Infinity Pool (2023)
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Writer: Brandon Cronenberg
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, Cleopatra Coleman, Jalil Lespert
Fresh from its Sundance showing, Infinity Pool opens with a mixture of glamour and unease. Brandon Cronenberg leads a cast that includes Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth, and the film immediately establishes a tone that is both stylish and disturbing. At a festival event, the atmosphere felt theatrical: masked attendants in red suits and promotional cutouts of Mia Goth’s haunting expressions set the stage for a movie that plays like a live performance — unsettling, immersive, and provocatively staged.
The film follows James (Alexander Skarsgård) and his girlfriend Em (Cleopatra Coleman) as they travel to La Tolqa, a fictional island nation with its own brutal customs. There they meet Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert), two hedonistic regulars who embody the island’s permissive decadence. A holiday turns tragic when a car accident leads to a shocking revelation: La Tolqa offers a grisly alternative to formal legal punishment. Visitors who cause fatal harm can either face execution or pay to have a body double take their place, sparking a black-market ritual of violence and substitution. James, increasingly unmoored and desperate to avoid consequences, is drawn into an underground society where extreme violence and pleasure intersect.
Cronenberg’s story is not entirely original in its premise — many contemporary films interrogate how the ultra-wealthy escape consequences — but Infinity Pool distinguishes itself through its bold visual language and experimental storytelling. The director pushes into grotesque territory without flinching, and the film frequently moves from psychological horror into scenes of pure humiliation and excess. One extended sequence, a seven-minute drug-fueled orgy, stands out for its audacity and cinematic choreography; it is the kind of unnerving, unforgettable scene that demonstrates Cronenberg’s control over atmosphere and tone.
Central to the film’s impact are the performances of its leads. Alexander Skarsgård plays James as a man hollowed by privilege and ennui. Where recent roles have shown him as a towering, violent presence, here he is diminished — listless, unfulfilled, and increasingly susceptible to self-destructive impulses. Skarsgård captures the slow collapse of a person who has coasted on entitlement and now confronts a reality that demands moral reckoning.
Mia Goth, meanwhile, delivers a chilling and magnetic turn as Gabi. Goth has become synonymous with eerie, unhinged characters, and her performance here continues that streak. She moves between saccharine seduction and a simmering, dangerous rage, giving the film a volatile emotional center. Every scene with Goth crackles with unpredictability, and her presence elevates the film’s sense of menace and dark charisma.
Visually, Infinity Pool is striking. Cronenberg stages scenes with a photographer’s eye for composition and a sculptor’s sense for texture. The island’s rituals, the lurid parties, and the grotesque implements of punishment are all rendered with meticulous design. Yet the world-building can feel intentionally sparse; much of La Tolqa’s culture remains mysterious. While the film explains the central mechanism of body doubling, it leaves the island’s deeper history and the origins of its macabre symbolism largely unexplored. This omission leaves certain narrative threads unresolved, but it also enhances the film’s dreamlike, allegorical quality.
Infinity Pool is best approached as a singular viewing experience: visceral, provocative, and at times excruciating. It is not a film that aims to comfort or to fully explain; instead, it seeks to unsettle and to push audiences into confronting unsettling ideas about privilege, accountability, and the darker side of desire. With strong performances, arresting visuals, and sequences that linger in the mind long after the credits roll, the film delivers an evening of audacious cinema. It may not reach the status of a classic, but it succeeds as a daring, memorable provocation.
Score: 18/24