Enter the Void

The films of French provocateur Gaspar Noé are as much assaults on the viewer's sense and sensibilities as stories, with Enter the Void being no exception. Noé's third feature (and his first since 2002's controversial Irreversible) is a tour through the Tokyo underground of drug addicts, sex workers, and gangsters, viewed entirely from the perspective of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), an American junkie who gets high, is killed, and watches his life flash before his dying eyes, as well as the lives of those left behind who continue on without him. Or at least that's one reading of this long film, which is undeniably unique—falling somewhere between an out-of-body experience and a nightmare--as Noé slips back and forth through time, floats above the city and through the human body, and detours through abstract fractal imagery and galactic clouds in the afterlife between scenes. While visually engaging, the character narratives are emotionally distancing, and the scenes of graphic sex, coupled with an explicit abortion scene, make this a questionable purchase for all but the most adventurous libraries. Optional. (S. Axmaker)