4 stars out of 5
In 2022, I gave a positive review to Crimes of the Future, written and directed by the then-79-year-old David Cronenberg. Showing that the apple doesn’t fall far from the fucked-up tree, I gave an equally positive review to 43-year-old son Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool. Ah, but the senior Croney wasn’t quite ready to pass the you-have-some-serious-serious-issues torch. For this year (ok, last year, you nitpicking Europeans), David C. returns with another really well done and really messed-up film.
Our lead is Vincent Cassel, who hasn’t worked with Cronenberg since 2011’s relatively tame (though importantly, not written by The Crone) A Dangerous Method. Here he plays grieving widower Karsh Relikh. To lose his blues, Karsh creates a high-tech cemetery complete with overlooking restaurant. Thanks to a patent-pending shroud that wraps the deceased, along with a handy app, the mourning can get a live, 360-degree look at their rotting loved one. Seems as if Karsh hasn’t totally “let go.”
A blind date — who he brings to his restaurant, of course — is rightfully put off by Karsh’s tour of the grounds, expecting the video feed to be the sort of this-is-your-life slideshow you might see at a funeral. And this was one of my only real problems with the movie: Cronenberg establishes here that a “normal” person is disgusted by this technology, yet soon we learn he plans to install these cemeteries worldwide with only some eco-warriors making any fuss about it. Eh, forget it Jack; it’s Cronentown.
I won’t reveal more of the plot except to say: trouble ensues.
One note of interest: Guy Pearce plays an IT guy called in by Karsh. Pearce’s character is Jewish (wouldn’t have been my first casting choice), and there seemed to be some low-grade antisemitism floating around. Asked what he wants to order for lunch — a pastrami sandwich of course! Twice the camera arrives on him sloppily eating on the job. His ex-wife (who is the twin of Karsh’s late wife, for those keeping score of the twistedness) refers to him as a nebbish and a schmuck. It made me vaguely uncomfortable so I Googled to see if Cronenberg had ever been accused of antisemitism before. Turns out he is a secular Jew! Oy vey.
Beyond the rooting in his beloved body horror, Cronenberg revisits several of the themes he tackled in Crimes of the Future, such as human/machine symbiosis, romantic jealousy, ethical questions, and the risks of technology if gone unchecked. And thankfully, the composer is once again Howard Shore, who he has worked with since 1979. Yet Cronenberg wraps it all in something new, this tale of grief and the difficulty of moving on. Wraps it as if he had some sort of traditional cloth covering….
being underrated is overrated
Jack Silbert, curator