The great joy of the burgeoning career of Brandon Cronenberg is to witness both the inheritance and invention of what he has gleamed from his father’s work and what he is bringing to his own oeuvre that distances him. Of course his first two feature films, both of which I greatly have enjoyed, would fit fairly nicely into the catalogue of his father David, with their perversions and their oddities and their sci-fi horror blend. It’s less that Cronenberg is adopting his father’s best attributes, more so that he is bringing them I find into a modern era with a distinct quality and drive that makes him a figure that has more than stood out from the shadow of coattails and is certainly a firm auteur in his own right, never mind the similarities in genre and in many ways form too.
Infinity Pool is in many ways a simple tale once we come to terms with its compelling and slightly complex premise, which Cronenberg delivers deftly through entertaining and effective exposition in his screenplay that overall is very effective and direct. Once our characters of Alexander Skarsgard’s author and his wife Cleopatra Coleman are put upon the path of their plot, we find ourselves rather consistently and with great pace moving through the eventual arc of the film as it becomes revealed to us. What begins as something we have seen before with an upper class couple on holiday meeting another couple and finding themselves in a crime situation, quickly reveals itself to be a somewhat cliché table setting for the films true conceit which regards a very particular matter of cloning that this particular holiday resort country has adopted into their laws. The dry social commentary of the film is subtle throughout as much as it in its general sense the strokes it paints are sometimes quite broad, however Cronenberg effectively deploys a series of world-building moments and production elements with his team that makes this world not only feel believable, but terrifying in its realism, even amidst its series of psychedelic psycho-sexual visual detours. Along with editor James Vandewater and cinematographer Karim Hussain, Cronenberg works as a creative to make a whole vision with defined curious edges and a rawness that lends itself to the volatility and true unpredictable nature of the films plotting. Tim Hecker’s haunting and visceral score too brings home the bizarreness of this world we are inhabiting, whilst never loosening the overwhelming feeling of dread.
What sends this
film however into its sensational overdrive of quality is its ensemble of truly
astounding performances. The supporting cast feature multiple standouts,
certainly amongst them Thomas Kretschmann as a sinisterly unemotive detective
and Jail Lespert as a surprisingly fun-loving figure in all this madness.
However the film features two lead central performances from arguably for me two
of our most exciting performers and perhaps unequivocally two of our most
fearless, especially in regards to the lengths of depravity, articulation of exaggeration
and physical demands these roles require. Pair all of that with the general off-kilter
tone Cronenberg is painting with and you have on your hands two complex roles at
the core of your film that demand actors of immense skill, fortunately with
Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth (as a seducing figure from the other couple)
we are witnessing scene to scene moments and dialogues of immense difficulty that
are nigh on impossible to turn away from, balancing pure energy with subtle
madness and time after time particularly in Goth’s case tackling moments of
true absurdity, all with impeccable ease. Cronenberg knows how fortunate he is
with these two and eventually I found the film to mould itself around the
strengths of them, with new performance strengths forever revealing themselves
in these particular performers hopefully tremendously long careers.
An incredibly compelling 8/10 that I loved as much as I was struck by its bawdy and psychedelic sexuality, violence and sci-fi distortions. Cronenberg has made a film that is driven by a wickedly dry and satirical premise and used for a plot of mental descension and a combatting of the minds that fuels a taut, slick and scary thriller. This is social satire in equal parts as it is bold sci-fi futurist horror and the balance of the two leads to a very enthralling piece. All production elements are superb, furthered by a series of incredibly fearless performances. A general tightening of the overall film and a tighter focus during the middle act would have led this for me to be a point higher, however this one has stuck with me already and will remain with me I feel for sometime.
P.S. A final beat of the film regarding Goth and Skarsgard (with Goth consoling Skarsgard in a sense) for me was one step too far and felt like provocation without purpose, shock for shock’s sake. Whereas ever other perverse or shocking beat/sequence/moment of the film thus far was fuelled by nothing but purpose. It goes without saying too that I was not offended by it, it takes a lot more than that, if actually anything can, its simply that its reasoning for me was unclear – however the ambiguity has been one I have been mulling with since. Ambiguity of course being a prevailing lasting effect of the film by intention.
- -Thomas Carruthers
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