Brandon Cronenberg breaks down 'Infinity Pool,' the most disturbing film at Sundance
PARK CITY, Utah — Over three feature films, Brandon Cronenberg has carved out a distinctive style for himself, a blend of horror and sci-fi that musters an all-too-rare audience response of genuine shock. His latest film, "Infinity Pool," may be the most disturbing and unsettling film at Sundance this year, forcing viewers to confront what they might actually be capable of — all told in a hallucinatory, brain-melting, head-spinning style.
In the film, James (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), go on holiday to a remote all-inclusive resort in hopes of breaking through his writer's block. Since the publication of one book some years ago, James has been unable to finish anything else and essentially lives off Em's family money.
After they meet the enigmatic Gabi (Mia Goth), they go with her for an excursion outside the resort grounds. When James kills someone with a car in an accident, he is faced with the decision of whether to be executed or pay to have an exact double of himself created and killed in his place. This leads James into a decadent underworld that forces him to face himself in unexpected ways.
Shot in Croatia and Hungary, the film is reminiscent of, but not quite analogous to other recent projects skewering the blinkered lives of the wealthy "Succession," "The Menu" or "The White Lotus." Cronenberg's film is too psychotronic and just plain weird for that, obsessed as it is with death and depravity alongside responsibility and accountability.
