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Tag: Alexander Skarsgård

  • Stockholm Fest to Honor Alexander Skarsgård, Benny Safdie

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    Alexander Skarsgård and Benny Safdie will be honored at this year’s Stockholm Film Festival, with the Swedish actor receiving Stockholm’s Achievement Award, and the New York director getting the festival’s Visionary Award.

    Skarsgård’s latest Pillion, in which he stars as a domineering biker who begins a turbulent relationship with the submissive Colin, played by Harry Melling, will screen at Stockholm, as will Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, his first solo feature as a director. The film, which premiered in Venice, winning best director honors for Safdie, stars Dwayne Johnson as real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr, with Emily Blunt as his partner Dawn Staples. The Smashing Machine recently opened to a disappointing $6 million in its North America bow, the lowest box office debut in Johnson’s career.

    Stockholm unveiled the program for its 36th edition, running November 5–16, which will include a best-of-the-2025 festival season, including such Oscar contenders as Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Mascha Schillinski’s The Sound of Falling, and Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl.

    The festival opens with Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic, the final installment in his Cairo trilogy starring Fares Fares, and closes with Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love, another hot awards contender, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Other highlights include Ronan Day-Lewis’s directorial debut Anemone, featuring dad Daniel Day-Lewis in his first screen role in years, and Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, about Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, starring Ethan Hawke, which premiered in Berlin.

    This year’s Spotlight section, “Be Kind Rewind,” explores nostalgia and the persistence of memory through films such as Videoheaven, Ross McElwee’s Remake, and Ira Sachs’s Peter Hujars Day, set in 1970s New York. The festival also honors the late David Lynch, who inaugurated Stockholm’s first edition in 1990, with screenings of Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and a conversation with Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini.

    Music figures prominently throughout the program, with new documentaries like It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley and the Swedish feature Egghead Republic, as well as Jennifer Lopez’s reinterpretation of Kiss of the Spider Woman and the Catalan drama Forastera, featuring a score by Anna von Hausswolff and Filip Leyman.

    Germany is this year’s Focus Country in Stockholm, represented by Schillinski’s Sound of Falling and Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No.3 alongside new works by Lauro Cress and Joscha Bongard.

    The documentary lineup features new films from Werner Herzog, Laura Poitras, and Raoul Peck, while the Stockholm Series program will showcase new television projects, including Isabella Eklöf’s The Death of Bunny Munroe and Justin Kurzel’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • They Finally Made The Crow for Goth Incompetents

    They Finally Made The Crow for Goth Incompetents

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    Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs star in the tragic love story between a Soundcloud scarecrow and a rebellious cheerleader.
    Photo: Lionsgate

    I can’t say for sure that the doomed lovers in the new The Crow were modeled after Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox. But once it occurred to me, the comparison became impossible to shake, because the only better way to sum up the film’s sweaty approach to contemporize its story is the fact that its villain is trying to avoid being canceled. Its hero, Eric Draven, as played by Bill Skarsgård, has the silhouette of a Soundcloud scarecrow, crowned with a Bushwick mullet and inked with tattoos — including a cursive “Lullaby” over an eyebrow — that scream “poor decision-making” as much as they do “emotional rebellion.” Meanwhile, Shelly (FKA Twigs) is pitched as a princess with a dark streak, all elf locks, slip dresses, and sheer layers, a girl who was raised in wealth and trained as a pianist but turned to partying thanks to toxic parenting. The Eric of James O’Barr’s 1989 comic was modeled after Iggy Pop and Bauhaus’s Peter Murphy. An emo-rap update feels right for a movie adamantly branded as not a remake or reboot but a reimagining of the original source material.

    The Crow isn’t untouchable — it’s spawned way too many sequels, not to mention a short-lived TV show, for that. But O’Barr’s work and Alex Proyas’s 1994 film adaptation were accompanied by real tragedies — the death of O’Barr’s fiancée in an accident involving a drunk driver and the death of star Brandon Lee in an on-set accident — that gave added ballast to their tormented depictions of a grief-stricken man rising from the grave to seek closure in violent retribution. This new Crow, messily directed by Ghost in the Shell’s Rupert Sanders, with a screenplay by Zach Baylin and William Schneider, feels so lightweight in comparison that it’s almost endearing. Its two beautiful dummies meet in rehab, where they endure the indignity of being made to wear pink sweatsuits and fall in love during group-therapy exercises. Eric imagines Shelly topless in the sketches he pins to his wall, while Shelly is irresistibly drawn to the way Eric sits by himself, declaring him “quite brilliantly broken.” Skarsgård and Twigs have a total absence of chemistry, and while she’s adequate in what’s still basically a dead-wife role, he’s shockingly inert for someone with a career built almost entirely on characters at the intersection of creepy and hottie.

    The film may insist that Eric and Shelly’s is a grand romance of soul mates, but what it actually gives us is a burnout-detention boyfriend/rebellious-cheerleader girlfriend dynamic that doesn’t feel like it would last a long weekend. Fittingly, when Eric rises from the grave after he and Shelly are murdered by henchmen on the orders of evil bigwig Vincent Roeg (Danny Huston), he proves pretty inept at undead vengeance. It’s not just that he’s not much of a fighter — that doesn’t matter when your body regenerates thanks to powers granted by a mystical crow from the afterlife. He’s also exasperatingly slow to accept what’s happened to him, he untangles the bad business Shelly was involved in only really by accident, and he doesn’t even put on a trench coat until the final act. The way that Eric fumbles his way toward retribution is right on the verge of funny — at one point, he gets run over by a truck — but The Crow can’t bring itself to display a sense of humor. Instead, it makes up for its hero’s initial bumbling by raising its gore quotient later on.

    It’s a lot to ask, following in the footsteps of a subculture mainstay. If there were any sense of intentionality behind this new Crow, I’d say it’s trying to provide representation for the Incompetent Goths out there — the IncompeGoths who get an illegible stick-and-poke on their cheekbone, who are indifferent to how goofy their single dangly earring looks, and who keep getting sent back to mystical purgatory to be lectured by a supernatural mentor that IMDb assures me has a name, Kronos (Sami Bouajila). But this film isn’t coherent enough for that. Its baddie, Vincent, is an immortal arts patron of sorts who made a deal with the devil but spends the movie trying to track down a cell-phone video he’s worried will get him in trouble. It takes place in an apparently American city where almost every resident has a different international accent. Shelly is desperately on the run from a man with enormous power, reach, and demonic connections, and the first thing she and Eric do when they escape from rehab is go back to her luxury apartment, with its chubby furniture, and get trashed together.

    Look, deep thoughts and deeply held emotions aren’t for everyone, and there’s something blissfully empty-headed about the scene in which Shelly, posing with a book at an Instagram-ready picnic with some random friends, informs Eric that she’s reading Rimbaud. If only The Crow were a little more self-aware, it could be a cult classic in its own right — though probably not the kind its makers were hoping for.


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    Alison Willmore

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  • ‘Eric LaRue’ Review: After Soaring in Succession, Skarsgard Transforms in ‘Eric LaRue’

    ‘Eric LaRue’ Review: After Soaring in Succession, Skarsgard Transforms in ‘Eric LaRue’

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    There’s a lot to be said about Eric LaRue. It’s Michael Shannon’s directorial debut. It’s a meditative adaptation of Brett Neveu’s 2002 play. And it stars Judy Greer, Alison Pill, Tracy Letts, Paul Sparks, and a just about unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgård. The latter is what the film will undoubtedly be remembered for, but let’s start from the top.

    Eric LaRue premiered on June 10th at Tribeca Film Festival. This highly anticipated drama is a fresh perspective on a timely and important topic: gun violence. The film follows two parents (Greer and Skarsgård) whose son commits a school shooting. After murdering three of his high school peers, the title character Eric LaRue is sent to prison. In the aftermath, his parents struggle to repair and adjust to life without their son and as pariahs in their cookie-cutter suburban town.

    The film poses a number of questions. Whose to “blame” when such a shocking tragedy occurs? Who takes responsibility? How does a community heal? And what is our responsibility to ourselves?

    However, while the film provokes and prods, it doesn’t build avenues toward solutions. With nebulous questions that have no right answers, a film like this leans on its characters to raise and elaborate on the issues. Although the characters are compelling and entertaining — and well rendered by the actors — they aren’t complex enough to lead us toward an honest conversation about the film’s themes.

    Within the film itself, the characters attempt to have conversations among themselves. Most of these attempts are just that, with no results. And while this is intentional, when problems are repeatedly introduced nothing moves forward — the action is inert. For the viewer, Eric LaRue feel repetitive and monotonous. A shame, considering the astonishing direction, the striking cinematography, and powerhouse performances.

    As Michael Shannon’s directorial debut, this is a triumph. The actors interact with each other seamlessly. And the establishing shots of suburbia clue the viewer into this community’s rules and the enormity of the coming transgression. It’s also a career-defining role for Judy Greer — who plays the devastated mother, Janice LaRue. Her quest for answers and healing is portrayed with a brilliant blend of melancholy, torment, and messiness.

    However, the most memorable performance is by Skarsgård. It’s always a treat to see one of your favorite actors in a role where you barely recognize them. Skarsgård achieves this with phenomenal results.

    Fresh off a scene-stealing appearance in Succession as the eccentric — and often-shoeless — tech founder, Alexander Matsson, Skarsgård chalks up yet one more title to his already stacked filmography. This film, I think, will live on largely as an example of the actor’s extensive range.

    Rather than the charming, authoritative figures he often plays, Skarsgård transforms into Ron LaRue — an awkward and aimless father. Somehow he wrangles his giant Viking frame into khakis and flannel to bumble around the house. Skarsgård balances power and heartbreak — searching for himself as much as he’s searching for answers. We view him as Janice LaRue sees him: as lacking. And Skarsgard’s complete immersion in his role truly convinces us.

    Overall, Eric LaRue is a half-realized execution of a dynamic concept. Although the pacing is slow and stilted, those moments between characters are so riveting, you can’t look away.

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    LKC

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  • The Eyes Don’t Have It: Succession’s Series Finale, “With Open Eyes,” Emphasizes That Hubris Makes You Blind

    The Eyes Don’t Have It: Succession’s Series Finale, “With Open Eyes,” Emphasizes That Hubris Makes You Blind

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    If Kendall (Jeremy Strong) hugging Roman (Kieran Culkin) toward the end of the series finale of Succession reminded viewers of anything, it’s that, when it comes to the Roys, love fucking hurts—and seems to cause far more pain than it’s worth. The last episode, “With Open Eyes,” offers an ominous title in and of itself without any backstory, but taking into account that it continues the Succession season finale tradition of using lines from John Berryman’s “Dream Song 29,” it adds yet another sinister layer. Berryman himself was haunted his whole life by his father’s suicide when the poet was just eleven. With Succession being, at its core, a show about daddy issues and what they can wreak, it seems appropriate to interweave this writer into final episode titles. And oh, what a final episode “With Open Eyes” is. And yes, it’s all about eyes in this narrative. Particularly how those with sight can be so blind (see also: King Lear).

    The emphasis on eyes begins the moment Shiv (Sarah Snook) arrives in Barbados at the urging of her mother, Caroline (Harriet Walter), to come and comfort Roman after the beating he took at the end of episode nine, “Church and State.” Naturally, Shiv is only really interested in taking the trip so she can lock down another vote and really secure the GoJo deal for Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), who has promised to make her the CEO once the merger and acquisition goes through.

    Alas, in the business realm, where misogyny reigns more supremely than anywhere else besides politics, it’s clear that Matsson actually doesn’t feel that comfortable with Shiv taking the front seat while he rides shotgun at best, and in the trunk at worst. A profile in some New Yorker-esque rag featuring a cartoon of Shiv as the puppet master pulling Matsson’s strings (even though the article is called “Is Lukas Matsson Taking Over the World?”) does little to assuage his wounded ego. After all, he’s already being forced to stand in the shadows for the sake of the deal going through with an anti-foreign business president taking the reins (or not…the finale leaves that open-ended as well). And it seems to dawn on him that it would be so much better to have someone (a man, of course) in charge that he could boss around with far more ease than he can Shiv, who easily lives up to her nickname by shiving Kendall in the back at the end of the episode. And just when it seemed like the trio was getting along so well, too. That is, back in the kitchen of Caroline’s “hellhole in paradise.” After Caroline remarked to Shiv about being unable to “tend to” Roman, “There’s something about eyes. They just kind of, ugh, revolt me.” Shiv clarifies, “Eyes? Like human eyes we all have?” “Yeah, I don’t like to think of all these blobs of jelly rolling around in your head. Just…face eggs.” To be sure, that is what they amount to when you can’t really see past the blinding nature of your own hubris.

    Something all four of the Roy children suffer from…because let’s not forget about Connor (Alan Ruck). Even if his appearance is minimal as usual, but nonetheless effective. Especially when, via a fresh home movie, he stands next to Logan (Brian Cox) and delivers a performance of “I’m a Little Teapot” “in the manner of Logan Roy.” The lyrics then, naturally, go, “I am a little teapot—fuck off! Short and stout—what did you fucking call me? Here’s my handle, here’s my fuckin’ spout. When I get steamed up, you can hear me shout—Frank Vernon is a moron, Karl Muller is a kraut!” But Karl (David Rasche) can still sing a good Scottish folk song as he regales the dinner table with his rendition of “Green Grow the Rashes, O.” The lyrical content of which hits too close to home for the Roy children as they listen to the words, “Green grow the rashes, O/The sweetest hours that e’er I spend/Are spent among the lasses, O/The war’ly race may riches chase/And riches still may fly them, O/And even though they catch ‘em fast/Their hearts can ne’er enjoy them, O.”

    What modicum of something resembling “hearts” the Roy children might have certainly don’t allow them to enjoy much, that’s for sure. Indeed, they all seem like masochists who actually relish torturing themselves, and reminding the other siblings of who they really are. For a brief moment in the episode, Shiv and Roman are compelled to make Kendall forget who he is at his core by obliging him in his long-standing, ceaseless desire to become Waystar Royco’s CEO. Upon Kendall informing Shiv that Matsson ousting her (per craftily-secured intel from Greg [Nicholas Braun]), the trio at last aligns to form a bloc that will stop the vote from going through. The only problem, as usual, is that none of them can agree on who should be CEO.

    With Kendall swimming out to a dock to let his siblings confer in the darkness of a Barbados beach, Shiv and Roman discuss whether or not they ought to finally just let Kendall have what he’s been dreaming of ever since this whole saga began. Roman asks, “Should we give it to him?” An annoyed Shiv says, “Yeah, we probably should.” Shiv pauses and then adds deviously. “Unless we kill him.” Although meant “in jest,” it’s ultimately exactly what Shiv decides to do by ousting her big bro at the last minute. And when she cuts him with that knife, he definitely bleeds, saying, “I feel like…if I don’t get to do this—I, I feel like, that’s it. I might, I might, uh, like I might die.” And there is that exact feeling as we watch him sink via the elevator back into the bowels of the cruel real world. Whether or not he tries to kill himself now, Kendall is already dead.

    Perhaps it’s all part of his karma for Andrew Dodds (Tom Morley), the waiter who ended up drowning at the end of season one as a result of Kendall’s insatiable search for drugs. When Kendall spots the waiter, just fired from Shiv’s wedding by Logan, he asks him for a “powder” connect. When Andrew tries to offer him some ketamine, which he does himself, Kendall insists he needs a “different vibe tonight”: coke. Thus, Kendall drives them through the darkened English countryside in search of Andrew’s connection. When he sees a deer in the road and swerves, Kendall crashes the car in the water, leaving a ket’d-out Andrew to die. In the present, when Shiv and Roman bring the murder up (which Kendall confessed to them in the season three finale, “All the Bells Say”), Kendall has lost all sense of guilt for the “incident,” immediately responding, “It did not happen. I wasn’t even there.” He then reiterates, “It did not happen!” Because when rich people say something didn’t happen, then it definitely didn’t. But this denial makes Shiv all the more disgusted by her brother, and therefore convinced they’re better off selling the company than letting him be the CEO. Blinded by her own jealousy, of course, she would rather watch the company burn in someone else’s hands than let Ken take his shot. And, talking once more of eyes and sight, when Roman reminds that, in terms of “bloodline,” Ken’s children aren’t “‘real’ real,” he escalates the eye jelly comment Caroline foreshadowed to the next level by pressing Roman’s eyeballs in (already having mushed Roman’s face into his shoulder in that previous scene of “aggressive love”).

    This gives Shiv her opportunity to go back into the meeting and cast her vote in favor of the GoJo deal despite being betrayed by Matsson. And despite the fact that the CEO position will go to, of all people, Tom fucking Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen). The one person who should have been axed ages ago both personally and professionally, but managed to shapeshift his way to the top. Indeed, it’s his “mutability” that makes him so appealing to Matsson, whose opinion of this non-person is obviously cinched when Shiv describes him as “very plausible corporate matter” and “a highly interchangeable modular part.” In other words, exactly what Matsson is looking for in his own puppet. And, being that Tom sells himself by noting of his current position, “I’m cutting heads and harvesting eyeballs,” Matsson can tell he’s got the chops to give the chop to whoever he says, whenever he says. Of course, Tom’s mention of harvesting eyeballs is yet another nod to the notion of sight and vision—or rather, lack thereof—in this episode, and in Logan’s progeny.

    Kendall obviously had no foresight about Shiv’s sudden treachery, prompting him to continue to stand in disbelief in the office where the emotional and physical altercation transpired. Roman finally lays the truth out for him: “It’s fuck-all, man. It’s bits of glue and broken shows, fuckin’ phony news, fucking come on.” Unable to see that reality, Kendall keeps urging, “We have this, we can still do this.” Himself seeing clearly for the first time, Roman balks, “Oh my god, man, it’s nothing. Okay? It’s just nothing. It’s fucking nothing. Stop it!” Kendall, who has placed his entire identity into this role of “successor” cannot believe what Roman is saying, repeating “no” over and over again until Roman interjects, “Yeah. Hey, we are bullshit… You are bullshit. You’re fucking bullshit, man. I’m fucking bullshit. She’s bullshit. It’s all fucking nothing, man. I’m telling you this because I know it, okay? We’re nothing. Okay.”

    And so it is that Roman is the one to finally admit that what Logan said at the beginning of season four was accurate, even if harsh: “You’re such fucking dopes. You’re not serious figures. I love you, but…you are not…serious people.” Only ornaments and pawns in the life of Logan, the quintessential King Lear figure of this narrative. And yet, a Cordelia never seems to manifest in any of his children. It’s nothing but Regans and Gonerils where the obsession with “winning at inheritance” is concerned.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Lukas Matsson Has His Lexi Featherston Moment

    Lukas Matsson Has His Lexi Featherston Moment

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    There must be something about being inside a rich person’s apartment overlooking the New York skyline that makes a party guest have a rather overt epiphany: New York kinda sucks. More to the point, it’s not actually that special. Naturally, those loyalists who are obsessed with NYC and defending its “honor” no matter how much it devolves into a moated island for the uber-affluent or the uber-deranged (usually those two qualities go hand in hand) will say that the likes of Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) and Lexi Featherston (Kristen Johnston) are merely “haters” because they’re not being treated like the “relevant” beings they see themselves as. Of course, Matsson is endlessly relevant (“fudged” GoJo numbers or not). As far as anyone (apart from the Roys) is concerned, he’s a rich white man doin’ big thangs—and should be treated as such.

    Nonetheless, Lukas is feeling generally bored and resentful from the outset of showing up to Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom’s (Matthew Macfadyen) triplex in Lower Manhattan, where they’re hosting an election kickoff “tailgate party” (hence, the name of the episode being just that). It’s Shiv, playing the double agent throughout the ongoing and much talked about “deal” (one in which GoJo will absorb Waystar Royco), who urges Lukas to show up. Because not only will it throw a wrench into Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman’s (Kieran Culkin) plans to talk shit about him and GoJo, but it will also give Lukas a window of opportunity to shine bright like a diamond in front of the “most powerful people in America.” To Lukas’ surprise, it really is that easy to make an impact. More specifically, as he notes to Shiv in the coat room, “You know, I thought these people would be very complicated, but it’s…they’re not. It’s basically just, like, money and gossip” (ergo, Gossip Girl remaining the pinnacle of rich people life). And maybe that’s part of when the disenchantment with New York starts to sink in for Lukas. Sure, he’s been there many times and witnessed “the scene,” but never until this moment did it seem so clear to him how utterly lacking the innerworkings behind the veneer are. Like Dorothy and co. witnessing the Wizard of Oz being operated by nothing more than a little man behind a curtain, Lukas sees something far more disillusioning in these “movers and shakers.”

    Shiv confirms, “Oh yeah, no. That’s all it is.” Money and gossip. Synonyms for wheeling and dealing as a “key player” in New York. And being a key player, of course, automatically means you have to be rich. As the phrase that triggers so many people goes, “You have to pay to play.” No money, no skin in the game. And it is, as most are aware by now, a very rigged one. Matsson has been all too happy to be part of that ruse, particularly since he’s been putting one on himself in order to come across as “big enough” to buy out Waystar. Perhaps he was hoping that New York, for all its prestige and having a “solid reputation” as an epicenter of finance and “glamor,” would have more to it going on behind the scenes than merely more of the same.

    Kendall, committed as much to New York being the “end all, be all” as he is to his father’s company embodying that as well, insists that there is. And that Lukas is the inferior impostor who can’t hack it. In short, he’s no Anna Delvey when it comes to navigating New York as an impostor (as Kendall remarks to Shiv, “I fuckin’ knew he was a bullshitter. I’m tellin’ you…new money. You gotta hold those fresh bills to the light”). And yet, he actually does seem to know how to navigate. For he’s comfortable and confident enough in his own skin to “dare” to speak ill of the “greatest city in the world.” And amongst the “most powerful” people who run it, therefore all of America. Thus, we’re met with Lukas Matsson’s “Lexi Featherston moment” around forty-eight minutes into the episode. When he’s finally had enough of this blasé, bullshit party and wants to stir things up by asking, “So who’s, uh, who’s going out tonight in this shitty fucking town? Anyone? I gotta say, it’s pretty depressing from up here. You can really see how Second World it is.”

    For those who don’t remember Lexi’s own anti-New York monologue from season six of Sex and the City, it bubbled to the surface after being at her wit’s end with the banality of everyone and everything at the so-called party. Thus, Lexi snaps after being told she can’t smoke inside near the window, “Fuckin’ geriatrics… When did everybody stop smoking? When did everybody pair off? This used to be the most exciting city in the world and now it’s nothing but smoking near a fuckin’ open window. New York is over. O-V-E-R. Over. No one’s fun anymore! What ever happened to fun? God, I’m so bored I could die.” And then she does, tripping over her own stiletto heel and falling out the window. Previously, when Carrie encounters her in the bathroom doing coke and tells Lexi she only came in to get away from the party, Lexi replies knowingly, “Oh Euro-intellectuals. I don’t know why I pulled strings to get an invite to this piece of shit party.” Funnily enough, Lexi would probably view Lukas as one of the “Euro-intellectuals” she finds so dull merely because he happens to be from Europe. But at least his “right-hand man,” Oskar Gudjohnsen (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), is “moon-beamed on edibles” according to Lukas. Which makes things slightly more amusing for him (like having a court jester or something) as he “mingles” among the “glitterati” of the political and business worlds.

    Even so, just as Lexi did, Lukas finds himself utterly unimpressed by the goings-on at this “event.” Which, to him, feels like a sad attempt on these people’s part at pretending they’re living it up in some “fabulous” town with a lifestyle that couldn’t possibly be had anywhere else. Yet if it’s so fabulous, why does it bum him out so much as he stares out the window? Just as Lexi sort of did as she lit her cigarette and then turned her back to the city to give the “revelers” a harrowing recap on the state of affairs in NYC. A merciless “summing up” tailored to those who are still delusional about its “untouchable clout.”

    Kendall being one such person as he replies to Lukas calling it a shitty town with, “I don’t know, [it’s a] pretty happening town, famously.” “Really? Is it though?” “Yeah.” Lukas reminds Kendall of his quaint American perspective by saying, “Compared to Singapore, Seoul…it’s like Legoland.” Kendall insists, “You know we still run shit though?” Lukas ripostes, “Hmm, like as in…only in New York?” Kendall confirms, “Yeah.” Lukas titters, “Right. Okay. Well, uh, nothing happens in New York that doesn’t happen everywhere.” A fairly obvious statement, but one that actually needs to be said to those living in the self-deceiving bubble of “nothing else being like New York.”

    Starting to get offended as every NYC diehard does when a nerve is touched about “their” city, Kendall demeans in return to that comment, “You should get that written on a cup. Right? Shouldn’t he get that written on a cup? Like that would look so cool. You could sell that in a head shop in Rotterdam. Could be a good business for you.” Unfortunately, there’s still not much business in trying to “pull back the curtain” on New York blowing chunks, as it were. And even those who are “aware” of it still claim there’s nowhere else they’d rather be (especially if their choice is limited to staying in the U.S.).

    Including Carrie Bradshaw, as she claims to her “partner,” Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov), “I have a life here.” This being in response to his desire for them to move to Paris together. He answers, “Yes, but what do you want to come home to? What do you want your life to be?” These questions inferring that her continuing in the same way as she always has for the sake of “being loyal” to New York will only lead her down a path of despair and loneliness (something And Just Like That… ultimately confirms). And it’s for this reason that Lexi’s timing to appear as a cautionary tale plummeting to her death prompts Carrie to take her own plunge—by leaving New York. Even if New York is her “boyfriend,” as she called it in the first episode of season five, “Anchors Away,” wherein she tells us in a voiceover that she “can’t have nobody talking shit about [her] boyfriend” (this after a sailor named Louis [Daniel Sunjata] does exactly that). Unfortunately for Carrie and those committed to New York like a mental institution, this is what both Lexi and Lukas “deign” to do in their honest assessment of a city that “never sleeps.” Which is perhaps part of why it has the propensity to always disappoint.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Kieran Culkin On Reuniting With Alexander Skarsgård On ‘Succession’

    Kieran Culkin On Reuniting With Alexander Skarsgård On ‘Succession’

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    By Stacy Lambe‍ , ETOnline.com.
    Published:
    Last updated:

    During “Succession” season 4, episode five, “Kill List,” written by Jon Brown and Ted Cohen and directed by Andrij Parekh, the Roy siblings — Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv (Sarah Snook) — are summoned to Norway for a team-building retreat by GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård).

    However, Waystar Royco’s old guard of executives, including Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron), grows increasingly concerned over the trip’s true purpose. And after Matsson makes a play for ATN, the family is forced to reconsider their plans for Logan’s (Brian Cox) crown jewel, the only thing their late father tried to keep for his own.

    While “Succession” continues to drive toward the series’ ultimate conclusion, especially after Logan’s untimely death and how his successors handle the conglomerate’s overall future, the episode marked a welcome opportunity to see Roman and Lukas get to reconnect under very different circumstances.

    Alexander Skarsgård
    — Photo: Nina Westervelt/Variety via Getty Images

    It’s also something that was a delight for Culkin, who opens up to ET about getting to work with Skarsgård again. “Alexander’s pretty freaking excellent,” Culkin says of the actor who first guest-starred in season 3 before being added full time in the series’ final episodes. “The moment he showed up, it was like, ‘Oh, he’s been on the show forever.’”

    Culkin, who was “really pleased” about Skarsgård’s return, adds that ever since the two first filmed together, “I thought he and I had great rapport.”

    And that chemistry continues into season 4 as the Roy siblings (and the company’s many executives) were forced to head overseas to Norway to hash out the final details in an increasingly fragile deal between GoJo and Waystar Royco.

    In one particular emotional moment with Roman and Lukas at the top of a mountain, Culkin recalls that he and Skarsgård “ended up getting really close to each other’s heads, which wasn’t always in [the script].” During that scene, Roman finally comes to terms with his feelings over the death of his father and what he wants out of the business moving forward.

    It was also a full-circle moment for the two characters (and actors) who first connected during Kendall’s birthday party in season 3.

    “The second scene we ever shot was just us sitting across from each other at ‘Too Much Birthday’ thing and it was just a chat,” Culkin recalls, explaining that because Roman knew what he wanted from Lukas, and Lukas knew what his position was, “it was less of a scene and more just like, ‘I was gonna talk to him.’”

    “He said something about his daughter and I said, ‘Oh, you have a daughter? I didn’t know that.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, me neither.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great. What’s her name?’ And he goes, ‘F**k if I know.’ And then we laughed and then started talking more about business and started talking about family,” Culkin says of them getting to play with each other and going off script in the scene until they “brought it back to the dialogue” that was written.

    He adds, “It was just easy. There was no skip or flub or anything… So, it’s great working with him.”

    As for Skarsgård, he shared that it “was a real treat” getting to work with the cast of Succession again. “Especially coming onto the show after two and a half years… I was really grateful because they’re really sweet themselves. They’re welcoming and hospitable and invited me, and [they were] so generous with their time and energy,” he said.

    He added, “It made my job very easy.”

    As for his take on Lukas, Skarsgård said that his character is driven by competition, even if there are billions of dollars at stake. “I don’t think he’s driven by greed or the need to accumulate more wealth,” the actor offered. “He’s very competitive — just like a game, any other game. It happened to be about a multibillion-dollar company acquisition. But for him, it’s like any other game.”

    And it’s clear in this latest episode, that it was a game that Lukas had “a lot of fun [getting] to play.”

    Despite the opportunity to film on location, Culkin says it was surprisingly difficult at times, especially considering how short the turnaround time was before they wrapped filming on the series.

    “For me, going to Norway, it was hard because you go somewhere to work — and I was there for 11 days and shot for 10 of the days or something and we moved around towns and I think I checked out of eight hotel rooms — and there was something about being somewhere that was so beautiful and not being able to appreciate it,” he says. “That was actually rather hard.”

    Despite that, Culkin did get a chance in between takes during that emotional scene with Skarsgård to go back up to the top of the mountain. “I was told, ‘You have half an hour to set up for the next thing.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to do with myself.’ And I went, ‘Wait, I’m gonna go back to the top of the mountain and look,’” the actor recalls.

    “I went up there and it was f**king beautiful,” Culkin says of getting to appreciate the real-life moment after “the intensity” of filming that scene. “I got, like, 20 minutes to sit and rock and look [out]. It was kind of beautiful.”

    “Succession” season 4 airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.

    MORE FROM ET:

    ‘Succession’ Season 4: The Cast Reacts to That Shocking Death During Connor’s Wedding (Exclusive)

    ‘Succession’ Season 4: Zoe Winters on Kerry’s Relationship With Logan and Her ATN Audition (Exclusive)

    ‘Succession’ Cast Reveals What’s Most at Stake Following the Season 4 Premiere (Exclusive)

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    Sarah Curran

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  • Cameron Frye and Connor Roy: “My Old Man Pushes Me Around” No More!

    Cameron Frye and Connor Roy: “My Old Man Pushes Me Around” No More!

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    Just as it is for the Roy family at large, for many viewers of Succession, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck) is pure background. It hasn’t really been until season four that he’s been permitted his moment to shine. To “take a stand,” as Ruck’s most famous character, Cameron Frye, would say. And it starts with episode two, “Rehearsal,” in which he displays the full extent of his vulnerability during a karaoke session. Not just because he opts to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” but because, just as he did in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as Cameron, he decides to take a stand and defend it. And yes, singing Leonard Cohen at karaoke (even if only in a room as opposed to a more public stage) definitely counts among the ranks of taking a stand and defending it (regardless of Roman [Kieran Culkin] jibing, “This is Guantanamo-level shit”).

    It’s no coincidence that he should choose that particular song, either. Not with Cohen singing, “I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert/You’re living for nothing now, I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.” Lest one needs to be reminded, the early seasons of Succession find Connor living alone in the desert of New Mexico in his palatial palace. A cold place in a hot climate, where he still can’t seem to finagle something akin to love. Not even from his “girlfriend,” Willa (Justine Lupe), a call girl he pays to keep around. Eventually paying enough to make her want to be his full-time girlfriend. But back to the lyrics of “Famous Blue Raincoat,” also fitting for Connor’s sibling situation with the Cain and Abel allusion in the line, “And what can I tell you my brother, my killer?”

    Both Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman have no need of killing their half-bro, however—for he’s so irrelevant to their patriarch, Logan Roy (Brian Cox), that wasting any energy on him would be wasting much-needed focus on “securing the position.” CEO of Waystar-Royco. Something that was never going to belong to “hapless” Connor, who spent three years of his childhood without seeing his father at all. “Attachment” isn’t exactly a thing between him and Logan, nor is it between Cameron and Morris, who never appears once in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—merely looms large as a source of fear. Especially after Ferris (Matthew Broderick) gets Cam (“Con” also has a shortened version of his name) to take his dad’s Ferrari out for the day.

    Not one to be disagreeable, Cameron ultimately concedes to loaning out the car after several half-hearted attempts at protesting. Lying in bed genuinely sick (even if only in the head) as opposed to Ferris’ fake-out version of sickness, it’s clear Cam’s family doesn’t need to be played to in order for him to get out of school. They’re never around anyway. Least of all his father, off being the “provider” of the family, therefore excused from anything like involvement. Yes, it sounds a lot like Logan Roy. And Cameron, like Con, leads a privileged existence with the trade-off of never experiencing any emotional attachment or care whatsoever. With regard to “Con,” there’s one in every family, to be sure. Someone who never gets quite the same amount of attention or consideration. Whether because their personality is more demure or they don’t seem “special” enough to warrant as much care. Connor falls into both categories, with Shiv (Sarah Snook) in the Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) role and Kendall and Roman trading off on being the overly arrogant Ferris Bueller (Roman obviously being more Ferris-y than Ken). A scene of Cameron stuffed in the back of the Ferrari that Ferris and Sloane are effectively using him for speaks volumes vis-à-vis this dynamic. The only time anyone bothers with Con is when they need him for something…so basically they never much bother with him.

    Sure, he’s there for “ceremonious” events like birthdays and family vacations, but, by and large, he’s out of the fold. Until season four rolls around and, suddenly, the “Rebel Alliance” that is Shiv, Kendall and Roman ends up prompting Con to say, “This is how it is, huh? The battle royale? Me and dad on one side, you guys on the other.” This after Willa has walked out on their wedding rehearsal dinner, leaving Con with no one to “turn to” for “comfort” but his so-called family. The trio of his siblings (all of whom show up late because Logan cut off their helicopter access) amounts to one giant Ferris Bueller, the narcissist in the dynamic constantly taking up space and demanding more from the Cameron/Connor of the outfit. Meanwhile, all Connor is asking for is a round of karaoke at Maru, one of many overpriced options within the parameters of Koreatown’s 32nd Street.

    Upon arriving to said location (under duress for most of them), Connor is quick to admit that he told Logan where they are, and he’s coming over to “talk things out”—presumably the deal that Shiv, Kendall and Roman want to fuck by asking for more money of Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) in exchange for merging his streaming company, GoJo, with Waystar. In defense of himself, Connor replies to the sibling backlash, “My life isn’t filled with secrets like some people. And I want my father to be at my wedding.”

    To everyone’s surprise, though, Logan wants to make an “apology.” Or the closest he can get to one. But with all the hemming and hawing, Kendall is quick to redirect his father’s messaging by demanding, “What are you sorry for, Dad? Fucking ignoring Connor his whole life?” He later adds, “Having Connor’s mother locked up?” This being why Connor refers to the cake at his wedding as “loony cake.” A type of dessert he apparently associates with Victoria sponge cake and doesn’t care for at all because it was what was fed to him for a week after his mother was institutionalized. So yeah, even Kendall can take a moment here and there to stand up for his older brother and acknowledge that Con might have had a more emotionally bankrupt childhood than all of them.

    In that regard, his bid for normalcy is earnest when he declares to his brothers and sister, “I would like to sing one fucking song at karaoke because I’ve seen it in the movies and nobody ever wants to go.” Perhaps he saw it in a certain form in the movie that he co-starred in with Broderick, as the latter plays the titular character lip-syncing to Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen” and The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” on a parade float in the middle of Chicago. Something Cameron nor Connor would ever do. Possibly because attention-seeking is a type of love-seeking. And that’s never been either character’s “game.” Though both slowly start to realize that maybe it should be. Even as Connor notes something as heart-wrenching to his siblings as, “The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it… You’re all chasin’ after Dad saying, ‘Oh love me, please love me. I need love, I need attention.’ You’re needy love sponges, and I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside of me. If Willa doesn’t come back, that’s fine. ‘Cause I don’t need love. It’s like a superpower.”

    Cameron Frye knows that’s not entirely true. It’s also a curse that causes severe anxiety and depression, finally pushing him toward the revelation, “I’m bullshit. I put up with everything. My old man pushes me around…I never say anything! Well he’s not the problem, I’m the problem [cue a lawsuit against Taylor Swift]. I gotta take a stand. I gotta take a stand against him. I am not gonna sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m gonna take a stand. I’m gonna defend it. Right or wrong, I’m gonna defend it.” Something Connor must decide to do in “Connor’s Wedding,” easily the most landmark episode of Succession ever aired. And yet, as usual, just because his name is in the title doesn’t mean he gets the theoretical spotlight. No, this is all about his father. Just as it always is. The same geos for Cameron and Morris, inciting the former to finally lose it and kick the shit out of the Ferrari as he screams, “I’m so sick of his shit. I can’t stand him and I hate this goddamn car! Who do ya love? Who do ya love? You love a car!”

    To this, Logan Roy might placate, “I love you…but you are not serious people.” These are his final sentiments directed at his children. Though no one is aware of it until the next day, when Logan’s heart fails (ironically appropriate) while on a private jet to negotiate the deal again with Matsson…thanks to his own kids painting him in a corner to do so. It was the previous night at karaoke that Logan understood the scope of his disgust with them. For here he is, the affluent, distant father figure (like Cameron’s) being unclear what more his children could “take” or want from him after everything he’s already given. Back out on the street with his latest “right-hand woman,” Kerry (Zoe Winters), he clocks a homeless man digging through the trash and seethes, “Look at this prick. They should get out here. Some cunt doing the tin cans for his supper, take a sip of that medicine. This city…the rats are as fat as skunks. They hardly care to run anymore.” Obviously taking a swipe at his lazy, greedy children. Except for Con, who really just wants it all to be over. Unfortunately, it’s only just getting started now that Logan is dead. And as usual, Con is the last to know about it, gently informed by Kendall only to instantly reply, “Oh man, he never even liked me,” trying to smooth that statement over with, “I never got the chance to make him proud of me.”

    Of course, that was never going to happen. Because there is no “pleasing” a man like Logan or Morris. And Connor always getting the short end of the stick from his father reaches a poetic peak with him dying on Connor’s wedding day, casting a dark, attention-stealing pall over the event. All Con can finally assess about it to Willa is: “My father’s dead and I feel old.” Cameron probably would have said the same thing. And he, too, probably would have soon after carried out his intended plans for the day. After all, he’s not one to let his old man push him around anymore, especially not now that he’s dead. He’s going to take a stand (for “love”) and defend it. Right or wrong.

    That’s why, in the end, he goes through with the wedding, not bothering to join his three half-siblings as they go to deal with their father’s body and make a statement to the press. In this sense, Connor has always been the freest, learning long ago not to bother chasing down the love of a patriarch who was incapable of it. Perhaps learning that from the person he was in another life: Cameron Frye. Meanwhile, Connor’s siblings will continue to volley for Logan’s invisible favor in not-so-subtle ways even after he’s gone.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Alexander Skarsgård is a new dad | CNN

    Alexander Skarsgård is a new dad | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård is on daddy duty.

    The “Big Little Lies” actor revealed the news to Entertainment Tonight Monday at the Season 4 premiere of HBO’s “Succession.”

    His girlfriend Tuva Novotny, who gave birth to their baby, was not at the event. It’s Skarsgård’s first child and Novotny’s second. Novotny, who shares a daughter with a former partner, showed off her baby bump in April at the Swedish Elle Awards.

    In 2018, the actor told The London Times that he would like to approach having a family thoughtfully.

    “I’m not going to … say, ‘Oh, you’re all right — let’s make a family,’” he said at the time. “I’m more romantic than that. I have friends who’ve done that, and they’re not happy, and then they go through horrible divorces.”

    In 2017, Skarsgård said he admired his father, actor Stellan Skarsgård, who had eight kids of his own.

    “Succession” will premiere its final season this Sunday. Skarsgård plays tech CEO Lukas Matsson, as the sale of Logan Roy’s media conglomerate Waystar Royco moves closer to a reality. (HBO and CNN are both part of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

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  • If You Can Afford It, The Punishment Doesn’t Have to Fit the Crime: Infinity Pool

    If You Can Afford It, The Punishment Doesn’t Have to Fit the Crime: Infinity Pool

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    “Let’s get away,” he said. “Find some inspiration,” he said. A few days in Li Tolqa (a fictional town that serves as Anywhere, Vacationland) cures James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) of such notions. Staying at a posh resort with his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), the contention between the couple is tangible from the outset of Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, with the audience seeing nothing but the pitch-blackness of their room as Em asks James, “Why are we here? It isn’t helping. You’re so frozen these days. I can’t even tell if you’re sleeping or awake.” The only answer James might be able to vaguely provide is that he’s looking to cure “writer’s block” (but really, just being a bad writer) with a change of scenery. Instead, they gloss over the tiff and go down to eat breakfast, whereupon Em half-heartedly hopes they might be able to catch the omelet chef.

    A wide shot of James in an empty dining area sets the tone for the overall ominousness of the resort, with Cronenberg’s ensuing tilted shots of the resort’s amenities circling around slowly (as though mimicking the motion of water going down a drain) as we see scenes of the beach, the tennis court and, of course, the infinity pool. An image that will be returned to again and again throughout the film. Cronenberg (determined to top his father, David, in the genre of “weird shit”) then cuts to one of the resort’s employees, Ketch (Ádám Boncz), wearing an eerie, disarming mask (called an “ekki” mask, and, naturally, available for sale at the gift shop) while he explains how it’s about to be the monsoon season in Li Tolqa and that, “This period before the storm is known as ‘Umbramaq,’ or ‘The Summoning.’” Apropos, of course, considering that, in coming to Li Tolqa, James has unwittingly summoned the likes of Gabi Bauer (Mia Goth), an actress on vacation with her husband, Alban (Jalil Lespert). James encounters her within seven minutes of the film’s opening, as a local on a motorbike tears through the resort’s beach, causing fear and panic among the privileged vacationers.

    When James asks (in the robotic manner his wife can’t stand) to no one in particular, “What’s going on?,” Gabi, watching the scene unfold calmly, replies, “Someone’s making a statement.” James looks over at her and says, “What do you think he’s trying to say?” Taking lascivious liberties (as we’re soon about to see her do in a big way), Gabi gets closer to him to put her finger at the center of his neck and remark, “He’s saying he’d like to put a long knife right through here. And after you die, he’ll hang your body at the airport to scare off the other tourists.” Titillated by her as it is, Gabi seals the seduction by mentioning that she loved his book, called The Variable Sheath, of all things. And yes, James’ “sheath” is about to become very variable. He just doesn’t know it yet…still lulled into a false sense of security by Alban and Gabi’s seeming harmlessness as the latter invites James and Em out to dinner at the Chinese restaurant in town that James had previously told Em he didn’t want to go to.

    At dinner, James and Em learn that Alban is a retired architect, while Gabi is an actress with a specialized niche in “failing naturally.” A.k.a. the type of actor one would expect to find in an infomercial about a product that can make the viewer’s life so much easier. As they get around to inquiring about what James does to pay the bills when he’s not writing, Em chimes in, “He married rich.” “Well, it’s good for an artist to have a patron, isn’t it?” Alban adds. Em quips, “Oh sure, I’m in danger of becoming a charitable organization at this point.” The tension, of course, is palpable—even if Em and James try to laugh the comment off as a joke. And then there’s the sexual tension between Gabi and James, mounting when the quartet goes out dancing at the nightclub afterward. Intoxicated by the sense of excitement Gabi brings (as well as the claim that she’s read his book), James talks Em into going on a picnic with her and Alban the next day, despite Em’s misgivings about leaving the resort. What with the guests being told that they’ll probably be mugged, raped, killed or all three at once if they leave the confines of the property. But James is determined to “go along for the ride” with the Bauers. Which seems like the right choice when Gabi effectively sexually assaults James with an unexpected hand job right as he finishes pissing in a secluded area. As men like to say of women though, he definitely enjoyed it. And he might have coasted on that “good time” feel for the rest of the night were it not for the quartet pulling an I Know What You Did Last Summer after James runs over a man crossing the road and Gabi then insists they leave the body there without calling the police.

    But even despite the man being a “nobody,” it doesn’t take long for the police to arrest James and Em after a guard at the resort gives up the information (compensated accordingly to do so) that they were locked off the property the previous night around the time the crime in question occurred. At the police station, Em easily confesses to what James did, and soon the officer in charge of delivering James’ punishment is telling him about the Revised Process of Doubles Act of International Visitors and Diplomats. In other words, to avoid the country’s usual penalty of death for such a crime, “For a significant sum, the state will build a double to stand in for your execution.” Stunned and practically speechless, James nonetheless finds himself signing the paper that will allow it all to happen, extracting the large sum of cash to pay off the authorities to do the job.

    When the execution they’re forced to watch is over, Em tries to pack their shit up faster than an ostrich can run so that they might get the fuck out of dodge. But something in James’ eyes indicates he has other plans in mind, coming up with the ruse of not being able to find his passport so he can stay. Clearly, he’s gotten off on the sight of watching himself being killed. But more than that, James finally seems to understand how real the statement “getting away with murder” is when you exist on the right privileged perch to do so. As Em reels in disgust over James’ blasé attitude about what just happened, he makes an excuse to go to the front desk, where he encounters Gabi again. She explains to him that she and Alban have been through the “process” as well, and that there’s really something quite exhilarating about it, isn’t there? In fact, that’s why they keep coming back to Li Tolqa every year.

    As James tends to agree, Gabi introduces him to a whole crew of rich folk who get off on the ability to commit crimes on their vacation with no fear of recompense. Well, apart from the literal payment required to get out of what would be the punishment for the “ordinaries.” As the group proceeds to tell James that pretty much everything is illegal in Li Tolqa, and that it’s a wonder anyone has remained alive at all in this country, one can see the faint joy in his eyes over having joined up with such an “elite” cabal. Especially with members that can so effortlessly compartmentalize between what happens “on vacation” and “in real life” (a chasm the audience will note in how casually Gabi is able to say her distancing goodbye to James at the end, as though nothing fucked-up happened at all).

    As for the vagueness of place that Li Tolqa and its extremely conservative laws represent, it allows for the milieu to double as so many potential countries. While most of the film was shot in Šibenik, Croatia, it feels intended to be “one of those” Asian or Latin American countries where lawlessness and abject poverty join forces to become any American tourist’s worst nightmare once they’re “off the property.” But initially, James sees this unexpected doubling process as a sweet fantasy. With Gabi opening his eyes to all the possibilities of being a depraved libertine. The inevitable problem with that arrives when he sees one fucked-up sight that he can’t unsee, and now, suddenly, he decides to dig up the passport he feigned losing so that Em would ultimately leave him on his own at the resort while he pretended to “sort it out.” But even for James now, the vacation has been tainted and is decidedly over.

    Unfortunately, he didn’t realize he needed Gabi and co.’s permission to leave as they show up in hot pursuit of his bus on the way to the airport. In a more sinister version of what goes on during the side-by-side cars driving scene of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Gabi waves a gun at James and taunts him to get out of the bus and stop acting like the coward he is. More depravity ensues. Except, this time, James is far less of a willing participant, as though his eyes have been opened to how foul it all is. These people. Their “predilections.” But perhaps more foul still is the fact that he can’t deny he’s one of them.

    More than just a commentary on how money can buy your way out of consequences, it’s a statement on the Western tourist (primarily the American kind) who thinks that all the world is their playground, and that another country’s laws and customs don’t (and shouldn’t) apply to them. The rude awakening that comes when such a “theory” doesn’t pan out then tends to result in international news (e.g., the stabbing of Mario Cerciello Rega), followed by the guilty party selling the rights to the movie or TV show.

    Cronenberg takes the idea of the rich and/or the American assuming themselves to be above and better than everything (à la The White Lotus) and puts an even more macabre spin on how thrilling it can be for the rich to be able to commit gruesome crimes with no worry of consequence. And yet, that’s what happens all the time with or without the use of a clone to accept the punishment. All one really needs in “non-sci-fi” life is the best lawyers money can buy.

    It is often said that the first iteration of an infinity pool was the Stag Fountain at the Palace of Versailles. How fitting considering the French’s notoriety for revolting against the ruling class that oppressed them (which they haven’t done with half as much conviction since the French Revolution that eventually rendered the Palace of Versailles into a tourist attraction). Thus, it’s only right that Cronenberg keeps going back to the infinity pool shot, returning to it once more at the close of the film. And it makes sense to title the movie as such and wield it so strongly as a symbol beyond the concept of James’ new “infinity” of doubles. After all, infinity pools are most frequently attributed to the type of luxury resorts that only the affluent (or middle-class in debt) can afford. That it represents an illusion buttressed by hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into its design also feels like a pointed dig at the rich themselves.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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