Forget Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, how about Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Giant Spiders
Based on
José Saramago’s novel
The Double, this eerie and surreal psychological thriller pits
Jake Gyllenhaal against
Jake Gyllenhaal, with colossal spiders, and elephant-sized spiders, and regular-sized spiders, and human-spider hybrids sandwiched in between. It’s a bizarre and heady trip that’s also meant to be read as an allegory for
totalitarianism or something, I dunno, I’ve seen it a few times and all I ever get out of it is “this is fucking weird and I like it.”
The first time I watched it I actually saw it as the first showing of a double feature with
Under the Skin (2013), and my brain shattered continuously for three hours straight. It felt like my subconscious was hemorrhaging.
Filling movies with unforgettably striking images has always seemed like second nature for Canadian auteur
Denis Villeneuve, and
Enemy is another impressive feat in his catalog. In
Enemy, his bold visuals are nicely complemented by cinematographer
Nicolas Bolduc, who shoots many of the scenes in toxic hues of yellow and green that make the characters and their surroundings look corrosive to the touch. It gives the film a heightened sense of danger, as if radiation has seeped into every surface, so there’s nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide, only decay. And spiders. And Jake Gyllenhaals.
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