“Possessor” Review
If I told you that sci-fi body horror legend David Cronenberg‘s son, Brandon Cronenberg, was making sci-fi body horror films of his own, it might be tempting to say that Brandon is just imitating his father. However that would be a great disservice to Brandon’s own capabilities as a filmmaker. David, for all his inventiveness, had a fairly meat and potatoes style throughout much of his career before experiencing an evolution as an artist toward the tail end of his output. His son, on the other hand, seems much more assured from the get-go and is willing to not only push the limits of brutality and discomfort like his father, but the limits of the film medium as well.
For proof look no further than his 2020 effort, Possessor. The film focuses on Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), an assassin who possesses the bodies of carefully chosen victims in order to murder high-profile targets for massive paydays. Her job requires her to have both extreme empathy, placing herself in someone else’s mind both figuratively and literally, as well as extreme psychopathy, as she must kill her target and eventually the host. In addition to this, she struggles to maintain a strained relationship with her husband and young son. Her next target is the CEO of an invasive big-data company (played by an always entertaining Sean Bean), but things start to go awry when her grip on her host begins to wilt.
Possessor is visually stunning with plenty of great camerawork, futuristic art direction, and excellent visual effects. The mind-melding sensations the characters experience are brought beautifully to life through chilling practical effects, hyper-sensory cinematographic techniques, and varied editing that does a great job balancing manic intensity and unsettling quietude. The performances are also great, as the leads must do an acrobatic dance through bizarre and extreme emotions brought on by their insane situation. Also, as a body horror film, there is plenty of disgustingly brutal violence and frightening imagery.
The film is very provocative, not only in its content but in its themes. There is plenty of commentary on the strange and scary nature of the contemporary corporatized world that is the 21st-Century, especially due to the invasive and chaotic nature of big tech and mass surveillance. The film’s narrative both literally and thematically displays the ways in which the modern world is alienating and dehumanizing. People are alienated from each other and from themselves, and all humanistic and empathic impulses are stamped out by the cold, efficient brutality of the society in which they live. Just as these things are felt by the viewer and the characters, they are also acted out upon the bodies of the people within the film. People’s brains are invaded by implants to erase their identity and bodies and faces are coldly annihilated by bullets, knives, glass, and even a fireplace poker. So much destruction and disregard for human life, and all for a corporate power play.
2020 has come up short (for obvious reasons) in terms of great cinema, but Possessor is a shining, beautiful, ugly, horrifying, and splendid highlight of the art form. Seeing it is truly an experience, intellectually, emotionally, and viscerally, and it’s well worth your time.
Verdict: Shiny and Chrome
