Two years after the devilishly effective ownerBrandon Cronenberg returns overflow, a new film that’s more twisted than its predecessor. If it proves less than convincing, it still allows the filmmaker to honor his family legacy.
Although it has been several years since the publication of his first novel, author James Foster still suffers from blank page syndrome. While he tries to find inspiration through a stay in a paradise hotel complex, his journey instead becomes a nightmare when a faux pas – or rather an accidental crime – committed outside the walls of the establishment and land him in prison.
There he will discover a part of the local justice system that is as terrifying as it is unknown. Since he is sentenced to execution, an enticing – and disturbing – alternative! – offers himself to him: to perform a cloning and to send his doppelganger in his place to be punished.
Fascinating premise
The premise, we’ll admit, had us glued to our armchair in just a few minutes. Like his father, David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg is particularly adept at juxtaposing beauty and horror, the flawless and the perverse. Result: a perfectly fear-inducing climate in which fear is omnipresent.
But when the plot of Débordement finds itself at a crossroads, the film unfortunately takes the least interesting of the tracks available to it.
Then follows a violent and grotesque escape that multiplies the excesses of violence and bodily fluids liberally poured onto our screens. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing with this kind of movie. But here we sense an amazing – and disappointing – emptiness in Cronenberg’s words.
Luckily, his interpreters save the day until the credits arrive. Alexander Skarsgård is absolutely flawless, willing to go to the end of his life to embody the most total confusion. Special mention also goes to a divinely insane Mia Goth. The British actress, whose star is still rising in the Hollywood sky, proves once again that she is one of the brightest of her generation.
- overflow ★★★☆☆
A film by Brandon Cronenberg
Starring Alexander Skarsgard, Mia Goth and Cleopatra Coleman.