Infinity Pool
Not just shock for shock's sake, "Infinity Pool" has interesting things to say about morality and mortality.
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In the year of our Lord 2023 Brandon Cronenberg is currently a better director than his father David. “Infinity Pool” (now in theaters) is a marked improvement over the junior Cronenberg’s first two pictures (“Antiviral” and “Possessor”) and is worlds better than David’s 2022 offering “Crimes of the Future.” I’m uncertain if “Infinity Pool” surpasses the likes of “The Fly” (1986), “A History of Violence” or “Eastern Promises,” but it ain’t far off.
James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is an author who’s published one book. He’s riding the financial coattails of his publishing heiress wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) and is suffering from debilitating writer’s block. James figures vacationing at an all-inclusive resort on his wife’s dime just might be the thing that gets those creative juices flowing again.
It’s here that James and Em befriend Gabi (horror It girl Mia Goth) and her husband Alban (Jalil Lespert). Gabi’s a fan of James’ work. The foursome rent a car and leave the resort (a no-no) to have a drunken beachside picnic. James volunteers to drive them back to their accommodations as Alban’s too intoxicated … in doing so he strikes and kills a pedestrian farmer. At Gabi’s behest they leave the man’s dead body in the road and return to their resort.
I don’t want to say much more about the plot of “Infinity Pool” as I believe it’s best experienced spoiler-free. I genuinely didn’t know where this movie was gonna go from one moment to the next. I will go so far as to say the foursome tussle with local cop Thresh (Thomas Kretschmann) and cloning is incorporated into the story. There’s also a 7-minute psychedelic orgy and a group of wealthy folks who behave very badly.
Much has been made of the NC-17 cut of “Infinity Pool” that played at the Sundance Film Festival less than a week ago. To my eyes the R-rated version playing in theaters now probably should’ve been NC-17 or released Unrated. It’s not for all audiences or tastes. Photosensitive viewers (especially those with epilepsy) need not apply. (There’s a warning before the film.) Prudes need not apply. The squeamish need not apply. There will be walkouts. An audience member at my screening audibly exclaimed, “What the fuck?!!!,” at one point. This one’s only for the cinematically adventurous, folks. But the adventurous will be rewarded with a darkly, mordantly funny freak-out. If “The Purge” presented “Vacation” movies à la “National Lampoon’s” with a Cronenbergian sensibility … this would be it.
“Infinity Pool” isn’t entirely shock for shock’s sake. It has a lot of interesting things to say about morality and mortality. Skarsgård does some of his bravest and funniest work here. Goth continues to be one of the best and brightest of our current crop of genre actresses, though her performance doesn’t quite hit the heights of what she achieved in “Pearl” last year.
I was telling my wife Jamie and our friend Marie about the movie as they have absolutely no desire to see it. (If a naked Skarsgård’s not getting ‘em there, nothing will.) After hearing my description Marie said, “So it’s like ‘Hotel California’!” She ain’t wrong – “You can check out anytime you like/But you can never leave.”