If you break a traffic law, you may have to pay a fine. This fine could be a minor inconvenience, or a financially crippling move. But the richer you are, the more that fine becomes less inconvenient. Eventually, if the fine doesn’t change, it might just seem easier to park wherever you want and pay whatever the fine is. Imagine a world where you had the option of paying a fine for incredibly serious crimes.
This is the situation the audience finds themselves asking when watching Brandon Cronenberg’s latest film, Infinity Pool. Alexander Skarsgård (from True Blood and the Northman) plays James Foster, an author hoping to break his writer’s block with a vacation to an exclusive Eastern European resort with his wife Em (played by Cleopatra Coleman from the Last Man on Earth). While there, he gets into a car accident and kills a local. He’s arrested and gets a first hand look into what this fictional nation’s justice system is like.
He’s immediately convicted to execution, but is allowed one possible reprieve. The nation has technology that can allow them to make a complete double of the accused for a large price, who will then be killed in his place. However, if Foster accepts he must watch his double get killed. He chooses to accept this strange deal, leading him down a dark path he might not recover from.
The film, the first one Cronenberg shot outside of Canada, depicts the beautiful vistas of Croatia and Hungary as this fictional nation. Lonely roads alongside treacherous cliffs, white beaches with mountains close on the horizon. These visuals simultaneously depict the mental state of Foster, who is yearning for connection in a world he fears is forgetting him. He finds a community of like-minded people in this nation, people who vacation here because they enjoy the nation’s tough stance on crime and what it allows them to do.
One of these people he connects with is Gabi (played by Mia Goth from X and Pearl), an actress who loves coming here every year. She helps him integrate into this small society of people who have been through the same experience of watching themselves die for a price, and the games they play. As we head deeper into Infinity Pool, Foster finds himself descending deeper into depravity. This nation becomes a playground for the wealthy, with its population set to suffer the consequences.
The interplay between both Goth and Skarsgård is the film’s highlight. Goth draws the audience in as this motherly character welcoming us alongside Skarsgård’s character into this world of upper-class debauchery. She holds him when he’s weak, yet thrusts him into all the horrors they indulge in. And Skarsgård plays like a lost little puppy, looking for somewhere safe to stay while suffering from the intrigue Goth highlights to him. The characters frequently wear these masks that look like deformed faces, as if the mask shows us who they truly are underneath the artifice. But the question remains. Are they really the actions they commit, or did they were they executed and now the double is living their life?
As Foster does go further into the narrative, the film turns more hallucinatory with trippy, complicated visuals. This is best highlighted during the scene in which Foster is doubled. He steps into a container with a large pile of goo, and the film depicts Foster’s journey as the double as made as an intense hallucination. While he wonders if he really is who he says he is or just a double, the audiences wonders what we’re really seeing.
I spoke with Cronenberg who tells me his process for making these intense hallucinatory visuals. Describing these scenes as a “little experimental film,” these scenes are frequent in his filmography. He works with cinematographer Karim Hussain to shoot the imagery, saying he’s “an absolute genius and a mad scientist of a cinematographer,” but took time to note it was a collaborative process with the majority of the crew. A feeling he noted working with both Skarsgård and Goth as well, saying “they worked so well together… they made my job easy.”
Infinity Pool is a trip worthy of the Cronenberg name. It’s dark, delirious, and often painful to go through. But it does have a heart, albeit one with significant scarring. This film gets a 4/5, and you can watch our interview with Brandon Cronenberg below!
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Entertainment News Click Here
