive and, at the same time, narcissistically immersed in itself. But what else would you expect from Noé? (07/07/2018)

Gaspar Noé dances an extremely dirty dance, and with his help, this manages to entrance and fascinate you for quite some time. And yet during the excessively stretched-out dialogue, a feeling arose that someone was stretching me out. And that was before the anticipated barrage of purposeless violence and annoying antics accompanied by the spinning of the camera was even on the program, and the fact that the stubborn director refused to move from one spot even a little bit after so many years almost made me laugh. And I had already lost my patience with works presented to the clever audience long ago. (31/10/2018)

Aggressive, provocative, controversial and boundary-pushing, Gaspar Noe delivers his best work and it is once again an original, fresh and uncomfortably steamy spectacle. The film is even based on a true story, about thirty dancers finishing their American tour and intending to celebrate properly, but the evening goes awry when LSD is mixed into the Sangria and unfortunately not everyone makes it to the morning. This dance horror drug musical is one of a kind and compelling enough to keep you interested, though it's good to know the director's previous work beforehand so you have an idea of what you're getting into. The opening dance number is absolutely breathtaking and enthralling and the witty sex references suited me just fine, but once the party gets underway in full swing the hallucinogenic trippy ride begins, with everyone involved experiencing a nightmare you wouldn’t believe. There are a couple of uncomfortable scenes, though the violence is slightly skimped on, but it makes up for it with solid music, dance numbers, very racy girls, sex scenes and original cinematography with a filter at the end albeit too chaotic for some. Sofia Boutella rocks again and since I first saw her in Kingsman she has only surprised and shocked! Solid for me. 80%. (04/02/2019)

Dirty Dancing meets Trainspotting in ultra-hardcore mode. I'm convinced that Gaspar Noé is not entirely normal; that said, in the vast majority of cases, it's rather to the benefit of the cause, because films this intense simply aren’t made every day. Actually, Climax starts quite unobtrusively and for a long time gives the impression of a visually appealing "party movie", of course with the exception of the last approx. 40 minutes. From a certain point on it becomes such a mess that I couldn't help but shake my head and allow my strong negative emotions to flow towards all the characters. It's definitely not a date movie or an otherwise similarly oriented romantic evening, but the experience is intense and evocative. And the predatory, neurotic, and slightly epileptic directorial style still amuses me a lot. (23/06/2019)

We haven’t had a party gone wrong quite like this before. A brilliant one-shot musical intro, a few lines to get to know the characters and the party begins. For the participating unfortunates, a badly mixed sangria can work real magic. Climax is a super engaging acid trip. Out of Noé’s entire filmography, it is the most similar to Enter the Void, but this time taking place in a few rooms and one hallway. Dancing and frolicking, collective paranoia, hallucinogenic madness. The movie is tense and scary in places, but by Noé’s standards, it is quite restrained in terms of sex and violence. Four stars thanks to the festival atmosphere (or rather the constant hunger for innovative things), but otherwise it is just the same self-obsessed inanity with pseudo-philosophical insights as found in most of the director‘s filmography. [Cannes] (16/05/2018)