56. Dead Ringers (#166)

I’m seeing double – FOUR Jeremy Irons! Just kidding, but only by half, as this week we get not one, but two great performances from Jeremy Irons in David Cronenberg’s pyschosexual drama Dead Ringers! It’s 1988, and it sure looks it, and our old pal David has brought us the latest in Canadian weirdness; we couldn’t be happier!

Elliot (Jeremy Irons), a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly (also Irons). Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire (Geneviève Bujold), but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.

Join Clay and Amanda as they gown up and examine kids who don’t even know what “fuck” is (but who really does?), interior decorating by Delia Deetz from Beetlejuice, sex (…I think?), gynecological instruments for working on mutant women, a grown man crying over ice cream (but who hasn’t, am I right), and the on-screen result of what we can only assume is highly questionable off-screen parenting

Dead Ringers is many things–it’s disturbing, it’s uncomfortable, it’s definitely frightening, but all that said, we’re honestly not sure we’d classify this one as a horror movie! David Cronenberg almost deserves to have a genre of his own, but that being said, his movies DO tend to drift toward horror, so it’s really difficult to outright say no on this one. We get into it and hash it all out for you though, don’t worry!

So prepare your daily cocktail of mind altering substances, question the nature of the relationship you have with your twin, and synchronize and separate with us…if you dare!