Review: INFINITY POOL (2023) [Sundance Film Festival]
Brandon Cronenberg’s INFINITY POOL brings audiences on a raucous, beautifully grotesque ride with enough thrills and surprises that several audience members left the Sundance film premiere early and I couldn’t have been more delighted. Cronenberg’s third feature film brings flesh to the screen in all forms perverse and enchanting ala Gaspar Noe and Alex Fridolinski (THEY CALL HER ONE EYE). Backed by the intense synth-driven score of Tim Hecker and eerie cinematography of Karim Hussain, INFINITY POOL will shock and awe audiences while delivering significant laughter along the journey.
Shot in Hungary and Croatia, Cronenberg sets INFINITY POOL in an idyllic resort juxtaposed in a fictional but familiar Eastern European country of La Tolqa along the Adriatic Sea where, behind the barbed wire fenced compound, the rich come to galivant and unwind adjacent to locals of extreme poverty with zero regards for the immense class disparity. The decadent frolicking comes to an abrupt halt when a careless accident causes the vehicular manslaughter of a local farmer on the roadside.
INFINITY POOL stars Alexander Skarsgård as James Foster, a writer in turmoil who seemingly hasn’t picked up the pen in ages. James vacations with his wife and financier, Em Foster (Cleopatra Coleman), to a mysterious sunscape hoping James finds new inspiration and recreation while escaping his lack of progress. Skarsgård embodies a husk of a person browbeaten by his wife due to the lack of financial contribution and still unable to progress with a blank check courtesy of Em’s publishing house family money. His turn as a despondent author is not what we typically see from the lead, but Skarsgård manages to embody melancholia ranging from imposter syndrome to disillusionment in his marriage. Kafka once wrote "A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity." [Letter to Max Brod, 1922]
James is pulled out of lull by the introduction of Gabi Bauer (Mia Goth), a fan of Mr. Foster's only book. The enigmatic Gabi, with her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert), takes the Fosters on a joyride that unfortunately ends with Skarsgård crashing into an innocent farmer at night akin to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and likewise the foursome ultimately decide to flee the scene. This accident and prompt arrest in the morning leads us to the introduction of La Tolqa’s novel criminal justice system where the murder is swiftly punishable by death but the rich can evade this consequence by paying for a clone to be executed in their place.
Mia Goth once again proves herself to be a tour de force as Gabi, whose character as a commercial actress proves to be much more captivating than her job would lead you to believe. Gabi is ever charismatic and keeps both James Foster and the audience wound around her finger for much of INFINITY POOL. Goth carries this movie through a comedic and menacing journey which left audiences cheering as soon her name appeared in the credits.
The cinematography of Karim Hussain is punctuated by Dutch angles and visual sequences of hyperspeed montage like POSSESSOR and Noe's ENTER THE VOID. Vibrant colors and speedy cuts lead to mandatory prefaced warnings of epileptic precautions. The film is beautifully shot and additionally supported by a pulse-pounding instrumental score from Tim Hecker which highly effectively adds tension in all the right places.
Some of the concepts aren't fully explained such as how an Eastern European country would be the scientific forerunner in not only cloning but replicating one's thoughts and guilt. INFINITY POOL manages a lot of shocking and surprising moments that were vividly displayed in an uncensored, unrated version of the film screened at Sundance that will undoubtedly have significant edits to reach the R-rating for Friday's wide release version. The psychosexual nature of the film hearkens back to the ‘70s where the audience is unexpectedly thrust into hyper closeups of genitalia at regular intervals.
Cronenberg’s horror is inundated with satirical critiques of the rich taking advantage of other cultures and locales just to make themselves feel enriched on vacation while leaving nothing of value other than a gratuity. He delivers on many levels continuing the progression from ANTIVIRAL to POSSESSOR with lots of practically produced visceral sequences, psychedelic paranoid montages, and loads of twists and turns to keep the audience very entertained. The film is much more linear than POSSESSOR and while there will undoubtedly be some detractors, Cronenberg and his crew execute a finer-tuned introspective horror film that will likely be one of the best of 2023.
