Steven Soderbergh has always been at the bleeding edge of the moving image since he burst onto the scene 35 years ago with sex, lies and videotape. Itâs always a good idea to pay attention to whatever heâs attaching his name to, and heâs an executive producer on Eddie Alcazarâs Divinity (now streaming on Shudder). Itâs definitely worth pushing past any initial feelings of âWTFâ from this low-budget, high-concept science-fiction curio.
DIVINITY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Immortality is in the air across whatever world Divinity occupies. Idealistic scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) concocts a serum that gets humanity closer to overcoming death, and his son Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff) hawks it like a testosterone supplement to capitalize on the financial potential. That perversion of the drugâs promise comes back to bite him when two menacing brothers both named Star (Moises Arias and Jason Genoa) hold him hostage in his own home. From there, their simple hold-up spirals into something beyond anyoneâs wildest imagination with a little help from the mysterious seductress Nikita (Karruche Tran) pulling the strings.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Divinity defies description, and any mishmash trying to reduce it to a series of influences will inevitably undersell just how sui generis this thing is. The best comparison I can muster is that itâs like watching David Lynch in Eraserhead mode making his own version of Tucker Carlsonâs âThe End of Menâ trailer that promoted testicle tanning.
Performance Worth Watching: No one seems to be giving much of a traditional performance here, but the MVP award has to be Stephen Dorff for throwing himself physically and emotionally into whatever Alcazar asks of him. No one can accuse him of playing this movie safely.
Memorable Dialogue: âImagine what we could achieve when our time is limitless, when our vision of the world has no boundaries,â Scott Bakulaâs Sterling offers in voiceover to describe the philosophical underpinnings of his ambitious experimentation. âMaybe then the universe will awaken and will have a new beginning.â
Sex and Skin: Plenty! Divinity gets steamy, although these sensual and skin-filled moments are usually intercut with either psychedelic imagery of animals or some kind of poetic voiceover. A lot going on here!
Our Take: Eddie Alcazar confidently leans into an avant-garde filmmaking style in Divinity. What he produces feels less like a traditional narrative-based storytelling experience and more like a Rorschach blot. You see what you want to see â yourself and your own fears. This is a film that refracts cultural anxieties around vitality and virility into a bizarre bricolage that could be seen as prophetic one day ⦠or maybe just insane. (The line is thin between these, after all.) Alcazar does try to have it both ways â coasting on vibes, but having a forward-moving plot â to mixed results. Itâs not particularly interested in the intelligibility of its story, but at least the imagery is never less than compelling to watch flash across the screen.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you havenât been scared away by all the descriptions thus far, then chances are youâre probably the kind of person whoâd be willing to at least tolerate Divinityâs weirdness. Eddie Alcazar delivers far more on imagery than ideas, but thereâs a gnawing sense that heâs subconsciously onto something that only future audiences will realize about its reflection of the world in which it was created. For now, at the very least, itâs never an uninteresting watch.
Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.
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