The son of David Cronenberg makes a vacation movie that’s bizarre and WTF original.
Would the following be considered torture porn? In the fictional island La Tolga, there’s a secret facility, where people can literally watch their own executions. How? Because they are cloned. Or maybe it’s the clones watching their original copy’s execution. Who knows? But I sure hope it’s just the clone’s execution. I think it is if they’re able to witness it multiple times.
Torture porn is more gruesome in a “Saw” sense, but I like to consider “Infinity Pool” on a sophisticated and dazzling level-one that doesn’t care about the carnage, but rather the inhumanity this island unfolds.
Reason for this kind of hedonism is because this country has a zero tolerance for crime. They don’t serve in due process, like most countries do. Their hotel even has a “No One Goes Outside the Gate” policy, and if you do, you sure as F better have the best excuse to get back in. Say you went the wrong direction and came outside. And you better keep your room key on you at all times.
It’s proof that writer/director Brandon Cronenberg is the fruit of David’s loins if he presents deformed masks, big names finding themselves in dangerous territory, and the right independent studio to back him up. I saw this movie with a big crowd. One of them farted, some laughed, others were interested. At least, I think so, because they were still in their seats. I was interested in seeing WTF is going on here.
You have Alexander Skaragard as a struggling writer named James Foster, who accidentally kills a man in a hit-&-run accident on the island; you have Cleopatra Coleman as his worrisome wife Em, who comes from a wealthy family; you have Mia Goth as his biggest fan Gabi (at least we think she’s his fan), but also has to be the seductive woman; you have Jalil Lespert as her husband Alban, who has connections outside the gates; and you have Thomas Kretschmann as Thresh, the police chief involved with this bizarre cloning nightmare. He explains that the penalty for manslaughter is that the next of kin kills you. Unless you’re rich enough for you to have the clone take the fall for you.
Em thinks it’s sickening for James to watch his own “death,” but somehow, it really gets him going. It even has him getting lucky and unlucky with Gabi and his newfound friends. At least, we think they’re his new friends. These people are crazy AF, especially when they wear these deformed masks. Some have coins in their mouths, some have 2 faces, some have horns, and others barely have any mouths.
And we think James is getting lucky with GabI if they have a sex montage, which has a number of flashing lights. The movie opens with a little warning about that, as movie theaters have been regarding movie goer’s photosensitivity. Not everyone can react well to all this flashing, which is also bad for our health. I don’t suffer from this condition, but even I felt confused in this scene. At least, I think it’s supposed to be a scene.
When I see masturbation or hand job scenes in experimental films, I get interested, because of how they pay off. When I see people acting crazy in these films, I question the story’s sanity. And when I see Skarsgard and Goth delivering universally excellent performances-Skarsgard outside his territory and Goth with her horror behaviors (as demonstrated in “X” and “Pearl”), I stay involved.
More people have been seeing the commercial “M3gan” than they have with the independent “Skinamarink.” I just can’t wait to see them react to “Infinity Pool.” If David Cronenberg can show us body horror in his own images, then why can’t his son Brandon? These two have visions. Sorry, not sorry.
Leave a Reply