The movie genre David Cronenberg hates most: “They know what the fuck they’re talking about”
After a lengthy sabbatical that saw him go eight years without helming a feature, David Cronenberg announced his comeback in suitable style by returning to the genre that defines him.
Following 2014’s satirical drama Maps to the Stars, it was almost a decade before the filmmaker stepped behind the camera on a movie, and when he did Crimes of the Future placed him back on very familiar turf by not only lifting the title of his own 1970 film but plunging him right back into sci-fi body horror.
Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, and The Fly rocketed him to mainstream prominence in the 1980s to such an extent that Cronenbergian entered the cinematic lexicon as a result, but he’s never been one to let himself become tied down to one genre. He’s tackled drama, thrillers, and the occasional action sequence, but there’s one offshoot of the medium he simply cannot abide.
Admittedly, there’s a huge dose of irony to be found when Cronenberg is responsible for one of the most accomplished comic book adaptations of the century when he brought John Wagner and Vince Locke’s A History of Violence to the screen in spectacular style. Obviously, it may have its origins on the printed page, but it’s nowhere near being a superhero flick.
That’s clearly where he draws the line, with Cronenberg unloading both barrels on costumed crimefighters during an interview with Next Movie. “I don’t think they are making them an elevated art form. I think it’s still Batman running around in a stupid cape,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s elevated. Christopher Nolan’s best movie is Memento, and that is an interesting movie. I don’t think his Batman movies are half as interesting though they’re 20 million times the expense.”
Although he appreciates the technical wizardry on display, Cronenberg finds superhero cinema at large to be “mostly boring”. Planting himself firmly in the Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola camp, too, he could barely hide his disdain at hearing comic book movies compared to genuine works of celluloid art.
“It’s for kids. It’s adolescent in its core,” he explained. “That has always been its appeal, and I think people who are saying, you know, ‘Dark Knight Rises is, you know, supreme cinema art’, I don’t think they know what the fuck they’re talking about”. Clearly, the man has no time for those who believe comic book films can exist on the same plane as whatever his definition of cinema is.
There are no shortage of naysayers in full agreement with Cronenberg’s withering assessment, but there as just as many who’d vehemently agree. It’s all down to personal opinion at the end of the day, which is just one of the reasons why it’s one of the industry’s most heated modern debates.
