Divinity

It struggles to be an artsy presentation but fails. Bakula's performance is good. That is the only good point, and the only reason I give 4 stars. I do not give points for effort when the production directing efforts seem to be more about how to make it as cheaply as possible while pretending it is an artsy film. The black and white is extremely poor quality throughout the entire film, grainy and unwatchable, as if that is supposed to make me appreciate this more. Put it in color and teach the actors how to deliver lines, I'd give it a better score. But, they obviously wanted it presented this way, and thought people would love it. The actors (other than Bakula) each move and speak as if they were born without emotioin, live without emotion, and die without emotion. WAKE UP. If people were really like this - they wouldn't CARE about living forever.

If you wish you lived in a parallel universe where in the early 1990s, Paul Verhoeven had smoked a lot of weed, then made a low-budget black and white mashup of Eraserhead, Crimes of the Future (1970), and How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Divinity will likely be your dream made flesh. Lumpy, misshapen flesh, covered in grotesque goo.

If even one of those elements gives you mixed or negative feelings, Divinity will probably not be your cup of tea. This is not a film like Aliens or Barbie, with so many different well-made elements that just about anyone will enjoy the experience. Divinity is (metaphorically, not literally) a Masters of the Universe (1987), Tokyo Gore Police, or Revenge of the Ninja (1983). If it's not exactly on your wavelength, your experience (like mine) will probably be similar to seeing a Facebook ad for a supposed medical device that clearly has off-label purposes you're not interested in. You might (like me) appreciate that it was made with love and has a good cast (Scott Bakula in particular), but you will probably be bemused by the experience as a whole.

Starts out okay while you wonder what is going on.... but once you piece the story together you can't stop looking at the horrible practical effects. By the time you are ready to see the story move to the next level, you are all of a sudden watching a claymation celebrity death match with horrible stop-motion... the only way to truly understand the crap ending this movie has, is to sit through it yourself. We are left with a horrible mess of a film that leans too heavily on 50 year old film tropes to help trod along this story's narrative. The filmmaker got lost somewhere along with way with this movie, as the very ending makes no real sense. Though I'm sure there are people who will come up with their own explanation and say "see, this us what he meant". But no no, he was actually just confused.

While watching this movie it reminded me of Tetsuo Iron Man. The themes of body modification and technology overtaking the core of what it means to be human. Some scenes also reminded me of a bad b-movie like something from an Ed Wood 50s sci-fi or even Neil Breen. There were definitely things I hadn't seen in a while like stop motion animation techniques in place of CGI. It feels like a breath of fresh air at this point where we are just inundated with things that look the same. It is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but if you like Ray Harryhausen, Tetsuo: Iron Man, cheesy sci-fi movies, you may like this.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Divinity" is a story about two mysterious brothers, who abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery. Director Eddie Alcazar clearly takes influence on films like Lynch and strange art-house science fiction stories and with this being his first feature-length film, there are some great aspects to it.

There are some weird stuff happening. The black and white colors, sound designs, and visuals are very interesting and great. The performances from the cast is interesting as the performances feel kind of weird or dull but I think it was intentional for the setting. It has a surprising cast and for the whole cast, they do a pretty good job on playing their strange roles. I don't mind strange films like these as they are one of the types of genre of filmmaking that I enjoy seeing.

The main narrative is a bit strange and while it's very ambitious, the ambitious tone and presentation takes away from some of the writing elements as the writing elements at points felt underdeveloped or unfocused of what the intentions of the film wants to be. Some of the dialogue moments were pretty rough. The third act does start to feel a bit too silly at times which takes away some of the tension.

Overall, it's definitely ambitious and a very strange type of film to watch. It's no where near one of my favorites on weird art-house films but there are some cool ideas that felt original.

Rating: B-