Infinity Pool
It’s a ticket buyer’s duty to see Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor” before any of his other films, if you ask me. It puts things in context. Once again the younger Cronenberg has made an extremely surreal and unapologetically violent and pornographic movie about privilege and morality and I don’t even know where to begin with this review. He swings hard here maybe even harder than he did last time and he doesn’t care if you keep up. He is a fascinating filmmaker, one who I think has yet to make his masterpiece but I’m starting to feel like he might be close.
“Infinity Pool” starts at an exclusive resort in a fictional country where no one seems safe from being killed by James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard), a writer who hasn’t written anything new in six years because of blocked chakras or something. Em (Cleopatra Coleman) supports him, but also wants him to start writing books again so they can afford groceries. That’s when Gabi (Mia Goth, who continues to astonish) wanders onto the scene and tells James she’s a huge fan of his work. James is immediately interested in her, which leads him down another path entirely different than the blocksage that’s been prohibiting his creativity.
Alban (Jalil Lespert), Gabi’s partner, works at the hotel and invites James to see some stuff that they’re not supposed to see off the premises, but wouldn’t it be crazy if they did? Alban says we should try everything once or was that James? It’s always hard keeping track of yourself when there are clones involved. Yes, Alban eventually asks: What would happen if the clone were actually still alive after its death date? But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s just say what happens there is not pretty.
All four killers are arrested by ominous authorities led by Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann, as good as he’s ever been). Thresh explains to James that the country they’re in has a very straightforward policy. Murder must be avenged by the victim’s son. But this country also offers a way out, through cloning technology that will create another James for him to watch getting killed. It is a brilliant concept. The super rich can pay their way out of anything and what would it do to someone if they saw themselves die?
What it does to James and all the rich people staying at this resort is remove any sense of right and wrong. If there are no consequences then why not just steal and fuck and kill your way through life? That’s what we’re afraid of isn’t it? Cronenberg posits that the only thing stopping us from indulging in every conceivable pain and pleasure is our fear of repercussion. He puts them all in masks that look like deformed faces so none of them know who is who anymore and he raises his hand high above his head but he doesn’t expect everyone else to follow suit because some people have bad backs or rotator cuff issues.
The locals refer to these people as zombies or did I make that part up?
No one would mistake this for a traditional zombie flick. Cronenberg gets increasingly surreal as he takes bigger and bigger chances, clearly thrilled by the potential of his own premise. They don’t all land. I just wish the movie had a sharper POV and a more coherent message at the end of it all, but even when “Infinity Pool” is simply playfully flirting with chaos, it’s well-made and engaging. It helps to have performers who are fully committed to Cronenberg’s vision across the board especially Skarsgard, who gives a physically demanding performance, and Goth, who delivers another riveting turn; she has a scene on a car hood that rivals anything she did in Ti West movies last year. She rules.
And I’m starting to think Brandon Cronenberg does too. He continues to grow as an artist by coming up with new high concept ways to interrogate what we think we know about decency or maybe it’s just that I love his dad David so much (he’s easily one of my favorite filmmakers ever) that I keep looking for similarities between their work? Either way, “Infinity Pool” functions entirely on its own apart from the man who made it Brandon is becoming such an exciting filmmaker in his own right that there’s really no need for comparisons anymore. He’s not a clone.
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