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Also Known As: - |
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| Year of first release: 2012 | |
| Director: Brandon Cronenberg | |
| Actors: Caleb Landry Jones (Byzantium), Lisa Berry, Sarah Gadon | |
| Country: CDN | |
| Genre: Thriller, SF | |
| Conditions of visioning: 05.04.2013, Centre des Beaux Arts, BIFFF2013 | |
| Synopsis: In the near future, a specialised clinic injects to celebrities' fans deseases that have been contracted by their idols. | |
| Review: For his first feature film, the son of David Cronenberg (The Fy, eXistenZ, Scanners) displays an obvious family link. They both like to depict the perversion of our society and the people living in it. I found brilliant the concept of the movie, and even if the action is set in the near future I had no difficulty believing in it, when I see how people are crazy about celebrities nowadays. You don't even need to be talented at singing or acting anymore to become famous, but just to be the heart of some scandals. Celebrities in Antiviral are also shown to be no more that part of an impersonnal money-making machine. The TV news throughout the movie also reflect our world by displaying without remorse all details about celebrities lifes, from their panties showing to their latest anal infection, with the help of close-ups. In the movie some specialized butchers also sell steaks cultivated from muscle tissue of the celebrities! The main actor Caleb Landry Jones is very well chosen for the role. His size, weight and fair complexion already makes him look sick so he doesn't have to add much to play a character handling diseases on a daily basis. Ten minutes could have been skipped towards the end of the movie, but otherwise its structure keeps you alert. One of the critics I have heard about the movie is that it is too "clinical", but I had no problem with the white walls at the clinic or the main character's appartment, it is a specific style and anyway is balanced by some other more colorful sets. I have also read the Brandon Cronenberg does just like dad, in less good. One big difference I see between the two is that when the father was kind of obsessed with flesh and dirty putrefaction, the son's imagery in Antiviral revolves around clean, sharp red blood contrasting with the white surrondings. In any case, the future films from Cronenberg Junior will tell if he has the talent to expand his universe like his father could. |
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Rating: 7 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Antiviral (2012)
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With the ads/consumer society obsessed by celebrities in background, Brandon Cronenberg draws the crazy job of stealing viruses. And all this sounds credible. The white and red estethic emphasises the contrasted society, so clean outside and so dirty inside. If only the actor Caleb Landry Jones could play the face of a normal person. No, as in Byzantium, his one face is the sick one. So bad. Also 7/10.
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