If you’re looking for The White Lotus’ crazy cousin that no one talks about at family Christmas, because bringing them up would be too uncomfortable, then look no further than Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool. A holiday gone wrong on so many unexplainable levels. If you’re planning on watching it, buckle up and prepare yourself for an acid trip as crackers as Wallace and Gromit.
James (Alexander Skarsgård) is on holiday at an isolated resort with his girlfriend, a seemingly perfect vacation, until one night they bump into Gabi (Mia Goth) who invites them to dinner. The evening leads to James committing a crime unintentionally which he gets arrested for. In this country the punishment for a crime is an eye for an eye affair. Unless you have the money, in which case you can have a clone produced of yourself to face the punishment for you. Like Gabi, and her group of rich friends, James finds this process cathartic. He then embarks on a days long drug fueled crime spree he assumes wont have any consequences.
To try and explain Infinity Pool would be to do it an injustice. It’s horror laced delights are best experienced if you let the whole thing wash over you. It’s clear however that the film is taking a hard swipe at the most privileged folk amongst us, for whom crime doesn’t come with as high a price as those who don’t have the money to wipe it clean.
Infinity pool also shares a similar message to that of Riley Stearns’ Dual, (a favourite from last years festival). Both offer an intriguing commentary on the use of clones and the morality around whether they are expendable. They can still feel things exactly as we do, in fact they basically are us. But in these films they are treated as lesser because they aren’t the genuine article.
As expected, the film harbours some visceral imagery. The violence is gratuitous and the experimental drug fuelled orgies are explicit. You’ll probably want to look away from the film more than you want to look at it. To combat that Cronenberg exploits that well known human flaw; morbid curiosity. As Infinity Pool ticks away, it becomes more enticing to look back at the screen than to look away.
Alexander Skarsgård goes through the ringer as James. He gets exactly what he wants as a writer looking for new inspirations. When he gets more than he bargains for he channels some incredible primal energy (probably left over from The Northman, or Tarzan). Unsurprisingly the standout is Mia Goth though. After her success last year in X, and her psychotic turn in Pearl (UK folk still waiting for this one) she is solidifying herself firmly in the horror genre. She is the most terrifying she’s been as Gabi, twisting at the drop of a penny and going full on crazy.
Verdict
Brandon Cronenbergs’ latest has no chance of resonating with a wider audience. It’ll probably do as well as his father’s latest at the box office, albeit a little better because of the pull Mia Goth has right now. But if he cared about that he’d probably be helming a blockbuster. At least Infinity Pool tries something different, something against the grain. It’s pitch black, horrifying, experimental, and the wildest ride of Sundance so far. Images from it will stick in your mind long after the credits roll!
