Devil Inside / Demonlover Review - V25 Sept/Oct 2003

GHOST IN THE MACHINE

There is a lot to find fascinating in French director Olivier Assayes' new film, Demonlover. First of all, you have a plot that involves a conflicted corporate mole (played by Connie Nielson) whose job as a corporate spy leads her into a dark world of corruption, unexplained kidnappings, and animated Japanese cyber-pornography involving interactive torture websites. In addition you've got Chloe Sevigny wafting about as an antagonistic and somewhat mysterious corporate assistant and Gina Gershon pot-smoking through her role as a loud-mouthed American executive. If that isn't enough to at least pique your curiosity, keep in mind that the movie is called Demonlover, it was scored by noise-loving Sonic Youth and much of the movie is in French! French! And while this might all sound like a pretentious recipe for disaster, strangely enough, it isn't. While the movie initially reads like a slick, shiny, by-the-numbers sort of spy thriller, it eventually unfolds into something much stranger and more interesting: a kind of David Lynchian origami in which reality and virtual reality ultimately become confused. As the schemes and machinations of the characters begin to unravel, so does the movie itself-but in a good way. With Demonlover Olivier Assayes proves that the smart aestheticism of his earlier films (like Irma Vep) was definitely no fluke.

Demonlover opens nationally in October.

- T. Cole Rachel