Critic's Pick — Shocktober: 'Existenz'

What if your game console was a semi-sentient flesh machine that you had to insert into an orifice connected to your spinal cord? That’s the brave question David Cronenberg — master of body horror — tackles in Existenz. This mind-bending little film feels like Cronenberg fully embracing his wackiest tendencies. Odd names abound, as with Jude Law’s timid Pikul (pronounced pie-cull, not pickle), the stilted dialogue is almost Lanthimos-paced, and it features one of the coolest weapons in a film: a gun made entirely of bones. Hell, it even shoots human teeth. Like many of Cronenberg’s tales, this explores the limits of the human body and our associations with it. At the same time, you can totally roll with this as a trippy, gross ride through layers of reality. Seriously, if you thought Inception had dreams within dreams, wait till you get a load of what Existenz is pulling. If at this point you aren’t sold, let me just add that there’s a gas station attendant played with perfect weirdo energy by Willem Dafoe, whose apt character name is simply Gas. How wonderful. See it at the Belcourt as a part of the Shocktober series.

6 and 10 p.m. at the Belcourt

2102 Belcourt Ave.