Love (2015)

Gaspar Noé's latest cinematic incursion isn't nearly as strong as his previous films as far as violence and 'disturbing' content, but plays out as a more ostentatious 'art'-porn mash-up centering around a toxic love story. Noé's signature 'trashy', yet visually ornate style provides enough value to override aspects of pretension that movies like this tend to secrete.

Much like his most well-known flick, "Irreversible", "Love" is told in a non-linear structure - shuffling the sequence of events detailing the volatile romance between an arrogant, hotheaded American man and a French fille with sexually manifested 'daddy issues'. In true-to-life fashion, their intense relationship begins deteriorating after introducing a 16-year old girl into a three-way sex fantasy situation. Homeboy starts screwing around with the new girl behind his chick's back, slips some swimmers past the goalie and the rest is history. Not even jealousy-laden exhibitionism and tranny sex coercion can save them...

So, the name of the game here: too much drugs and sexual exploration can really sour a relationship. I gotta say, I enjoyed "Love" quite a bit as a much "tamer" example of Noé's style. The 'hardcore' scenes come across as necessary to the tone of the movie, I'd say, though provide nothing 'groundbreaking' as this type of thing is becoming more common practice among auteur film-makers trying to extract 'art' from pornography by using unsimulated sex and marketing it as such. In this case, there's a pompousness to the film, of course, but I thought the more 'hardcore' material worked well, overall, in "exposing" the actors a bit, thus, making their characters seem a bit more REAL. Speaking of which, the characters are well fleshed out and the performances are strong with genuine sounding dialog, for the most part. My hat goes off to the performances.

If you're curious about a much "lighter" and clearly more personal approach from Gaspar Noe, I'd definitely recommend "Love".