Directed By Brandon Cronenberg

Starring – Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman

The Plot – James (Skarsgard) and Em (Coleman) Foster are enjoying an all-inclusive beach vacation in the fictional island of La Tolqa, when a fatal accident exposes the resort’s perverse subculture of hedonistic tourism, reckless violence and surreal horrors.

Rated R for graphic violence, disturbing material, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and some adult language

INFINITY POOL – Official Trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

Following in the footsteps of his science fiction pioneer of a father, Brandon Cronenberg has cemented himself as one of the most audaciously ambitious auteurs of our time, with “Infinity Pool” serving as what is easily his loudest sociological statement to date. With no confusion or hesitation to the depths to the simultaneous impulses in his masterful direction and provocative screenplay, Cronenberg elicits a compelling story about upper class privilege, with a nightmarish rendering of justice-free stakes and unnerving imagery that did occasionally warrant with it a couple of chills for the anxiousness of the experience. On a visual prowess, there are very few directors out there who can even touch his hypnotic entrancement, with razor sharp editing, lasers of blinding color and sleekly cerebral movements of the lens leading to a riveting engagement that artistically pushes the envelope, but ultimately its Brandon’s toeing of the taboo in the storytelling that garners his thickest environmental enveloping, making “Infinity Pool” feel like a building nightmare that we the audience are never able to awake from. Brandon of course has some help in the production, in everything from the aforementioned challenging emphasis of the shot selection and lens directions from the blossoming cinematography of Karim Hussain, to Tim Hecker’s boldly immersive musical score painting panic in everything from boisterously persistent beats to synthly-serenic instrumentals, summoning an engagement that was made for the immensity of the silver screen in the darkest of auditoriums. On top of this, the performances are dependable, especially from Goth, who once again steals the show by relishing inside of the complexities of a fiery wild card of a thunderous character. Goth triggers a mental frailty and internal instability in Gabi that takes her miles, in turn supplanting a beating consciousness into the interpretation of the audience that she knows all of the right buttons to push in order to continuously eat away with annoyance, but the kind that adds to the disdain of her character’s appeal rather than the endearment of the engagement. Skarsgard also pushes his mental and physical limits with a turn that prescribes some pecuiliar depths to the direction of his character, affording him everything from entrancing grief to blundering wrecklessness, all in the indulgences that consistently get the better of him.

NEGATIVES

“Infinity Pool” is unfortunately an idea at best, as much of the execution during the inferior second half of the movie sedates itself forcefully in minimal expansions and violent indulgences that lead to more than a few frustrating instances of surface level exploration. The first is easily in the abundance of unaddressed leaps in logic with the set-up, as well as one overwhelming plot convenience pertaining to a character’s passport that just sort of relies on the audience to overlook their inconsistencies. If these were questions that were nothing major to the integrity of the narrative, then they could easily be forgiven in the bigger outlining picture, but when it comes down to moments that must be supplanted in order to move the scenes and storytelling along forcefully, then it left a few more distracting elements to the story’s conflict than I would prefer with an already meticulous level of storytelling where much of the visuals convey the emphasizing factors in big reveals. On top of this, the creative pool of science fiction is a bit lacking in this spellbinding swim, with one such device introduced early on being mentioned, then lessening its relevance with each passing minute. Not only is the inner-workings and backstory of this creation left completely unaddressed in the minds of the audience trying to capably piece them together, but one such arc hinting at the authenticity of clones never gets elaborated on again, leading to inescapable repetition that keeps the film from ever being on the same field as Cronenberg’s instant science-fiction classic “Possessor”. Finally, while the intention of the characters is meant to convey the wrecklessness of their wealth, their irredeemable actions often create an even bigger problem in the confines of the conflict that casually drifted away from me. Because each of them are dreadful to capably invest in, it only offers us one-side of a moral coin, and one that could’ve easily been omitted effortlessly if the film didn’t completely abandon Coleman’s Em by the midway point of the narrative. Keeping her in would’ve elicited a greater power struggle to James indulgences, and in turn allowed the audience a capably clean conscience to invest and immerse themselves in.

OVERALL
“Infinity Pool” occasionally treads evocative waters thanks in part to an abundance of mesmerizing imagery and sharply spun production elements that cleverly craft one of the more visually stunning presentations of the new year. Though its mental stimulation goes a bit shallow with the stagnant spin of its second half storytelling, the performance of Goth alone is worth the price of admission, submerging us in the rich potential of a visionary filmmaker who has only just begun.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-