eXistenZ preceded by emergent mesh

Director: David Cronenberg

1999 / 97min / 35mm

Cronenberg has never exactly worked in the register of naturalism, and his just-off, stranded-in-the-uncanny-valley style fits this white-knuckle sci-fi thriller—following a game designer on the run after finding herself in the crosshairs of an assassination plot—as snugly as an UmbyCord plugging into a well-lubed bio-port. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law co-star in a mindbending, mordantly funny sort-of-sequel to Cronenberg’s classic Videodrome updated for the dawn of the virtual reality era, exploring Ballardian themes of flesh yielding to new technology while whipping the viewer around countless hairpin-turn plot swerves. “One of the great underappreciated movies of the late 1990s.” —J. Hoberman

eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999, 97 mins)
emergent mesh (Tishan Hsu, 2025, 10 mins)

35mm print courtesy of TIFF Film Reference Library

Distributor: American Genfre Film Archive

Introduction by New Museum artist Tishan Hsu on Friday, June 19th

Part of New Museum Presents New Humans