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Very interesting. I've been skipping over other reviews of 'Benediction', in part because they were largely negative, but also because I had no idea what it was about and it had virtually no hype leading up to it. Now because of Scott's review, I'm actively interested in seeing it. 'Crimes of the Future' is Cronenberg, which = "no brainer" in my view. LOVED Crash, Dead Ringers, The Fly, etc.

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Where are you reading the negative Benediction reviews? There are very few! To go by aggregator metrics, it's got a 95 RT score and 80 on Metacritic. That's super-solid. Davies don't miss.

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I just checked... turns out I misread the review blurb. It's an A- review at that one site you used to write for. If I didn't want egg on my face, I'd have to show more of a commitment to reading the successor film critics' work. They're all fine people, no doubt. But I'm 39 and I don't have as much time or space for new and unfamiliar film critics. I can still be a fool though! (Also, I'm overdue on Davies. Never seen any of his work. That's all on me.)

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Just left a screening of Crimes of the Future and really want to sit down with other people who’ve seen it to process it all. It is entirely absorbing and sometimes difficult to watch, but not as difficult to watch as I would have imagined if I’d seen advance descriptions of some of those scenes. I think that’s because Cronenberg’s world aesthetic sense here is so much in sync with his ideas and his future world that, in context, his imagery is less grotesque than simply ... appropriate. I don’t think I need to entirely understand this mindset to believe in its validity.

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