I would love to see this one. I remember being interested in it when it was released, but I honestly have since forgotten it existed. Glad you and Willow brought it back to my attention.
@bijoux: If you’re interested, the Sundance Channel might air it again sometime.
Very good film. Cronenberg captured the idea magnificently.
I like Ed Gonzalez’s review of it, especially this bit:
“The film’s grayish mise-en-scène evokes the texture of a spider web, so much so that characters, not unlike the occasional colored chair, appear as if they are hanging from that web and struggling against time, working their way to the truth via a series of concentric circles. More remarkably, Cronenberg’s elegant camera approaches each and every transition between scenes as if it were climbing a web’s silky string. A tunnel, a canal and an imposing gas tank suffocate Spider with the look and scent of the past—when he sits on a bench near the canal it’s as if he’s hanging delicately from the edge of a pulsating fissure inside his own mind.”
It was on last night……
Hm. Just the mere mention of this film kinda makes me want to rewatch it.
It’s a good film.
@pierre: On Sundance Channel? Yes, it was.
@g-legs: I did read that review right after the first time I watched it, but didn’t get to see it again until months later. Now I love it even more. I think what I love most about it is the direction: it totally supports the intricate-ness of the plot and characters. Everything seemed to be tangled up and the direction follows this flow.
Can’t get past the finger.
Lots of people really respect it and some go as far to say it’s his best work. It just didn’t click with me. I thought it was well-made but ultimately, a few years after seeing it, I’ve forgotten a lot about it. I wouldn’t mind revisiting but since it doesn’t exactly make me passionate like most of his other cinema, inevitably I’d prefer to rewatch Videodrome for the umpteenth time.
—PolarisDiB
@DiB: Spider needs more rewatches than Videodrome just for the ambiguities alone imo.
I saw it. It was pretty cool.
Hated this the first time around and was really stunned by it during the second go. A pretty powerful piece about mental illness and a daring commitment to depicting and then deconstructing someone’s false reality.
“. It just didn’t click with me. I thought it was well-made but ultimately, a few years after seeing it, I’ve forgotten a lot about it.”
Agree, it’s quite ordinary and obvious to me, and it looks more like an Alan Parker film than a Cronenberg one hehe.
I haven’t seen it in probably three years, but I remember it being a masterwork. It’s definitely top tier Cronenberg in my opinion.
I thought it was pretty average, especially compared to his other films.
It’s probably Cronenberg’s neatest and most carefully structured film in no small part because it is one of his least ambitious. It’s very much worth watching but a far cry from his best.
Yeah, you know when comedians try to break out their first drama role, and whereas they turn out capable, you’re still not really sure you really like it and can definitely tell the movie isn’t great? That’s how I felt about Spider. But it did give Cronenberg some more practice in non body horror stuff to work through History of Violence (warmer… warmer…) toward Eastern Promises (there’s the ticket).
—PolarisDiB
I would call Spider mid-tier Cronenberg. You won’t be disappointed to see it, but it doesn’t either have the standout performances of some of his films or the daring over the top visceralness. All of the themes of the film are better and more extremely explored in other of his films.
No-Limb Joe
(The first of the Let’s Talk About… series, maybe?)
So let’s talk about David Cronenberg’s Spider.