WHILE Nicolas Winding Refn’s third film seen in Canberra has high intrinsic values, it is not easy to categorise or rate. As well, I suspect it will appeal to a relatively limited audience. Hence a question mark rating instead of stars.

The thematic focus of “The Neon Demon” is the notion of female beauty. The men in it are minor characters whose influence in the modelling game may be significant, but in the story are sideline observers.

Sixteen-year-old Jesse (Elle Fanning) arrives in Los Angeles determined to become a fashion model. Her agency feels Jesse has something special, something that established models Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and Sarah (Abbey Lee Kershaw) wish they had – innocent, fresh beauty transcending the manufactured look that depends on plastic surgery and cosmetics.

Make-up artist Ruby (Jena Malone) takes Jesse under her wing in a world where exploitation threatens. Ruby’s reasons for that kindness, while not wicked, cannot achieve full bloom without Jesse’s willing participation. Ruby turns out to be no less tragic a character than Gigi and Sarah. I know of no example in literature of a lesbian resorting to necrophilia when all else has failed. The sequence is poignant, specific, yet not prurient.

“The Neon Demon” defies convention in ways which embellish its relative lack of an ongoing plot. I came away from it feeling mildly uncomfortable about what it says about beauty and the industry that feeds on women’s aspirations to possess it. Beautiful may be great while you have it but, in women no less than in men, I reckon that handsome remains after beauty has faded.

At Palace Electric