or, “Reconciled to Live from the Sidelines”:
A spoiler-free mini movie review.
1.5 out of 5
“…it’s been so long since I did that stuff, I literally cannot remember how we did most of it. […] I really have to insist that we don’t talk about ‘Scanners’, or special effects, or exploding heads…”
– Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg on
Ken Finkleman’s “The Newsroom”, 1996
“The Shrouds” is an 82-year-old artist’s auto-elegiac statement. It’s aesthetically pleasing, and way too talky; its themes cerebral, though defeatist; its characters horny but dispassionate; and it’s told from a sanctimonious perspective that engenders viewer apathy.
My high school friends & I once drove an hour to see “A History of Violence”. We walked in late to the screening after getting a parking ticket, and immediately after the big 69’ing scene (but before the diner shootout). We didn’t find out until much later what else we had missed.
[cont’d]
Twenty years later, after seeing David’s latest, my father asked why I picked it. Why did I want to see The Shrouds?
Well, it’s Papa Cronenberg! And Vincent Cassel! It’s a Canadian co-production (woo, go Canada!). It has a classic Cronenberg-ian hook about the fight over tech used to monitor the deceased post-burial. And I liked the Tardis-esque design of the ultramodern headstones. Did I miss something? The 69’ing must be here somewhere…
Telling, and not showing, is a rebellious, though conscious, creative choice that can easily backfire. Cassel’s Karsh is an entrepreneur approaching his Winter years: neither susceptible to action, nor a curious spirit – with no indication he ever was. Consequently, important events transpire second-hand – like his watching a news report about a business rival, or an iPhone video confession – opposed to him, and us, experiencing them real-time. It happens throughout the entire two-hour movie, and it’s fucking boring.
I was more traditionally entranced by the dream sequences, which could have supported a different film – one where Karsh’s wife’s incurability is the through-line, and the tech his resolve. Maybe that was too painful a focus for the widowed auteur to dedicate an entire feature to, based on how provocative those scenes are to watch here – assisted by a game Diane Kruger & composer Howard Shore’s requiems.
No, what we have instead is a story about a guy done grieving and caring, to a fault, and reconciled to live the rest of his life from the sidelines. It’s too personal and didn’t let me in, like how the grieving say they don’t want your help when you ask. Then why am I here? There isn’t even any free food.
//wd 5.3.2025
Poster sourced from impawards.com. What do you think? What’s your favourite David Cronenberg film? I grew up with “The Fly” but overall I think “eXistenZ” is the better movie – “Videodrome” is up there, too. Would you pre-purchase a ‘shroud’ if it existed in today’s market? Did you want to know more about the actual process to sign up for a shroud in the film’s world? Are there government subsidies for low-income families? Leave us your comments below!
theory of a daskeman 