Enter the Void

It’s tough to imagine anyone having an I-can-take-it-or-leave-it response to Enter the Void. Gaspar Noé’s woozy psychedelic epic about the last moments and early afterlife of young drug dealer Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) in a neon-lit Tokyo is aggressively disorienting, elliptical, crass, and indulgent — a literal assault on senses and sensibilities from its seizure-inducing opening credits to the vaguely incestuous ambiguities of its ending. But just as the film takes the first-person view of its transmigrating protagonist, it also represents the singular vision of an ambitious filmmaker who hasn’t played it safe yet. The taboo-prodding visual extremes (from a post-abortion surgical tray to actual conjugal sparks) may provide state-of-the-art stoner mindblow, but Oscar’s tie to his troubled sister (Paz de la Huerta) is the literal heart of the experience.