Antiviral

Synopsis: Syd (Caleb Landry Jones) works for The Lucas Clinic, a place where people go to be infected with the diseases of famous people; people like Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon). When he draws some of her blood for the clinic he infects himself hoping to smuggle the virus onto the black market. But then Hannah dies and Syd’s disease is suddenly the hottest property around even as it’s killing him.

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a really good Cronenbergian Cronenberg film. As the weirdness of modern times seemed to overtake the bizarre body horror that was his signature, David Cronenberg moved on to make exceptional gangster films and odd meditations on capitalism. His son Brandon evidently felt that the family name was being neglected because Antiviral is a brilliantly Cronenbergian film. Weird, smart and meticulous, its existence is something to be celebrated. It’s been too long since a science fiction film bothered to actually explore its ideas in any kind of depth and that’s what we get here, in a surreal journey into blackmarket virus cloning, corporate espionage and mass market misdirection.

Antiviral presents a world where celebrity culture and its attendant obsessions have been taken to their ultimate extremes. Much like the old studio system, clinics have exclusive contracts with stars to carry copies of their diseases. Do you want to feel closer to Hannah Geist, feel like she kissed you maybe? Then let us infect you with some of her herpes around your lip. The diseases are manipulated so they can’t be transmitted, but this isn’t about public safety, it’s about commercial interests. Copy protection prevents people infecting themselves with their favourite stars for free.

The film is rich in subtext if you want to spend the time deconstructing all the possible interpretations. As a commentary on celebrity and obsession, it’s pointedly creepy. But where some filmmakers would take that idea and rest on their laurels, Brandon Cronenberg digs deeper. As the story progresses, we see the legal frameworks that allow this to function, the technology and the corporations who profit from it, the black market which continually try to bypass the countermeasures against it. It’s a beautifully thought out framework that’s been built to support the core idea that we consume celebrity. And the final explanation for the disease that killed Hannah and threatens Syd elegantly illustrates the horrific world that has been created.

There is a lack of original science fiction out there. So much is derivative or exists as outright quotation of what has come before. This is something different. While obviously owing a debt to his father’s oeuvre, Antiviral is something new and fresh.  It’s a brilliant piece of cinema and I hope we get to see more fantastic visions from Cronenberg fils We need weirdness like this to keep things interesting.

 

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