CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (2022)

It's very much an old master returning to the stage with a greatest hits collection, which is no bad thing. There remains much pleasure to be experienced seeing and feeling the familiar technosex/bioport/ stilted dialogue/coexistence of analog and digital technologies (and what that coexistence suggests about the chaos of our time). But it's not the recognizable tropes that had them running for the exits at Cannes; on the other hand if you want the familiar, you deserve what you get seeking it in the corpus of David Cronenberg. 

He ups the in-world stakes in a way that will alienate part of his audience, especially in the US at this particular moment, but it only underscores the urgency of the questions he's always been asking, questions that he (and we) are running out of time to explore: what are we making of our world? How are we changing to adapt to it? Do we possess not just the capability but the faith necessary to discard what we knew to embrace a future that may be better than our present? 

On top of all of this: excellent use of the spaces in Athens to underscore the movie's themes; uniform commitment on the part of the cast; one of the best kisses I've seen in a movie of late; and the thing's funnier than you'd expect.