The Neon Demon : Were we really supposed to believe Jesse was attractive?

Elle Fanning is very plain looking. It doesn't look like she put any work into her looks except for starving herself. I'm going to be an *beep* and say shes ugly but considering she was playing a woman who is at the height of true beauty I just don't buy it. Abbey Lee was better looking and she was supposed to be jealous of Elle's looks?


You're move, creep

I think Elle Fanning is gorgeous but that is beside the point. This is how I interpret it.

I haven't seen this movie yet (I do intend to but it hasn't been released where I live) but from what I've read of various reviews and comments on this forum, I have surmised the following:

This movie is basically a re-hash of Snow White. Jesse is Snow White. Ruby is the Wicked Queen/Stepmother. Sarah and Gigi are extensions of Ruby.

In the original fairy tale, the Queen is constantly told, by her magic mirror, (and I notice mirrors are used a lot in this film as well) that though the Queen is beautiful, Snow White is the "fairest of them all." Why? She is young, innocent and pure. She has a good heart. The Queen doesn't understand this at first. She thinks it's all about physical beauty. She then thinks to herself, "If I have her killed and eat her heart, I will consume that goodness, that innocence, that youth and it will become a part of me. I will then become the fairest of them all."

She doesn't understand that in order to be the fairest, she has to become a good person but that will never happen because she is far too corrupt and cruel. By immersing herself in the dark arts, through the use of her magic mirror, the proposed sacrifice of her stepdaughter, as well as the cannibalistic aspect of that sacrifice, (the consumption of her heart) and later using a glamour to disguise herself as a hag to trick Snow White into eating the poisoned apple (you could argue and say the hag persona is a representation of the Queen's inner ugliness but that's another story) the Queen is slowly sinking into the darkness of her own making.

Ruby is the same as the Queen. Jesse, like Snow White, has that "thing". Like the Queen, Ruby wants that "thing" and Sarah and Gigi, by extension, want it too. They take part in a ritual sacrifice to consume Jesse and absorb her into themselves, so then they can take that "thing". I've heard it said that Ruby is very, very old, so the ritual sacrifice to obtain youth and beauty by destroying someone young and innocent makes perfect sense.

"You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you." Mr Darcy

yeap, i had the same problem watching that film, she isn't ugly but definitely not somewhat stunning or gorgeous girl that makes every one crave for her face and body. she is just an averaged looking girl with the next door girl vibe.
when i saw her said that i am dangerous, i just think what kinda freak universe in that film, is everybody blind in it? pluz, her acting isn't good either. i think she is definitely a miscast.

She looked pretty damn hot when she was in her motel room with the black pants.

It really doesn't matter whether any particular viewer considers her attractive or beautiful. If a young girl has the right bone structure, with makeup any of them can be beautiful for the camera or the runway and that is what this story is built on. Surely you have seen some of those photos that circulate occasionally, "beautiful" women with no makeup at all and their hair not done? Many of them look very ordinary. What young Fanning has going for her is youth and a long neck. And, to me when she was posing for the photo shoots depicted in this movie she indeed is very attractive, and I think most people would think so.

For anyone interested in the general subject there is a really good 2011 documentary "Girl Model". It covers the larger issue of young girls being deceived into the modeling industry and it features a 13-yr old Russian girl Nadya Vall, a sweet kid, tall and skinny, trained then sent to Japan. No more or less "beautiful" than young Fanning but chosen to represent the face of modeling at that level.

So yeah, to me young Fanning is very believable as the character she plays here.

..*.. TxMike ..*..

a long neck.
well...i dont see such thing on her

sorry to disappoint you,but this picture contradicts your post

http://media.glamour.com/photos/576b6958af83c39d790ba6ea/master/pass/_TND5487_R.jpg

Meh. Not really. An ok girl-next-door, nothing more. To each his own obviously.

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

I can literally take 3 actors from the same movie whom I find prettier and these were from the first 4 I looked at, I'm sure there are more:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3266168/?ref_=tt_cl_t12
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzI0MTcyOTcyNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTc5MDQ3NTE@._V1_UY317_CR13,0,214,317_AL_.jpg
http://cdn01.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/palmer-gdays/teresa-palmer-bella-heathcote-gday-usa-gala-2013-07.jpg

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Your beauty pattern must be very high

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Not higher than yours, just different.

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show me someone with a better looking face than her and please don't show me a picture of Margot Robbie

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I'm more of a brunette kinda guy, so i would throw Emily Ratakowsky's name out there: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/4056148/thumbs/o-EMILY-RATAJKOWSKI-900.jpg?7

Olivia Wilde is also a beauty in my book.

Otherwise, i do prefer Margot Robbie to Elle Fanning, but again, to each his own.


People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

^this

she doesn't really have conventional model looks as the real supermodels do, but you have to remember that she's an actress as well...try to find a real supermodel chick who can act her way out of a paper bag as well. Good luck with that. Abbey Lee is an exception as well, because she can act as well and she's gorgeous too. The director couldn't just hire "real" supermodels and expect his movie to be competently acted

She's supposed to represent a modelesque beauty as opposed to a generic blonde bombshell (see Bella Heathcote, who I'm sure many find more attractive). Fanning is in the mold of the baby doll look that was popular in the modeling world several years ago. No, she's not an actual supermodel, but she fits the look somewhat and is actually very popular in the fashion world as far as actresses go.

I think it was because the other girls just looked like wax figures, but Jessie had true beauty that radiated, and she had a unique look that people find attractive. That's what they were lacking, and they couldn't understand what Jessie was doing that they weren't

I LOVE her but I don't think she's anyone to lose my effing $%*! over, looks wise. Also I'm pretty sure being attractive isn't all there is to modeling.

Before I watched the movie, I would easily have agreed with you. I have always thought both Elle and her sister were ordinary and plain looking. However, with the right amount of makeup and a change of clothes, most plain girls can be made into runway models. In fact, runway models are less conventionally attractive traditionally, and commercial models are more 'universally attractive'. Runway models are typically odd and gawky looking.

That said, I did think this movie did a good job with making over Elle Fanning to make me believe she had that 'thing'. Her acting helped with that a lot, but I think in general the thing she had that the other girls didn't was her youth. Full natural face/cheeks, no under eye bags or circles, and obviously very young in appearance. Even though the other girls may have been more attractive (I disagree with you about Abbey Lee, I thought she was painful to look at until the very end, compared to Bella Heathcote), they didn't have her youth. Age was brought up in this movie quite a bit, so I'm guessing that was the main 'thing'.

Well as a skinny catwalk type of model yeah, plus she had the youth on her side and also she was all natural unlike the others.

We don't have a dog. That was just some really violent sex.

"attractive"? yes, there are different types of beauty. innocent beauty, raw sexual beauty, mature beauty, natural beauty, unnatural beauty, rugged beauty, flawless beauty, etc etc

__________
.and then the bong hits him on the head and he falls RIGHT over the realitY

Objectively the other girls in the movie may be "hotter" but the point was that Jesse had a natural quality that can't be faked. she is the kind of girl that guys want to date yet girls want to be. although i have to say she looked absolutely breathe taking in the scene on the couch when she is touching herself. gorgeous.

I think she is pretty, but I don't see as the typical model of sticks and bones. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Her looks are not the reason this film fails. basically this is a Poor man's Black Swan.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2604794/

It's really nothing like Black Swan or any other film for that matter, trust me, I've looked. Closest would be Suspiria. Black Swan I'd the poor man's Perfect Blue ( And Black Swan is a top 5 for me.)

This film doesn't fail in my opinion. I find it it to be a flawless piece of art. Even objectively I can not fault this film in any way.

She has the innocent girl next door look.

I had pretty much the same reaction and thought it might be a trick of the movie to cast the least attractive woman as the most attractive one as beauty is a matter of perception. But coming here it seems that many genuinely think she's a goddess.

Don't forget the fashion industry is mostly gay men, so gay men, who aren't attracted to women, are saying which women are attractive lol

How everyone fawned over Jesse's looks was a huge immersion breaker for me. It would be as if they brought in the elephant man and everyone was acting like he's Brad Pitt. So they want me to sit here and pretend like Elle doesn't have a ugly pig nose and the body type of a skinny 10 year old boy? Nah fam. I wouldn't even bang her IRL.

Lol Fam. I bet the majority of people complaining are hetero men with only one thought, "who would I *beep*?" It's not about sexiness. It isn't about who is most bangable. It's about who has that youth, innocence, deer in the headlights look. It's about who looks angelic and virginal. That is the entire point of people fawning over Jesse in the movie. They are used to used up, jaded, ultra sexual women. Jesse represents something a lot rarer and much more profound than a screw.


A friend of mine was a model in NYC. Her two other best friends are sexy blonde bombshells, while she was thin, flat chested and youthful. She was far from ugly but going off what I'm reading here... you'd prefer the other two... but they weren't the ones who could make it as models and on a runway.

Everyone has their own taste, but don't say things that are just plain stupid. Saying Elle Fanning is "very plain looking" is like saying 120 degrees Fahrenheit is "luke warm". That's a pretty stupid "opinion"

Jessie had to have a little more of a genuine, innocent "girl-next-door" look to her compared to the other models, who looked more vapid and hollow. THAT is what the other models were jealous of, not her standard-issue model beauty. All five of the main actresses in this are really pretty women, who 99.9 percent of the guys on the IMDB would feel privileged to "get with" in real life.

When it comes to all the 9s and 10s that generally show up in Hollywood movies, the only thing DUMBER than the obvious "she's so hot" threads are the unbelievable "she's ugly" or "she's mehhh" threads. Gimme a break already!

"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"