To say much more would ruin the element of unpredictability that lends Consumed much of its allure. From there, through a series of rather ingenious plot developments, Nathan and Naomi’s professional lives and personal entanglements become even more complex, until it seems that they center on an infamous crime, the murder and partial cannibalization of philosopher and Marxist Célestine Arosteguy. In fact, the plot doesn’t really get moving until Nathan contracts an obscure STD known as Roiphe’s disease and gives it to Naomi. Likewise, they share similar drives and appetites. Their relationship is symbiotic, one feeding off the other: she is a journalist who chronicles lurid subject matter he is a photographer of the controversial and the grotesque. The novel centers Nathan and Naomi, a couple who are as connected as they are disconnected, occasionally taking time from the jet-setting schedules to hole up in expensive hotel rooms, surf the Net together, talk shop, and have sex. Such wishful thinking has been mercifully answered in Consumed. Although this development certainly hasn’t affected the quality of his output, Cronenberg’s films remain expertly constructed and thoughtfully considered it’s difficult not to wish the man would continue developing new “Cronenbergian” ideas in script form. Since 1999’s eXistenZ, Cronenberg has largely worked with scripts produced by other writers, the lone exception being Cosmopolis in 2012, itself adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name. In other words, Cronenberg has always been a filmmaker with a particular vision for how technology comes into contact with, and subsequently impacts, our understanding of reality.Ĭronenberg, who is now in his early 70s, has made his novel debut. And although his subject matter is often extreme, it’s never extreme for the sake of being extreme. From sexually transmitted diseases to augmented reality, body modifications to sexual fetishes, nothing has ever been off-limits. The reality of the body has long been a focal point in Cronenberg’s lengthy and rewarding career as one of film’s perennial outsiders. In an interview conducted by Chris Rodley nearly 20 years ago, David Cronenberg said, “Part of my cinematic voyage has been to try and discover the connection between the physical and the spiritual: what we are physically what is the essence of life and experience.” And then later, “So to whatever degree we center our reality - and our understanding of our reality - in our bodies, we are surrendering that sense of reality to our bodies’ ephemerality.” Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.
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