Infinity Pool
2023 sci-fi/thriller
Director Brandon Cronenbreg most definitely is following in his father's footsteps. In that disturbing mind bending story telling with deep underling social commentary way. Although in no way is he just like his father, Brandon is for sure, a beast of his own.
For context I will begin to dive into his most recent movie infinity pool. Which if you haven't seen it was an excellent film and I highly recommend watching it. I will go into some spoilers here to discuss overarching and underling themes I feel are important in this movie. So again if you haven't seen this movie I highly advise you go see it and come back to this article.
Plot: Guided by a seductive and mysterious woman (Mia Goth), a couple on vacation (Alexander Skarsgard, Cleopatra Coleman) venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism and untold horror. A tragic accident of hitting a local with their car, soon leaves them facing a zero tolerance policy for crime: either you'll be executed, or, if you're rich enough to afford it, you can watch yourself die instead.
At first James (Alexander Skarsgard) is pretty shocked and disturbed by the reality of being cloned and watching himself die. Then he's accepted into this club in which he starts to forget his anxiety over the experience of what had happened. Being convinced this is a get out of jail card, a path way to be invincible almost. James slowly begins getting high on this power, not realizing that those he's surrounded by what are not the best people. Again and again he watched himself die and loses any empathy that had been there before. Finally Gabi (Mia Goth) sets him up thinking he's attacking someone else with a hood on their head. When she reveals he was about to kill his own clone and he begins to panic realizing it's not the same. Trying to leave the group stops him forcing him to fight his clone with a final blow and he kills his own clone.
I feel that this is commentary on joining the IN-GROUPS. More specifically wealthy or rich class, although it could apply to any popular In-group. I feel like he's saying that when you join these groups a little piece of you dies. The further in you become the more you die and to become the full fledged member you have to kill off that last remaining piece that is you. We get peer pressured into this through society. By the groups themselves wanting us to join. By the systems giving us the options to do that or face consequences that may be damaging or harmful. Society always pushes us to destroy ourselves to be part of the upper class, the popular groups. Even if that means shooting out a bus window and stopping the car in front of the bus screaming come out James!
I wish I wrote this review