Infinity Pool

I had a strange (thematically) double feature at the Broadway yesterday starting with Infinity Pool.  I recently saw this at Sundance but I decided to take another dip because I was really curious to see the differences in the theatrical release (also because I am a freak).  James Foster (Alexander Skarsgard) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) are vacationing at a luxurious resort located in a developing island country.  They are advised not to leave the compound because the island suffers from abject poverty and has a high crime rate with inhabitants who often target wealthy tourists.  However, fellow guests Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban Bauer (Jalil Lespert) convince them to leave the resort with them in a hired car for a day at a secluded beach.  On the way back to the resort James accidentally hits and kills a local resident with the car.  He is eventually arrested and, according to custom, the victim's next of kin is allowed to kill him for the sake of the family's honor but there is an alternative, offered to tourists and diplomats, which allows him to avoid the execution for an exorbitant fee.  This alternative is reprehensible but he takes it and soon learns that many of the other guests at the resort, including Gabi and Alban, have had the same experience and return to the resort year after year for the freedom it allows them.  James is titillated by what he has done and is soon drawn into the violent and hedonistic exploits of his fellow guests because there are no longer any consequences for his actions.  Even with several scenes edited from the version I saw at Sundance (yes that scene), this is incredibly shocking and disturbing with some really trippy cinematography but it has a lot of interesting things to say about both privilege and morality and I found it very compelling.  Both Skarsgard and Goth, who is completely unhinged in the best possible way, give fully committed performances and you simply cannot look away from them but there is such a feeling of escalating dread, even upon a second viewing, that I often wanted to.  This definitely won't be for everyone but I loved it and recommend it to fans of Brandon Cronenberg.