‘You’re so frozen these days I can’t even tell if you’re sleeping or awake...’
Brandon Cronenberg has already made a name for himself on the horror landscape with 2020’s haunting fever dream Possessor. His much anticipated follow up Infinity Pool is slightly more grounded in reality whilst still retaining the ghoulish odd streak that defined the Canadian filmmaker’s previous film. And it’s wonderful…
James (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Colema) are a wealthy couple on holiday. He is looking for something to curtail his writer’s block while she is in search of a spark that appears to be missing from their relationship. After arriving at fictional luxury island of La Tolqa, the happy couple begin a fateful relationship with Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert) – a liberal and free living pair who have spent time on the island before.
Infinity Pool is what happens when the whole creative team is firing on all cylinders. Cronenberg improves on his work on Possessor, directing this film with style and flair, his camera weaving its way in and out of the action like a government drone device. The effect is both eerie and arresting and it provides the perfect platform for the talents of Skarsgård and Goth – both of whom continue their respective hot streaks. Skarsgård plays a very different type of millionaire here from the one he so memorably portrayed on Succession and Goth provides further proof that she is probably the most exciting actress on the planet right now. Compare her performance here with her turn in last year’s Pearl and it is clear that we are witnessing a future Oscar winner at work. She is sublime.
While ‘eat the rich’ is all the rage throughout TV and cinema at the moment, there is much more going on here. Cronenberg continually defies expectations throughout and it is this film that will see him anointed as more than just ‘son of David’. His next project could well be a masterpiece. Watch this space.