Infinity Pool

Brandon Cronenberg has an aesthetic and style that speaks to my own personal tastes, but his films have not really interested me in terms of subject. His last film 'Possessor' dabbled in the world of "body horror", one I just can't stomach, and while it appeared to mostly divide audiences, even within the horror community, the consensus overall was, like his father David, Brandon is a real talent all his own and one to keep an eye on.

Once I caught wind of this film, with it's title alone, and cast that includes favorites like Alexander Skarsgård and up-and-comer - and rising horror "scream queen" (along with Jenna Ortega) - Mia Goth, I had a hunch this, his third film, may be the one I could connect with. Despite the advance buzz of 'Infinity Pool' being really "wild" and "out there," which gave me the vibes of "harder to watch than Possessor," I'm relieved and happy to report that although yes, this film IS wild, and crazy, and out there - it's actually a pretty fun watch. There's some intense violence, no question, but its more visually graphic than say the implication that unnatural or sadistic events are at play. Those are both major turn-offs for me, and as I get older, I simply MUST pick and choose what I spend my time with. It was sort of rolling the dice for me, but the good appeared to outweigh the potential bad, and I was sold.

There are definitely a lot of influences worn on Cronenberg's sleeve here, but never to the level where it interferes from getting his own vision front and center. Those influences include: David Lynch (both visual and sound design), Stanley Kubrick, Oliver Stone (specifically his 1994 masterpiece 'Natural Born Killers') and even the recent Nicolas Cage-led 'Mandy.' This film is trippy without question, bolstered by a tremendous score of mood and style from Tim Hecker, out-of-this world coloring and lighting, gorgeous location shooting in Croatia, and the premise here, which I will not spoil even though most reviews seem to be giving it away (go in as blind as possible as I did), is, again, WILD.

My only real criticism after one viewing is whether or not this film was trying to say something. In my opinion, it wasn't, and that's honestly welcome. To me it was a story, without being overwrought with "meaning" that would lead audiences to "deep discussions" about such topics as class warfare, or as I saw AV Club call it, a "violent takedown of wealth and privilege." I've watched some interviews with Cronenberg and not really seen him allude to any of this, and perhaps I've just not done my "research," but I personally don't feel that's what is at play here. However, I do see how people could read into it that way, as the plot revolves around people who are apparently well-off and able to get out of sticky situations with their disposable income. I just don't think that was the goal here. That plot device is what moves the film forward and plays a pivotal role in making this work overall, but in my view, that was not the intention. So the criticism is, either way it's too ambiguous, and I think this could have been elevated a bit if there was more clarity on whether he was speaking on "morality" or whatever topic of the day. So in that sense, it seems as his career goes on, he just may have quite a masterpiece in him that hopefully ends up on screen one day. In the meantime, this to me felt like a big leap forward for him, and one hell of a ride I look forward to revisiting plenty in the near future.