Jennifer Jason Leigh's hair in eXistenZ

I'll write one next week <3

I was going to write one of these things yesterday but then I saw eXistenZ (1999) was playing at the Academy Museum during my writing time (the hour I’m waiting on line at Pink’s Hot Dogs). I like being back in LA because of the amount of people who can see a movie at 2 PM on a Wednesday.

eXistenZ is about a video game designer in 2030, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who gets issued a fatwa by a group of “realists” that want to put an end to virtual reality. Cronenberg was inspired by Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, except the guns in the movie are made out of mutant frog parts and human teeth.

But it’s also about Jennifer Jason Leigh’s hair. It is the most body horror element of the movie.

It is 1999’s version of the future. For my many blind readers: there’s a piece of straight hair in the front but then there’s a creased section in the middle and then it goes back to being straight. And then the section along the hair part line is latticed on top of itself. Yeah I’m Chaz Dean-ing…

When it first appeared, I screamed. Did Allegra Geller try out this little lewk specifically for the launch of her new game? Or does she do it every morning? I wonder if Jude Law gets mad at her for being late everywhere because she’s committed to doing the “The Allegra.”

Wait but then here she doesn’t have it, which was sad. To me, this was when the movie got sad.

OK but now she has it again! And it’s bigger and better than before! This was when the plot was resolved for me.

Anyways, we’ll talk for real next week. In the meantime, you can read my little article for Dirt that was inspired by my substack on Djokovic Wines.

Toodles!