MOVIE REVIEW: INFINITY POOL

 

Guided by a seductive and mysterious woman, a couple on vacation venture outside the resort grounds and find themselves in a culture filled with violence, hedonism and untold horror. A tragic accident 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.

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman, Jalil Lespert, Thomas Kretschmann, Amanda Brugel

Release Date: January 27, 2023

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for graphic violence, disturbing material, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and some language

Runtime: 1h 57m

Review:

Infinity Pool is a nightmarish, hallucinogenic fever dream of a film that keeps you off balance throughout.  Brandon Cronenberg's is disorienting almost from the moment it starts and it rarely lets the gas off the petal as it descends further into twisted tale.  His film borrows inspiration from the work of Kubrick, Polanski, Giallo and his father's earlier films.  Together it makes for strangely beautiful collection of wonderfully composed shots of horrible images that leave a lasting impression.  A handful of scenes area a full-on assault on the senses which will leave your retinas burning if you don't break into an elliptic seizure.  This is the type of film that delivers certain sequences which will be burned into your mind and linger long after the film's finished.  The madness onscreen wouldn't work as well if you didn't have such committed turns from the film's leads.  Luckily, Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth are locked in throughout delivered layered but gonzo performances.  Skarsgård's uses his general good looks to his advantage by playing against type as the film's reveals the sad sack of man his character truly is.  It’s incredibly effective especially since the film keeps you wondering who or what we are watching make great use of the unreliable narrator.  Mia Goth continues her recent hot streak with another fascinating turn that ranges from alluring to manipulative to malicious.  Goth moves so easily between these different emotions and attitudes that you can't keep her eyes off her when she's onscreen.  Skarsgård and Goth make for an excellent juxtaposition as his turn is far more subtle and measured while she slowly reveals the extent of her character's manic depravity with impressive aplomb.  The story once you have a moment to gather your thought is thematically dense enough to leave you thinking about what it’s trying to say about the excesses of the rich among other things.  Infinity Pool isn't the kind of film that will be for everyone but that doesn't make it any less impactful or effective.   

A

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of American Ultra & Hitman: Agent 47

Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to the pictures for a pair of shoot-em-up flicks, American Ultra and Hitman: Agent 47.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

This week's first kudos go not to either movie, but to the schedule maker(s) at Marquee Cinemas, who receive a full nine Weasleys for two 90-minute films with 30 minutes in between. Perfection!

First up on that ideal schedule: American Ultra.

All is not as it seems with a pair of stoners in a (made-up) little West Virginia town.
American Ultra is one of those movies that has the potential to be accidentally awesome. It doesn't look like anything special, but all the pieces are there so it *could* be, you know? It isn't quite awesome, but it's still pretty solid.

Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart share an awkward chemistry that serves them well as a couple pretty awkward people. Eisenberg moves effortlessly from mellow to panicked to deadpan to badass, always believable and sympathetic.

Stewart is often accused of being expressionless, but she's solid here as well. The supporting cast is uniformly decent, for as much as they need to be (what a waste of Bill Pullman!), but basically, if you don't like Eisenberg and/or Stewart, that's going to be an almost insurmountable hurdle with this movie. American Ultra has plenty of twists and turns, with fast, brutal, bloody action, and a dry wit that holds it all together.

American Ultra clocks in at 95 minutes and is rated R for "strong bloody violence, language throughout, drug use, and some sexual content."

American Ultra is missing that *something* that would have made it exceptional, but I still found it smart, exciting, and entertaining.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, American Ultra gets six and a half.

Next on the agenda, Hitman: Agent 47.

A woman reluctantly teams with a super assassin to unravel the mysteries of her past.

Dear reader(s), there's no sugar-coating it: Agent 47 is a real snooze-fest, and, if not for my mad crush on Zachary Quinto, I might have nodded off. There's not a hint of genuine emotion or excitement to be found anywhere in Agent 47. Nicely-designed stunts are blandly executed, and the leads are as dry as my lawn invariably is 'round about this time of the year. Hannah Ware has all the expression of the freshly-Botoxed, and Rupert Friend looks like a perpetually-annoyed Orlando Bloom. Ciaran Hinds gets the job done, but he doesn't turn up until it's far too late to salvage anything. It's quite a feat for a movie this short to wear out its welcome, but that seems to be the one area where Hitman: Agent 47 actually succeeds.

Hitman: Agent 47 runs 96 minutes and is rated R for "sequences of strong violence, and some language."

Agent 47 is so dull I was hardly even annoyed when the guy next to me played on his iPad the whole time.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Hitman: Agent 47 gets two.

Until next time...

Curiously, this is also how my homecooked Sunday dinners usually turn out!