Variety
Not clever enough to be truly pretentious, Noe's tiresomely gimmicky film... proves to be the ne plus ultra of nothing much.
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Enter the Void
Labelled a “psychedelic melodrama” by its director, cinematic troublemaker Gaspar Noé (Irreversible), Enter the Void follows a young drug dealer through a neon Tokyo and transcendent experiences both before and after his death.
Shot in a first-person perspective, Enter the Void unfolds over the shoulder of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and through his eyes as he navigates the seedy side of Tokyo. Oscar has intense drug experiences on DMT and travels through time and space after being shot by police, inspired by the teachings of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Still possessing a strong bond to his sister (Paz de la Huerta) after his ignoble shooting in a bathroom stall, Oscar relives their shared memories and watches over her from high above a trippy Tokyo as his soul embarks on his final journey.
Dividing critics and audiences, Enter the Void’s running time had to be reduced in the U.S. for contractual reasons. Noé’s solution was to simply remove a whole reel of film (around 17 minutes), saying none of this material was necessary for the film.
Less2009Rating: R18, Explicit sex scenes and drug use162 minsFrance, Germany, Italy, Canada
DramaFantasyFestival & Independent
- Director:
- Gaspar Noé ('Irreversible', 'I Stand Alone')
- Writer:
- Gaspar Noé
- Cast:
- Paz de la HuertaNathaniel BrownCyril RoyOlly Alexander
Enter the Void | Reviews
73%95 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Total Film
Beyond the daft comparisons with 2001, this is a mature film from a director who's morphing from eye-rolling agitator into eye-catching artist.
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Time Out
A strong contender for both the artiest drug movie and the druggiest art movie ever made.
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The New York Times
[Noe is] using pure cinema and not just cheap exploitation tricks to make an impact.
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The Guardian
This is a grandiose hallucinatory journey into, and out of, hell: drugged, neon-lit and with a fully realised nightmare-porn aesthetic that has to be seen to be believed.
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