Noe described the first half of Climax as a 'roller coaster' but it feels more like the long wait in line and then the brief five minutes of actual activity. If that's the case I need more of an experience. Oh, I hear others preparing the defense, the movie is intended to be an experience and not a story. What I've just described is the first 45 minutes of the movie, also known as half of the film, and it could have all been removed without missing a beat. After that it's an extended dance sequence, then about twenty minutes of chit chat where the dancers are improvising, and then we have another extended group dance, and then we get to the fateful spiked punch. It's still difficult to attach impressionable personalities or points of distinction for them beyond the superficial (Tall Blonde, Girl with Glasses, etc.). The first six minutes or so are watching boring interviews of the various dance troupe members answering mundane questions.

Apparently Noe was working off of a five-page script (note to readers: typically, in screenwriting terms, one page equals one minute of movie), so it's no surprise that the overwhelming majority of this movie feels empty. It's 97 minutes that could literally be condensed into a music video for a three-minute song as far as substance is concerned. That's it, folks.įirstly, Climax is incredibly, unbearably, crushingly tedious. The dancers unwittingly get high, freak out, and lash out, leading to one long sordid night of tumult. One of the members spikes a bowl of sangria with LSD. The plot: a Parisian group of dancers is practicing in an old school building one 1990s wintry night.

Is the very act of titling a movie called Climax with no climax itself a post-modern jape? Is that it? I'm confounded by this monotonous experimental triviality.

I don't think it's even possible to enjoy this movie, and maybe that's even some subversive point from writer/director Gaspar Noe. Climax is the rare film where I cannot even fathom any person enjoying it, because to even attempt to enjoy it on its fever dream level it purports would only lead to disappointment. I have watched dozens of movies where I knew it wasn't for me but I could at least fathom some appeal to a select viewer. I honestly have no idea who could enjoy Climax.

Climax movie subtitles download