With Possessor (2020), Brandon Cronenberg announced himself as an exciting new filmmaker with a singular creative vision. It was one of the few films that succeeded in legitimately disturbing me, with its intriguing high concept and truly terrifying nightmarish imagery. Shortly after that, I saw his debut feature, Antiviral (2012), which I also liked for its ability to evoke a hauntingly dreadful, but not completely unrealistic vision of a dystopian future. Needless to say, I had been looking forward to seeing Young Cronenberg's new feature, Infinity Pool (2023), ever since I first heard about it. After finally seeing it, this film further confirms to me that Brandon Cronenberg, early in his hopefully long career, has already developed his own distinctive style. Brandon has obviously been inspired by his illustrious father David in some ways (elements of body horror, outbursts of abrupt and explicit violence), but there are plenty of personal touches that signify Brandon's own unique vision (these near future, high-concept sci-fi stories with unparalleled surreal and nightmarish imagery, recurring themes like questions of identity and class inequality etc.).
Infinity Pool takes place on the fictional island of La Tolqa, where James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard, reliable as always) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation in a luxury resort. They befriend Gabi (Mia Goth, who has portrayed same outrageous 'horror villains' this year) and Alban Bauer (Jalil Lespert), a deadly accident occurs, and James gets sucked into the resort's perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors. Like I mentioned, I really am the target audience for the sort of macabre, hallucinogenic nightmares that Cronenberg conjures up in his films and he really delivers here in that regard. There is some truly weird and disturbing stuff going on in this film and you're never quite sure if what you're watching is "really happening" or some demented, drug-infused nightmare James is having (especially as he starts to indulge in a "local root drug" together with the hedonistic 'cult' he has fallen in with).
The film also manages to touch on many interesting themes, like the predatory nature of luxury tourism in third world countries, questions of memory and identity, the way the rich can just buy off any sort of accountability for their actions and the nihilistic hedonism and ever-increasing appetite for new thrills of these ultra-rich. But at the same time, Cronenberg kind of fails to bind these different narrative and thematic threads together into one cohesive thesis statement. While I was utterly captivated by the madness unfolding on screen ("enjoy" may not be the correct term, given the many appalling occurrences that were taking place), I eventually began pondering, "Where is all this chaos leading too?" Unfortunately, an answer never materialized for me as a central vision never quite came into focus. It's almost as if Cronenberg had too much on his mind for one film and he never quite could make all these different ideas gel in a completely satisfying manner. I thought the director did an outstanding job of walking the tightrope between throwing all these different concepts and creative images up on the screen while stile adhering to a clear central vision in Possessor, which I consider to be his masterpiece so far. There was a clear method to the madness in that film, which I couldn't really decipher here.
Still, with his third feature, Brandon Cronenberg delivers further proof that he is not just a clone of his father, but a spellbinding filmmaker of his own. Admittedly, his singular brand of surreal, perverted sci-fi stuff is right up my alley, but love it or hate it, it is hard to deny that Brandon Cronenberg has emerged as a unique voice in the current filmmaking landscape. His intrepidity to alienate large portions of his audience makes him never less than interesting, and in turn results in captivating cinema for the small segment of viewers that is prepared to go along for the ride. If the director can continue to create these same uniquely deranged and lurid nightmares, but in support of a more focused vision with a clearer central theme, another masterpiece undoubtedly awaits us. In any case, I'll be interested to see what he does next.
Infinity Pool takes place on the fictional island of La Tolqa, where James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard, reliable as always) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation in a luxury resort. They befriend Gabi (Mia Goth, who has portrayed same outrageous 'horror villains' this year) and Alban Bauer (Jalil Lespert), a deadly accident occurs, and James gets sucked into the resort's perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors. Like I mentioned, I really am the target audience for the sort of macabre, hallucinogenic nightmares that Cronenberg conjures up in his films and he really delivers here in that regard. There is some truly weird and disturbing stuff going on in this film and you're never quite sure if what you're watching is "really happening" or some demented, drug-infused nightmare James is having (especially as he starts to indulge in a "local root drug" together with the hedonistic 'cult' he has fallen in with).
The film also manages to touch on many interesting themes, like the predatory nature of luxury tourism in third world countries, questions of memory and identity, the way the rich can just buy off any sort of accountability for their actions and the nihilistic hedonism and ever-increasing appetite for new thrills of these ultra-rich. But at the same time, Cronenberg kind of fails to bind these different narrative and thematic threads together into one cohesive thesis statement. While I was utterly captivated by the madness unfolding on screen ("enjoy" may not be the correct term, given the many appalling occurrences that were taking place), I eventually began pondering, "Where is all this chaos leading too?" Unfortunately, an answer never materialized for me as a central vision never quite came into focus. It's almost as if Cronenberg had too much on his mind for one film and he never quite could make all these different ideas gel in a completely satisfying manner. I thought the director did an outstanding job of walking the tightrope between throwing all these different concepts and creative images up on the screen while stile adhering to a clear central vision in Possessor, which I consider to be his masterpiece so far. There was a clear method to the madness in that film, which I couldn't really decipher here.
Still, with his third feature, Brandon Cronenberg delivers further proof that he is not just a clone of his father, but a spellbinding filmmaker of his own. Admittedly, his singular brand of surreal, perverted sci-fi stuff is right up my alley, but love it or hate it, it is hard to deny that Brandon Cronenberg has emerged as a unique voice in the current filmmaking landscape. His intrepidity to alienate large portions of his audience makes him never less than interesting, and in turn results in captivating cinema for the small segment of viewers that is prepared to go along for the ride. If the director can continue to create these same uniquely deranged and lurid nightmares, but in support of a more focused vision with a clearer central theme, another masterpiece undoubtedly awaits us. In any case, I'll be interested to see what he does next.