Enter the Void

Make sure that you’re on psychedelic drugs when you Watch this movie it’s an amazing masterpiece and explains life in a way you never thought possible and definitely a DMT experience

i heard lots of good things about this movie and gaspar. decided to watch it and it left me clueless, mainly because the movie got no where. the movie is long for no reason. i will say that the way it was filmed was spectacular and genius. very psychedelic and felt like i was in the movie. plot and movie was not good, film and production was complete mine blowing.

I feel somewhat guilty giving this a one-star review, mostly because I didn't dislike watching it. But I think it's a terrible film that's worth exploring for what can be taken away from it. Somebody described this as "Boyle meets Lynch," and that's about as untrue as possible. It's basically Terry Gilliam meets Terrence Malick. From Gilliam comes the weird, drug-induced style in films like 'Fear and Loathing,' 'Zero Theorem,' and 'Brazil'; from Malick comes the non-narrative. I hated Irreversible, mostly because it was a film about nasty people doing nasty things that didn't counterbalance the ugly with anything to compare it to. That leaves us with just the ugly. Enter the Void, regrettably, does almost the exact same thing. There are no likeable characters in the cast. The main guy is a sleazy drug-dealer and all of his friends are sleazy drug addicts. His sister is a sleazy slut. His sister's boss is a sleazy club owner who has sex with women far younger. I simply can't understand why someone would want to sit through a nearly two-and-a-half hour movie watching a cast of characters we not only don't care about, but flat out dislike. The counter to this is that Noe's intent was to portray an "experience," namely, I believe, the experience of being high as a kite on hard drugs. In that regard, Enter the Void is something of a success, I suppose. There are intelligent themes woven in -- Eastern religion and reincarnation come to mind -- but these are all overwhelmed by one simple fact: the people who populate this film are not the people you want your children growing up to be. The world doesn't need more drug dealers, criminals, seedy club owners, and strippers. I don't claim to know the mind of Gaspar Noe; sometimes, I'm not convinced he knows his own mind. Given the precision and efficiency with which the roaming camerawork is carried out, it's certainly not out of the question that he intentionally created easily hateable characters. In fact, I'd say that that is a given. Even, however, if we gave Noe a pass for creating a plentitude of morally corrupt characters, there's still another issue with Enter the Void: it shows too much. In the censorship era, filmmakers had to do gymnastics to circumvent the ratings board if they wanted to show sexuality. Hitchcock famously used a shot of a train entering a tunnel as a visual metaphor for a man put his train in a woman's tunnel. I believe it was Sword of Doom where Okamoto makes a similar metaphor between sex and a mill pumping up and down. Restricting freedom forced these directors to become more creative. Now that these freedoms have been granted to filmmakers, many seem intent on showing as much as possible instead of alluding to it. This isn't an argument from morality; this is an argument from aesthetics. It simply isn't good art to show everything. It's boring and ugly. The sex between the sister and her sleazy boss is ugly, and there's no beautiful eroticism to counterbalance it. The explicit scenes of drug-taking are ugly. The graphic violence is ugly. And there's never anything beautiful to show for it. People may say that they enjoy this film; I simply don't beleive it. There's nothing to enjoy. Is it interesting? Absolutely. Is it good? Not so much. Noe's extremist filmmaking crusade, most recently culminating in a 3D film called Love, which features a host of unsimulated sex scenes. How can we enjoy true, cinematic art if we're being lambasted by things like graphic sex and violence portrayed in the least artistic way possible, things which inherently contradict the nature of art? Part of painting and photography is learning how to use negative space to tell a story or show an artistic idea. In art, what you don't portray is just as important as what you do. FIlmmakers like Gaspar Noe are destroying that aspect of art, and it's not good for cinema, it's not good for culture, and it's not good for the general welfare of art.

This film is tough to review; it’s not a standard story and it doesn’t want to be. Instead what it tries to give you is a concrete depiction of a very abstract yet visceral subject, and that’s nothing less than Life and Death Itself, to get all dramatic about it. But yeah, it’s as ambitious as they come. If you’ve ever had a powerful spirititual or psychedelic experience, this film will make perfect sense. If not, you may find it to be a wandering, solipsistic, pretentious, overblown piece of trash. That said, this is my favorite film, tied with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Big, polarizing, singular in scope and vision, taxing, rewarding, challenging, thought-provoking, awe-inspiring, just plain beautiful to look at, the most hi-fidelity depiction yet of “the shimmering vacuity of human experience,” this is a landmark acheivement that actually justifies using that tired but accurate cliché- and let’s not forget it’s got a shot of a penis ejaculating inside a vagina, which checks that box on everyone’s bucket list.

Dark and beautiful and very poignant. If this doesn't affect you, I don't know what will. I have a feeling that this will become more and more of a cult classic as the current and future generations start waking up. I can't wait to watch this again with other people, and have some serious extended discussion.

“Enter the Void” is Art in the purest form. This film grabs onto your gut and stirs your emotions from the first minute to the very last seconds. My heart is still pounding in my chest and it finished hours ago. I saw Gaspar’s other film Irreversible and that also haunted me for years. You are BRILLIANT beyond words!!!! Thank you for creating the two most emotionally intense and visually stunning films I’ve ever seen….. BY FAR!

This movie was something completely new. It was dark but it kept you pulled in throughout the entire thing. It should be a NEW AGE CLASSIC! Definitely a must watch

This film immediately became my all time favorite. I actually use it now as a reference to describe my own views on life. Watch it you won't regret it, very meaningful & intellectually stimulating. (Bonus: bowl rips will only enhance the visual experience + the overall theme)

I could not stop thinking about this film when it was over. It was dark, but I had no depressing feelings after it was over. The psychology of that being the case would not be thought by many, but I believe it's because this movie calmly brought me down which allowed me to think and awaken my inner thoughts about what life and death is. This in which has benefitted me. The main character (you) experiences the movie so peacefully even when there's intense emotion surrounding the scene. Those who did not like this just weren't ready to relax and have an experience through a film that challenges what you already know and gives you a realistic alternative to how your world is viewed. For me this movie was unbelievably enveloping, and I just ultimately haven' seen anything like it.

Didn't even know this movie existed, until 2 days ago I clicked on Gaspar Noé's link on his previous film Irreversible and watched the trailer, which says nothing of the movie. Mention the movie. Mentioned to a friend who works at the food compendium at Trader Joe's. Someone walked up behind me having heard me and said you must see this film, it's one of the best movies ever made. It is true, and now I am telling you.