[ANTIVIRAL
screens Tuesday July 9th at 8:50 pm at the Capitol Theatre in
association with the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
It's difficult to write about Brandon
Cronenberg's debut feature without
trotting out such timeworn proverbs as “like father, like son” or
“the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.” Brandon is the son of
Canadian director David Cronenberg, and if ANTIVIRAL
is any indication, the two men share some important stylistic and
thematic tendencies. Like Cronenberg senior's early films, ANTIVIRAL
takes place in a sterile, vaguely futueristic world, and finds its
horror within the human body and the ways it can be transformed and
modified.
The
basic premis of ANTIVIRAL
is that a companies in the near future sell diseases that have in the
past infected various celebrities to their adoring fans. The idea is
that having the same germs in ones body that were in a celebrity will
create a closer bond between the fan and the object of their
adoration. Given the fame-obsessed nature of our culture at present,
it really doesn't seem that far fetched.
A
salesman at one of these companies named Syd March (Caleb Landry
Jones) is supplementing his income by smuggling diseases out inside
his own body and selling them on the black market. That works out
fairly well for him until one day he smuggles out the wrong disease
and finds himself infected with a virus that just might kill him. To
make matters worse, his black market contacts think he's holding out
on them, and they aren't the type of people to take that lying down.
From there the film shifts into thriller mode as Syd tries to find a
cure while trying (and generally failing) to avoid the bad guys.
Where
Brandon Cronenberg most significantly differs from his father is in
his more modern visual style. He makes use of plenty of hand-held
camera work and a faster editing style, though not to the point of
obnoxiousness like many contemporary filmmakers trying to ape the
BOURNE formula.
Despite the faster pace, there are still times when the film drags
and/or feels a little on the stiff side, but the premise and Landry
Jones' solid lead performance hold things together enough to get past
those issues. It's not quite a great film, but there's more than
enough that ANTIVIRAL
gets right to make the case that Brandon Cronenberg has just as much
potential to make a mark in the film world as his father, and I for
one will be looking forward with great anticipation to see how he
develops. 3 out of 4 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We approve all legitimate comments. However, comments that include links to irrelevant commercial websites and/or websites dealing with illegal or inappropriate content will be marked as spam.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.