A mixed bag

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2020)

Climax follows a dance troupe who spend a night in a secluded, abandoned school in the middle of a snowstorm. When the troupe's sangria is spiked with LSD, the group must find a way to survive the night.
Let me start off by saying that this film, on a technical level, is very impressive. While the first half of the movie has relatively standard cinematography, the second half is done almost entirely in one take. It really makes you feel like you're there and witnessing all of these disturbing things right along with the characters. And the dancing in Climax is also excellent. It's engaging, inventive, and of course really solid.
However, whilst these are big strengths of the film, it has some big issues as well. Namely, that the first half is quite dull. It's supposed to be building up the eventual madness in the second half, but frankly the film isn't insane enough to warrant sitting through what feels like half an hour of just watching people gossip. Perhaps these scenes would be more interesting if I had some emotional attachment to any of the characters. The opening tries to do this; right after the credits (yes, this film starts with credits for no real reason), we cut to footage of the dancers being interviewed about their passions, vices, regrets, etc. But there are simply far too many for me to keep track of. As a result, most of the insanity of the later half of the film wasn't engaging because I was unsure of everyone's connections to each other, aside from the fact that they were all in a dance troupe. So stuff like the attempted incest later in the movie was completely lost on me, since for all I know the characters involved don't even know each other.
Another problem I had with Climax was that it really didn't have any meaningful point or purpose behind it. Honestly, if a film is going to put me through 45 minutes of boredom followed by 45 minutes of chaotic, incoherent madness, I should at least be rewarded with something that makes it even a little worth it. But no. The film ends with police arriving the morning after everything happens, and we see the various states the characters are in. We see this one lady put acid into her eye, which I guess implies that she was the one who spiked the sangria and sent everything into chaos. But since we barely know this character at all, and there isn't any explanation for why she spiked the drinks. We see her with this book on how LSD affects people psychologically, but come on. Nobody on earth would put all of their friends in danger by sending them on an acid trip just for some sort of experiment. Don't get me wrong, an ambiguous ending is fine, but a lack of reasoning behind the main event of the movie is not.
The director of Climax, Gaspar Noe, in an interview with Candid Magazine stated that the theme of the film was "a group of people creating something together and then collapsing." This, I think, showcases the true intentions of Climax. It is not a movie meant to say anything. Rather, it is supposed to shock and disgust and that's it. After all, I don't even know what Gaspar is on about with the supposed "theme" of the movie. It isn't a statement on society/life lesson like a theme is, nor is it even a bare bones description of the plot. A group of people do not create the sangria; it's the mother and the mother alone who makes it. Asking Gaspar Noe the theme of Climax is like asking Stephenie Myer about the symbolism in Twilight. There is none.
As far as Climax is in the scariness department, it falls flat because the entire second is a balancing act between being disturbing and tiresome. Whilst the film does succeed in some places, it falls flat far more often. If you want a better movie about crazy things happening to people who take drugs, go watch Requiem for a Dream, a movie that actually bothers with basic storytelling devices like theme and motivation. Just... don't watch Climax.