Divinity

Eddie Alcazar's Divinity is one of those hyper-experimental films where you're either joyously in or vehemently out in the first few frames, the sort of cosmically unhinged arthouse scifi-shocker madness that filmmakers like Panos Cosmatos or Alejandro Jodorowsky traffic in. This type of work is so insanely stylized, visually blown out and structurally impenetrable they're really not for everyone but if it's your thing, you'll know it. Stephen Dorff plays the half mad heir to a pseudoscientific cosmetics corporation founded by his guru father (Scott Bakula, of all people) that specializes in life extension techniques with some, shall we say, mildly egregious side effects. When he's kidnapped by two radicals with a murky agenda and force-fed a gargantuan dose of his own formula, he begins to... change and the decision to shoot him up with it backfires spectacularly. Elsewhere, his odd bodybuilder brother (played by that super jacked influencer guy from all those great slow motion memes with the slowed down version of "baby don't hurt me" in the background) ponders his absence and launches a hilariously theatrical rescue mission. There's a healthy dose of gooey body horror as Dorff transforms into something monstrous, an extended cameo from Bella Thorne who has still not learned to read a line without sounding just so awkward and it all culminates in a visually delicious stop motion animation battle that would make Ray Harryhausen proud. This kind of thing will always inevitably get accused of being style over substance and, well, I'm a style man myself so my response to that is when you have style this good, the style *is* the substance and you really don't need much else to make it work. Aesthetic is everything, as they say. Well, as I say. This works, if you're in the mood for something thoroughly weird, like a cassette futurism nightmare with a stark black and white palette and berserk full moon energy that doesn't let up.

Fantastic visuals, numbing story to the brain. While I do appreciate the straightforward allegories that were apparent, it seemed like this movie was relying on the visuals to save it. The story is super simple with overarching metaphors involved, yet, it seemed like certain scenes were missing it. The pacing was super off, but the visuals almost make up for it. Every shot looks like a charcoal pencil drawing that just adds to the nature of the film. Great concepts, yet not expansive to the point where I feel the lore could be elaborated on. I recommend solely for the visuals and set design, yet it's not much of a pleasing story.

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-

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.

Divinity (2023) is a science fiction movie produced by Steven Soderbergh and it was certainly an experience.

Positives for Divinity (2023): The movie looks fantastic with the black and white cinematography and it feels very old school. The performances from the cast are good enough for what the movie asks from them. There are moments where you get some artsy imagery sprinkled throughout the movie. And finally, the movie achieves its main goal with its plot even if not everything worked for me.

Negatives for Divinity (2023): The movie is a little too weird and artsy for me. There are scenes where I was scratching my head in confusion because I didn't know what was happening. The movie is very small paced, but in a way that felt forced by the filmmakers. And finally, this is a movie that I won't be rewatching anytime soon.

Overall, Divinity (2023) is a movie that won't be for everyone, but I'm happy that I did watch it because it was an experience that I will remember.