Possessor: Uncut
Uncut and uncensored from the visionary mind of Brandon Cronenberg, Tasya Vos invades the minds of others to make them carry out high-profile assassinations. But when she encounters a strong willed host, struggling for control reaches a violent pinnacle.
It’s worth the rent @evan11paul
Very inventive, mind bending, not as much horror as I would have liked to see but great ending. A solid movie that is unique enough to over come some of its flaws.
Ugly movie @shasha bojee
Soulless characters doing ugly things for no other reason than the director’s own fetish to see graphic violence. Shooting a child in the head after unloading a clip in his chest, showing his head explode... No thanks.
All mood, no substance @Xavier Sharp
I've seen a lot of people compare this film to something done by Brandon Cronenberg's father, David Cronenberg. The primary difference is that David Cronenberg always littered the weirdenss with genuine humanity and story. This movie feels a lot more like a premise than a finished film, and the "gotcha" moment with Jennifer Jason Leigh is telegraphed and revealed so subtly that its importance really doesn't even register. The primary problems are as follows: 1) we are never given a reason to care about Andrea Risebrough's character. She's an assassin who seems like something of a jerk to her husband. Certainly, their relationship issues seem to stem from her job and not from the husband. Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is kind of the representation of that sentiment. 2) the stakes of failure don't seem believable. We're told on several occasions that if Andrea Risebrough's character reamins in the dude's head for too long, then she'll suffer brain damage. Then she stays in his head for far longer than she is supposed to, and she wakes up without apparent brain damage. 3) Simply put, there were far more interesting stories to tell in this world beyond a body-hopping assassin struggling to commit suicide in her last host. You would think, with a description like that, that such a statement couldn't possibly be true. The story we get is an incredibly slow mood piece about an assassin who takes over a guy's body, but slowly begins to cede control of that body to the original host. That COULD be interesting, but not if nothing happens to progress the story for multiple 10-16 minute segments of imagery. We could have gotten a movie on the dangers of a company that invades human privacy to mine data for advertisements, an idea that Possessor hints at but never developes. We could have gotten a movie where the guy and woman partner up within his mind to take revenge on the obviously corrupt agency that she works for. We could have gotten a movie that focused more on the dynamics between the man's girlfriend and her family. We get none of that. Instead, we get smacked in the face with repetitive imagery and editing that tells us over and over again that Andrea Risebrough's character is losing control of her sanity. And then we get a petty cool conclusion that hasn't been earned because we've come to care about none of the characters. Shocking to me that this movie was reviewed so positively. It COULD be good, but it's just unfinished. It's still just a premise, not an actual story.
Andrea Riseborough @nyctelecaster
The few films I’ve seen with Andrea Riseborough I’ve enjoyed, if not only for her haunting charismatic presence and her unusual beauty (Mandy, Crocodile -Black Mirror) This hallucinatory mind bender of a film is a perfect vehicle for her talents. I’m nit-picking, but I gravitate towards meat and potato writing, Billy Wilder style, so I found “Possessor” a little unsatisfying to my personal, possibly narrow tastes. But the film was captivating and all the performances were first rate. Kudos to Jennifer Jason Lee for saying the line “I barely recognize myself”. I didn’t realize it was J.J.L until halfway into the film. I’d recommend this film to everyone.
An Unflinching Vision of Artistic Sci-Fi/Horror Perfection @JonnieDarko
Brandon Cronenberg showed an immense amount of potential when he released Antiviral 8 years ago, and I couldn’t be more impressed by his sophomore effort. Actually, using the word “effort” seems wrong here...in my opinion, Brandon has made an absolute masterpiece genre mashup with Possessor, and it feels effortless due to the confidence in his vision. The comparison of Brandon’s work to his father’s is inevitable, but Possessor is far too unique in its visual style, tone, and pacing to stop there. Think the psychological depth of Inception (that makes far more sense and is extremely impactful on an emotional level) crossed with the indie, real world Sci-Fi vibe of eXistenZ and that’s a good place to start...but this is an entirely different animal in its own right. Fair warning, the violence in Possessor is extreme. It’s extreme to a point where even the most jaded viewer will flinch, and then it goes a few steps further. The extreme nature of the violence and gore serve a genuine purpose though, and there’s imagery that’s never going to leave my thoughts. Like some of the best artwork hanging in the most famous galleries around the word, Possessor presents us with a canvas filled with horrific imagery that’s so beautifully crafted and assembled in a way that provokes the viewer to look inward and think deeply about their own humanity and how fragile it is. There were moments where I was reminded of the feelings that the paintings of Caravaggio elicit in myself anytime I see them. Brandon Cronenberg isn’t just a filmmaker who has similar storytelling sensibilities as his father, he’s now officially, in my mind, a unique voice in modern film and Possessor is a mind blowing masterpiece.