Sicko Mode

Movies: Infinity Pool

Brandon Cronenberg's latest movie is wild as fuck. As Stefon, Bill Hader's SNL character, might say, this movie has it all: executions, cum-shots, creepy masks, Alexander Skarsgard led around naked on a dog leash. It truly is a sick, twisted, and fucked up movie and, brother, I was here for it.

Skarsgard plays James, a writer vacationing in the fictional country of Li Tolqa with his wealthy wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman). Because Li Tolqa is a very poor, very crime-ridden country, James and Em are staying at a resort where tourists are not allowed to leave the resort compound. The couple meets Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), a rich couple who regularly travel to Li Tolqa. They convince Em and James to borrow a car, leave the resort, and go to the beach for a day. On the drive home, a drunken James hits and kills a local. The next morning he is arrested and told that the punishment for murder--even accidental murder--is death.

BUT! Since Li Tolqa relies so heavily on tourism they have a workaround for when a tourist commits a crime: James can pay "a significant sum" to be doubled. Like, literally, they create a copy of James that is identical in every way and even shares James' memories. The double can be executed in James' place. After watching his double get stabbed to death by the 13 year old son of the man he killed, James is...intrigued. Em decides she wants to go home immediately, but James claims to lose his passport and encourages Em to leave without him. He then gets invited to a party where Gabi and Alban introduce him to a group of friends who have all experienced the doubling process themselves. They basically treat it as a "get out of jail free" card...only it's not free. But these folks are wildly rich, so they can pay to have multiple doubles created and killed in their stead.

What follows is a fever dream of drugs, crime, violence, and debauched sex. The group, led by Gabi, push and pull James deeper and deeper into their fucked up games of dominance and submission. Infinity Pool is kinky. And in a way that only people who are actually into kink would understand. One comment I read said that this is an entire movie about a man with a humiliation fetish, and that's pretty accurate. Alexander Skarsgard plays James as a man who allows himself to be pushed around, insulted, and peer-pressured by other people--in particular, by beautiful women. His own wife acts cold and dismissive around him--even insulting him in front of others. Despite seeming to be bewildered by it all, James never really pushes back. One might even say that he...enjoys such treatment. 

The 6'4" actor walks with a hunch, even before all the crazy shit goes down. He has bags under his eyes. He looks like shit the entire movie--quite an accomplishment, given that Skarsgard is considered to be a supremely good-looking man. But this handsome giant is brought low by the tiny Mia Goth...yelled at, mocked, teased, and even lead around on a dog leash. This movie is definitely someone's fetish. 

But putting aside the kinky elements for just a moment...what is this movie actually *about*? Well, it's not exactly ground-breaking: it's about how rich people get away with everything. How indulging in life-ruining activities are just a bit of vacation fun for the super-wealthy. There's a great scene at the end of the movie where they're all taking a bus to the airport and talking about mundane shit like rearranging the furniture at home and picking up the house key from the nanny. This very normal conversation comes after some batshit crazy behavior, highlighting the fact that for these people even the most heinous crimes are nothing more than a trifle, soon to be fun memories as they return to their normal lives.

The use of both doubling and masks (Li Tolqa has a cultural thing for masks, and the group wears some really creepy ones while committing crimes) is pretty obviously symbolic of "shadow selves"--how we can compartmentalize our actions when we do bad things and convince ourselves that we're not bad people. Wearing a mask lowers our inhibitions (this is an actual psychological phenomenon) and in the world of Infinity Pool, a double is like a mask on steroids. Imagine what you would be capable of if you knew that someone else--another version of you--would pay the penalty and you would get away scot-free. 

I don't really think Infinity Pool says anything new or groundbreaking. It's the same old story: "the rich are different than you and me". But damn if it isn't a fun ride. Not to be an edgelord, but this movie is not for the faint of heart. It's got buckets of cum, blood, and piss. It's got mind-boggling hallucinogenic imagery (it even has a flashing lights warning at the beginning of the film). But as a certified Sicko, I enjoyed the hell out of it. 

Grade: B+