eXistenZ = Existenz [DVD]

Inspired by a 1995 interview with writer Salman Rushdie, “Existenz” sees Cronenberg apply his perverse and rigorous intellect to a future world in which video game technology and genetic engineering have combined. Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a whiz-bang game creator who is the target of an assassination attempt. Geller’s creations simulate the exact sensory and physiological experiences of human reality and she becomes a target of a fundamentalist “realist” cult who object to her experimentation with consciousness. Jude Law plays a young man hired to protect Geller and she introduces him to the labyrinthe, exotic and sometimes terrifying world of virtual reality. Unlike much science-fiction which explores the virtual future, Cronenberg is not as much interested in the possibilities of special effects as he is with the question of what effect do experimentations with computers, designer drugs and genetics have with our ability to understand consciousness and human will. In the near future of “Existenz”, it is not only the human sense of reality that is altered, but our very physical selves. The film itself is a fast paced, ever-changing rollercoaster ride which takes us through myriad permutations of setting and character that in itself unfolds like a video game. As always in Cronenberg’s films, the production design, sound and cinematography is excellent. “Existenz” is a rarity: a film as visceral as it is cerebral.