Now Showing: Crowley

Crowley
Genre: Biography/Drama
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Lon Charles
Cast: Tom Hardy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, David Thewlis, Emile Hirsch, Noah Taylor, Anna Torv, Ben Whishaw, Sam Hazeldine, Karl Glusman, Hannah Gross, Tom Burke

Plot: Disillusioned by the close-mindedness of collegiate academia, Aleister Crowley (Tom Hardy) leaves Cambridge University and uses his inheritance to travel throughout Europe. He writes poems based on sexual encounters he has with prostitutes in each city he visits. He finally makes his way to Switzerland where is introduced to Julian Baker (Sam Hazeldine), a chemist, who teaches about the idea of alchemy.

Back in London, Crowley becomes fast friends with Baker's brother-in-law George Cecil Jones (Noah Taylor), who initiates Crowley into the an occult society called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. To immerse himself in the occult he invites Jones to live with him as his personal magical tutor. Together Crowley and Jones ritually use drugs and perform occult rituals. Even after Jones leaves to study in South Asia, Crowley continues to quickly ascend through the ranks of the organization where he catches the attention of the group's leader, Samuel Liddell Mathers (David Thewlis). Mathers invites Crowley to his chambers where Mathers tells him to have a seat. Mathers then shows him a chess board and tells Crowley that he often plays chess matches against the pagan gods. Mathers takes a seat behind the white pieces, with an empty chair opposite him. After making a move for himself, Mathers shades his eyes and peers towards the empty chair before finally moving a black piece himself. Crowley watches, intrigued, as Mathers declares that he has defeated the gods at chess.

Rumors of Crowley's bisexuality and increasingly more recreational drug use leads to a bad reputation throughout much of the Golden Dawn, leadin to the London group denying him initiation to the next level of the organization. Furious, Crowley visits Mathers in Paris and demands to know why the London lodge denied his advancement. Mathers explains that he and the London chapter are no longer in-communication, and personally promotes him if he will do him a favor. Mathers asks Crowley, with the help of Mathers' mistress Elaine Simpson (Anna Torv), to seize a temple space from the London lodge members. Crowley and Simpson break into the temple. Some of the London members arrive to find Crowley and Simpson having aggressive sex in the middle of the temple. They leave and come back with the police who escort Crowley and Simpson off the property. Crowley protests, claiming the owner told them to reclaim the property. Unfortunately, the London lodge leaders provide the police with evidence that they pay the property's rent. Crowley and Mathers are both isolated from the Golden Dawn.

After putting so much of his time and efforts toward advancement in the Golden Dawn, Crowley decides to travel to Mexico. He travels through the country, once again writing poetry. He goes climbing through the mountains. While climbing one, a volcano erupts, forcing Crowley to race down the mountain. From Mexico, Crowley takes a ship to Hong Kong where he meets up with Jones who is there studying Buddhism. While in Asia, Crowley decides to join a group trying to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, which has never been climbed. The group makes it to 20,000 ft before they are forced to turn back due to most of the group struck with illness. After recovering, Crowley decides to go back to Europe.

Back in Europe, Crowley meets Rose Edith Kelly (Maggie Gyllenhaal) at a party. She laments that her parents are forcing her to marry a family friend's son. Crowley says that she can't be forced into an arranged marriage if she is already married. With that, Crowley and Rose quickly get married, to the disapproval of her family. They go on their honeymoon in Cairo, where they claim to be a prince and princess. They rent an apartment where Crowley sets up a temple room where he attempts to invoke ancient Egyptian deities. During one of his efforts, Rose becomes delirious and informs Crowley that "they are waiting for you" and that "the Equinox of the Gods has come". Still delirious, she leads him to a nearby museum and to a the display of a mortuary stele called the Stele of Revealing. Crowley makes note of the exhibit's number: 666. That night, Crowley wakes up from a dream sweating. He immediately starts feverishly writing. He writes for three days straight. Rose tries to talk to him, but he is completely unresponsive and just continues writing.  When he is done, he sets the manuscript down in front of Rose, telling her he has written The Book of the Law, proclaiming that humanity is entering a new Aeon and that he would serve as its prophet. She tells him where it came from, and he explains that the words came from Aiwass, the messenger of Horus. He is unsure of what to do with the text though as it commands him to take the Stele of Revealing from the museum, fortify his own island, and translate the book into all the world's languages. He decides to send a few copies of the work to various occultists, and then locks the manuscript in his safe.

Following their honeymoon, Crowley and Rose return to London. Rose eventually gives birth to their first child, a daughter named Lilith. Soon, Crowley comes to believe that Mathers has begun using magic against him. When Crowley confronts Mathers about this, instead of denying it, Mathers is elusive and refuses to answer Crowley. Rose begins drinking more and fighting with Crowley. To get a break from each other Rose decides to take Lilith on a trip while Crowley goes to Shanghai to meet up with Elaine Simpson. Simpson praises The Book of the Law. Together Simpson and Crowley and perform rituals in an attempt to contact Aiwass. When Crowley arrives back in England he learns that Lilith died of typhoid while on a trip with Rose. Crowley blames Lilith's death on Rose's drinking, saying she was probably too drunk to take proper care of their daughter.

While performing rituals with Jones in England, Crowley believes that he has attained "samadhi" or what he calls "union with Godhead". The two make heavy use of hashish during these rituals. That evening, Crowley once again wakes up in a sweat and begins feverishly writing. He once again claims to have been contacted by Aiwass, who dictated two new texts to him.

With his inheritance starting to run out, Crowley decides he needs to try to earn money. He takes a job with the Earl of Tankerville (Ricky Gervais) to help protect him from witchcraft. Crowley quickly recognizes that the Earl's paranoia is stemming from a cocaine addiction. Crowley takes him on a vacation to Morocco for the Earl to detox. After the Earl's health improves he leaves for England, but Crowley stays in Morocco a while longer. There he meets Victor Neuburg (Ben Whishaw). They quickly hit it off and begin a sadomasochistic relationship. When Crowley returns to England, Neuburg accompanies him and moves into his home, much to Rose's chagrin.

Crowley and Jones decide to start their own occult order to act as a successor to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, A∴A∴. Increasingly frustrated with Rose's alcoholism, even after the birth of their second daughter Lola, Crowley divorces her. Rose spirals out of control and is soon institutionalized.

Crowley and Neuburg travel to the mountains and perform a mountaintop sex magic ritual. Crowley then performs a blood sacrifice to invoke the demon Choronzon. When they get back from the trip to the mountains, Crowley finds that Mathers is suing him for publishing Golden Dawn secrets in an A∴A∴ publication, The Equinox. In court, the judge finds in favor of Crowley. Mathers, in the courtroom, loudly proclaims that he is putting a hex of Crowley. The media attention on the trial has the public think that Crowley is a Satanist and advocate of human sacrifice. The publicity attracts several new members to the A∴A∴.

Following Rose's institutionalization, Crowley has their daughter Lola sent off to live with Rose's family. Crowley and Neuburg then move to Paris. Together they perform a period of intense ritual involving drug use where they invoke the gods Mercury and Jupiter. As part of the ritual, the two perform acts of sex magic together. Following this ritual, Neuburg begins to distance himself and moves away after Crowley vows to put a curse on him.

When the first World War begins, Crowley takes a ship to the United States, arriving in New York City. In the city he continues to experiment with sex magic through the use masturbation, female prostitutes, and men at a Turkish bathhouse. He begins to support Germany in their war against Britain and becomes involved with the pro-Germany movement in New York, writing several articles espousing his views.

Crowley later arrives back in London, his inheritance officially completely spent. The tabloids denounce Crowley for having the nerve to return to the country he betrayed. He is given a check from a British intelligence agent (Tom Burke), revealing that his pro-Germany articles were aimed to harm the Kaiser's credibility. The agent tells him he could probably use the check as evidence in a lawsuit against the tabloids, but Crowley says the gods will deal with them for him.

Suffering from severe asthma, Crowley goes to a doctor, who prescribes him heroin, which Crowley quickly becomes addicted to. He uses his intelligence pay to form a community of Thelemites (practitioners of the A∴A∴) in Italy. He rents out an old villa. Those who join him at what he calls the Abbey of Thelema wear robes and perform daily rituals to the sun god Ra. He occasionally travels into town to buy supplies, including heroin and cocaine, and have sex with male prostitutes. His drug use begins to consume his life and his cocaine use begins to erode his nasal cavity, causing frequent nosebleeds. A young couple, Raoul (Karl Glusman) and May (Hannah Gross) Loveday, arrive at the Abbey. Raoul is devoted to Crowley and his teachings, but May detests him and the sway he holds over her husband. She is also disgusted by the poor living conditions at the Abbey. Wild animals have begun to roam through the building leading to unsanitary conditions. While high on heroin, Crowley begins having his members drink the blood of a sacrificed cat to invoke the gods. Raoul drinks water from a polluted water stream on the property and develops a liver infection. Crowley forbids anyone to bring Raoul to a hospital, instead insisting that sex magic can heal him. He and his followers perform an orgy around a barely conscious Raoul, who dies the next day. May immediately leaves and reports his activities to the media. When word of his activities at the Abbey spread, Crowley is forcibly deported back to England.

Crowley spends several years in a drug haze, unable to give up heroin or cocaine. When World War II breaks out, he offers his services to the British Naval Intelligence Division, but they decline. In London, he is visited by an American Thelemite, Grady McMurtry (Emile Hirsch), a US soldier stationed in England. He immediately takes a liking to McMurtry and names him his successor as the head of the A∴A∴. Crowley shares a set of Tarot cards he wishes to be published, and tells McMurtry that he is the first other person to see the cards. Crowley spends a great deal of time outlining the future of the movement with McMurtry, hoping that even after his death all of his work will continue. As McMurtry's unit is about to be sent back stateside, Crowley names McMurtry the offical A∴A∴  representative in the United States. Crowley dies not long after the end of World War II. To honor Crowley, McMurtry finds a publisher to produce Crowley's Tarot card deck.