May 13th, 2025

It makes sense to me that so soon after Megalopolis came out we have more of this type of movie. And while it’s not quite to the degree that Francis Ford Coppola does it, The Shrouds feels so much like a story from the perspective of a man on the cusp of being culturally irrelevant, after ruling the zeitgeist for a bulk of his career.

The Shrouds centers around Cronenberg so clearly that even his casted lead Vincent Cassel bears a striking resemblance to the body horror centric director. At the offset it feels like this zeroing in on the self could reveal some deep secret hidden in the film maker. But throughout it has the same energy many of these auteurs seem to be leaning into as they live out their twilight years. They alone are the cutting edge geniuses and the world is what has tried to hold them back. Not only do they manage to woo younger women and have incredible careers in these autobiographical works of art, but they solve the mystery, persevere over the government, find the hackers… Save the day is what they do.

The Shrouds is probably more in line with the films of Cronenberg than Megalopolis was in FFC’s body of work, and it wasn’t in the making for 50 years, so it has gone over with less of a collective gasp. The film centers around a wealthy businessman Karsh (Cassel) who four years prior lost his wife. In the meantime he has created a “smart headstone” so the mourning can watch as their loved ones rot in real time in their caskets. It’s the kind of body horror and blending of technology that Cronenberg loves. Much like Karsh Cronenberg lost his wife in 2017 and I’m sure this is a deeply personal project for him and the intro is the part that feels like it could have the most to say.

As the film meanders through this wealthy successful man’s life it builds up a relationship with his dead wife’s identical sister Terry (Diane Kruger), as well as a plot line about Terry’s husband Maury (Guy Pearce) hiring hackers to vandalize the smart graves that Karsh has built. Buried amongst the soap opera drama of a man who wants for basically nothing, even after losing his wife, there is maybe some meaning about the secrets we keep from our partner. But to say the female characters lack basic agency is putting it lightly. And it’s all just too messy, too self aggrandizing, and the performances by Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger are not enough to merit buy in. I should say that Guy Pearce’s performance as a nervy little dork is one for the books, but it’s too shallow a coat hook to hang anything of substance on.

It’s a shame to see these once great directors make pieces about their legacies and so clearly miss the mark. It’s the kind of film that I usually adore but in the end it winds up feeling incredibly arrogant and toxic. And it’s dull in it’s toxicity. Megalopolis for all it’s faults is at least insane enough to get me to keep looking. The Shrouds feels too boring to be edgy, too cruel to be thoughtful, and too ego centric to matter to anyone but it’s creator. At least his kids keep making good movies.

1.5/5