8. POOL PARTY: Is there a swimming pool in your plot? Take a dip, thoughts the drip.
Infinity Pool
It’s simple to see director and famous nepo man Brandon Cronenberg embedded throughout the plot of his personal movie. In Infinity Pool, Alexander Skarsgård performs a bankrolled however blocked inventive who coasts at a ritzy resort in quest of inspiration. All hell breaks unfastened after a deadly accident and a run-in with a hedonistic freak performed by Mia Goth.
In reality, Infinity Pool might confidently be renamed It’s Wealthy Individuals’s Fault: The Film. (And for the file, I agree with this sentiment.) I wasn’t anticipating its darkly comedic—and at occasions grotesque—reckoning with whiteness and exploitation. Everybody fucking sucks right here. Resort guests “discover themselves”—or at the least journey out and try catharsis—on the expense of working-class folks in a fictional nation, then purchase handy loopholes to wiggle out of the messes they’ve made. This dynamic works within the movie’s favor; not-so-subtle subtexts of othering and alienation are discovered amid its extra completely grotesque, stunning scenes. It is Cronenberg’s 2020 movie Possessor with much more narrative path.
I waited patiently via Infinity Pool’s 118-minute runtime for an precise swimming pool to indicate up, and it by no means did, so in an fascinating twist of occasions, it doesn’t technically match into this problem’s “pool occasion” class. Nevertheless, if floating in some gloopy science goo that replicates DNA for government-mandated retributive homicide functions counts as a “pool,” this movie matches the invoice! Watch for those who like unidentified psychedelics, Francis Bacon’s Determine with Meat, waving weapons round, and/or Mia Goth’s Peppa Pig-esque accent.
The Stranger is collaborating in Scarecrow Video’s Psychotronic Problem all month lengthy! Each October, Scarecrow places collectively a listing of cinematic themes and invitations people to observe alongside and watch a horror, sci-fi, or fantasy flick that meets the standards. This 12 months, Stranger staffers are becoming a member of the enjoyable and we’re going to share our day by day suggestions right here on Slog! Learn extra about Scarecrow’s 2024 problem—and get the watch record—right here. And you’ll observe our day by day suggestions right here! 💀