Ben and Rob strap into the neural interface for ‘The Cell’, Tarsem Singh’s hallucinatory 2000 psychological thriller that turned a serial killer plot into one of the most visually audacious studio films of its era. Directed by Tarsem (billed under his mononym for his feature debut), the film stars Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn and Vincent D’Onofrio, and plunges a child psychologist into the comatose mind of a killer to save his latest victim before time runs out.

How did a music video director best known for R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” end up helming a big-budget studio thriller, and what did that background do to the way this film actually looks? What exactly is going on with the costume design, and how much of the film’s dream logic was built in the fitting room rather than the script? Why does a movie this committed to style over sense still hold up as a genuine visual achievement more than two decades later, and is “it doesn’t need to make sense” really a defence, or is that exactly the point?

And finally… what does it really mean?!

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