In a future imperfect all females have perished due to a deadly chemical outbreak, leaving the male population to fend for themselves. Among them Aaron Tripod (Ronald Mlodzik), a researcher coping in the new world now devoid of a moral compass. During his studies he encounters a patient, which emits mysterious excretions tasting of chocolate. Once the subject inexplicably disappears Aaron employs himself in another clinic, which serves as a compound for individuals with similar bodily substances. There he encounters the changing functions of the new man and its new flesh. All with true Cronenberg-esque style...Similar in execution as "Stereo", with an upgrade from black and white into full colour, but still experimentally coping without sound, instead inputing odd disjointed sounds and a voice-over to convey the slightly misogynistic story. Rife with motifs featuring in Cronenberg's earlier works, like "Shivers", "The Brood" or "Scanners", this artsy feature remains an intriguing expansion of Cronenberg's cinematographic world-view. Despite a larger budget than "Stereo" and undeniably better technical resolution with some excellent framing of shots, "Crimes of the Future" is comparatively a step further into detrimental watching, making novelties like fast forward necessary to survive the viewing.Nonetheless the overall experience remains an excruciating watch as a product of a student filmmaker, overawed by his own brilliance, but unaware that his supposedly nouvelle experiment in filmmaking is mostly unwatchable drivel. As such the style is almost unbearably self-defeating, making the story drown under the pretentious exposition and ultimate lack of direction. The script may sound cerebral (however truthfully strongly undercut by an intellectual overreach), but that does not excuse a total detachment from the viewing audience. Ultimately Cronenberg's venture feels overly childish in his introvert drive for novelty. Several scenes do manage to build a vague anxiety with it cold and distant atmosphere, especially the layered denouement involving a bout of paedophilia.Best viewed for Cronenberg fanatics with a strong inclination towards understanding his perspective on film and exploring his growth as a filmmaker. Remaining subjects best resolve to focusing on his later works.

Back in 2000 I posted three unnecessarily flippant reviews of David Cronenberg films, including the two that followed this. But while the Cronenberg of 2000 wasn't a stranger to critical appraisal, or even mainstream commercial appeal (particularly in the 1980s), it was easy to be flippant about a director who was so well known for body horror, verging on schlock.Fast forward to 2012 and Cronenberg has managed to completely reinvent himself, a late career renaissance as he prepares to enter his 70s. That the director could build a career for thirty years as the master of visceral horror and then completely reinvent himself is an extraordinary feat. That's not to say that his works of the new millennium haven't been sexually aware, or even in possession of an asymmetrical prostate, but suddenly he's a man of serious critical attention.Which makes it an ideal time to reinvestigate his early back catalogue, in particular his first four films. 1966's student film "Transfer" is a study of mental illness, an extremely rare, 7 minute student film that, to date, only 55 people have seen on the IMDb... myself not included. Following this was arguably the most accessible of his first four efforts, 1967's 13m student piece, "From The Drain". So esoteric that there are wholly different plot summaries of it on the net, this story of two men in a bathtub is open to interpretation.The first film proper was 1969's "Stereo", a silent black and white piece with narration, lasting a little over an hour. Crimes of the Future follows this trend, though adds colour and ambient sound to the mix, the minimalism possibly there as a budgetary requirement as much as a need for the avant garde. As films to study, they're more than worth anyone's time, particularly fans of the director and his work. As entertainments, they're largely null and void, a future auteur trying out his craft rather than narratives to engage. Five long years passed before Cronenberg got to do another film, then averaging a picture every two years or so from 1975's "Shivers" until the present date. Seeing "Shivers" again as part of this study, I realise I was perhaps too hard on it, and it's interesting to see Cronenberg emerge from avant garde director to man behind a serious (albeit black humoured) narrative. The jump to full audio and speaking parts does make his direction look a little clumsy in places, but this was a man honing his craft via experience. The issues with "Shivers" – the debatable misogyny, the crass titillation and suspect subject matter – are actually all present in Crimes of the Future, right down a sequence that involves paedophilia... in this case it forms Crimes' denouement. Such story elements are in highly questionable taste, even for satirical science fiction, and do paint the young Cronenberg out as a man who wanted to shock. However, without these early ventures he may never have established a platform for himself as one of the most notable directors of the modern age.

I'd like to preface this review by saying I'm a big fan of Cronenberg and have seen and enjoyed many of his films (M. Butterfly, Eastern Promises, History of Violence, eXistenZ, Videodrome, etc.). With that out of the way, this movie does not, in any sense, stand up to any of his later work -- poor acting, ridiculously drawn out scenes that do nothing to advance the plot, similar sequences needlessly repeated 3 or 4 times, pretentious psychobabble narration, and, to top it off, the movie is shot entirely on a university campus with a budget of what I'd estimate to be less than 5 dollars.Although the movie is short at 70 minutes, very little actually happens. The length and sparseness of the scenes seem to betray that Cronenberg was desperately trying to fill out time by stringing footage together -- one scene that stands out in my mind involves an unnamed character repeatedly removing and replacing socks and underwear from a leather bag for no apparent reason.If this movie wasn't directed, written, and edited by Cronenberg, whose later work truly is stellar, it would have certainly been forgotten as a standard or even totally sub par student film.

Like Apocalypse Now, The Shining, (Fassbinder's) Satan's Brew, and others, this movie makes you feel like you're watching the state of insanity as rebellion. The protagonist in Crimes of the Future, Adrian Tripod is free from all judgment. It is exhilarating and hilarious to watch him respond to his environment. Cronenberg's writing of the voice-over narration is frightfully intelligent and ahead of its time. I believe this short film will gain popularity exponentially in the next ten years with its inclusion on the Fast Company DVD. Ronald Mlodzik's performance is overwhelmingly detailed and his delivery of the narration (if it is him) has more confidence, if not arrogance than anything I've experienced in cinema. Perhaps Alexandra Stewart in Chris Marker's San Soleil can rival, or Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. You must see this!!!