Instead of a plastic game controller hooked into a game port of equal plastic and
silicone chip value, hybrids of amphibians are created and manipulated to create a
game-pod (no pun intended). Instead of a controller, a bio-port, a small opening at the
small of your back (again, no pun intended) is erected in which a pseudo-umbilicus is
attached between game-pod and bio-port. Then the hallucination begins and you’re in the
game.

 Allegra Gellar (Leigh) is the top creator of such games and is demonstrating her
latest piece, called “eXistenZ” to a roomful of excited patrons. Something goes wrong,
however, when one of the testers tries to assassinate Allegra. She is whisked away safely
by Ted (Law), a lowly security guard who doesn’t even have a bio-port installed. Gellar,
fearful that her game-pod, the only copy of “eXistenZ” in existence (that time, the pun
was intended) has been tainted by the sudden unplugging during the attempt on her life,
decides that she must play the game with a friendly person to decide whether any harm
has come to it. That person is Ted. And the game begins.

 The very idea of 'eXistenZ' is mind-numbing and, in fact, genuinely scary. The film
works with horror elements on top of a science fiction cake, baked with the batter of
paranoia and fear of technology. As a cinematic meal, we’re enveloped in a chaotic
world where the cliche of a blurry reality/fantasy line is coexisting with an extremely
pragmatic narrative.

 Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in another great performance using her status as a
chameleon-like actress to meld the parasitic nature of her job with the thrill of playing
God in a very mortal and beautiful shell. So, while she’s tapping her usual acting reserve,
Jude Law is on a whole different level. In another astonishing performance, he lets his
commandeering mentality take a backseat to the tinges of a worrisome face with a
lurking sense of recklessness. The usual Jude Law is here, bold and attractive, but hiding
his usual powers underneath a shy-guy facade. He is so accomplished and so good at
what he does, you’ll scarcely remember him from such films as 'Gattaca', 'Wilde' and
'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'. Watch this guy, he’s headed for stardom, I’ve
gotta feeling....

 While a well-acted film, Cronenberg seems to be holding the stick on 'eXistenZ'.
Never proved a truly accomplished director in my eyes (he is father to an uneven body of
work), he successfully juggles a small film inside a much broader scope while continuing
to keep within his usual themes of flesh, technology and, as stated before, playing God.
He coaxes great performances from all of his actors (as in 'Dead Ringers' and 'The Fly')
without missing a beat (as in 'Naked Lunch' and 'M. Butterfly'). Two years ago, Cronenberg
directed my favorite of his films, but not necessarily a director’s picture. Of course, I’m
referring to the chrome-fetish fantasy that titillated motorheads and sex freaks alike :
'Crash'. Here, Cronenberg finds a voice to match the power of that film, but brings a
precision to his directing that’s more edgy and effective.  His obsession with “weird” is,
while developed very naturally and fluidly onscreen, a mere player in a film ultimately
about where one’s life can stop and one’s fantasy can begin. He excels at presenting in
full-figured aloof, the obsession and misanthropy that results when illusion and reality
merge. (For my older brother P. Greg, the props, as in 'Dead Ringers', are really disgusting
but strangely beautiful.)

 I love the way the film keeps changing our minds to the point of irritability about
the world that’s up on the screen. Once you’re tired of guessing and you realize you’re
totally engaged, Cronenberg grabs you, playing on your vulnerabilities as if he controlled
your cinematic experience entirely; as we believe Allegra does with her game. It did
occur to me more than once that the film may not completely be a comment on where
technology has taken us, but on Cronenberg himself and the how his cult following has
molded his last few films. Whatever your belief, it’s a strong and strangely overwhelming
film worthy of Cronenberg’s audience and certainly recommended without reservation.