During the darkest days of the pandemic, there was a universal hankering for escape, from the grimness of the unendingly awful news and also from our homes, another country suddenly seeming more like another world. When stringent protocols had a financial and logistical impact on production, stories that took place in relatively remote locations with relatively small casts started to propagate. But what’s interesting about so many of them, from The Menu to Glass Onion to Triangle of Sadness to Fall to The White Lotus and now to Infinity Pool, is that the majority end up warping our desire to get away, cautionary tales of death and danger imploring us to stay home in order to survive.
Brandon Cronenberg’s thriller of lurid, and at times laughable, extremities takes us to a swish resort in the fictional state of Li Tolqa, an isolated idyll that lures writer James (Alexander Skarsgård) with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman). His last book was six years ago and he’s hoping to be inspired by the new surroundings. Instead inspiration comes from flirtatious actor Gabi (Mia Goth) and her architect husband Alban (Jalil Lespert) who take James under their wing.
