Sundance 2023: ‘Infinity Pool’ Review
Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman | Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg
Looking to get inspiration for his next novel, writer James Foster and his wife Em take a holiday to a fenced-off resort on the fictional isle of Li Tolqa. They soon meet Gabi and her husband Alban, who convince them to leave the compound one day to visit a secluded beach. After getting into a car accident on their return, James soon learns the truth behind Li Tolqan law.
When you have a surname like “Cronenberg,” there’s automatically a lot riding on your ability to make a good movie. With his father casting cinematic shadows with films such as Crash, Videodrome, and Crimes Of The Future, Brandon Cronenberg has inadvertently been set up to be a sought-after nepo baby. Though two feature films are already under its belt, the 2023 hedonistic horror Infinity Pool proves exactly why Brandon is one of the good ones.
In a simplistic, short-handed explanation, Infinity Pool is an episode of The White Lotus on acid. Once viewers have emerged from the lashings of throat-slitting, native drug-taking, and leash-wearing, sitting with the narrative unveils many more layers that have yet to be peeled. In many ways, it’s a cinematic onion best left untouched. Rolling with the kaleidoscopic punches is arguably the best way to view the film, and — though terrible advice for a review — entering Cronenberg’s beachside nightmare as blind as possible gives the fraught pacing extra bite. If the audience does choose to delve into what’s under the surface level, “eat the rich” frenzy, the topsy-turvy cinematography, piercing sound design, and exceptional casting each sings like a shining canary. Skarsgård is infuriatingly egotistical while inhaling the seduction of watching his own death, while Goth proves once again that horror is her genre, tapping into a complicated woman to get the best out of a man unhinged.
With Infinity Pool, the Cronenberg name is doing what it does best — taking a real-world concept that may have been sitting under your nose all along and distorting it into something that’s both recognisable and horrifyingly far-reaching. The film toys with the ideas of cloning, corrupted justice, and the upper-class ruling with a blood-soaked iron fist. Each of these notions on their own is intoxicating enough before they are poured into Brandon Cronenberg’s world of greedy hedonism, hitting both a timely and timeless nail on the head. It’s this sensation of heady behaviour that catapults Infinity Pool into being one of the greatest horror movies of the decade so far, seemingly anticipating exactly what you want from it and delivering in abundance. No moment shies away from the explicitly grotesque — including an unforeseen sexual dalliance on the seafront that’s only a precursor of what’s to come.
As Gen Z might say, Infinity Pool leaves no crumbs in its wake, charging ahead with a vision all its own to confidently sell its heady wares. It’s sure to be one to divide opinion, but if viewers can stomach it, they’re in for the mother of all cinematic experiences.
***** 5/5
Infinity Pool screened as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.