Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void is a movie like no other. Shot entirely in first-person perspective, the viewer experiences the events through the main character’s tragic, drug-addled eyes. Writer-director Noé has complained that no movie exists that faithfully recreates the experience of taking hallucinogenic drugs. Enter the Void is Noé actively trying to change that.
The film is about a drug dealer named Oscar who lives in Tokyo and gets shot and killed in a drug sting gone wrong. His spirit then floats around the city, following those who are close to him, watching as their lives change because his ended. Seamlessly interspersed are shots from his childhood, also in first person, in which the viewers experience touching and traumatic events that make the happenings of the present all the more meaningful.
The result is absolutely beautiful. Told nonlinearly yet seemingly without any cuts (e.g., Oscar’s spirit floats into a different room and suddenly we are watching a flashback from his childhood), this movie throws out every cliched convention and urges the viewer to feel instead of think, experience instead of analyze. No other movie captures the essence of life in quite the same way. The viewer is born and dies with Oscar. This is an experience, not a movie. Love it or hate it, I give you one guarantee: Enter the Void will change you
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