An immortality drug causes social disruption in this ludicrously dystopian sci-fi experiment.
In an old-as-time dichotomy, the women in Eddie Alcazar’s “Divinity” fall into roughly two categories: pliable prostitutes or those who have been deemed “pure.” The first group wears slinky, sparkly onesies; the second sports unadorned, flesh-toned bodysuits that render them as uniform as the spermatozoa in Woody Allen’s “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (but Were Afraid to Ask)” (1972). For a movie concerned primarily with reproduction, the connection seems apt.
A misbegotten blend of the futuristic and the antiquated, “Divinity” is an unintentionally comical sci-fi diatribe obsessed with beautiful bodies, bickering brothers and biblical symbolism. The title refers to a drug that promises to bestow immortality, with the unfortunate wrinkle that users — apparently most of humanity — are rendered sterile. Men are transformed into obscenely pumped poseurs, pleasured by gorgeous women with zero body fat and extremely limited fashion choices. In the background, members of the creepy purity posse — women who have never taken the drug — plot to put their unsullied uteruses to work repopulating the planet.
Shot mainly in stark black and white using specially made film stock, this oppressive, inarticulate dystopia unfolds mostly in a remote desert compound belonging to Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff). Continuing the work of his dead father (Scott Bakula, seen in gritty video diaries), who invented the drug, Jaxxon tinkers with the formula, unaware that two alien brothers (Moises Arias and Jason Genao) have descended from the stars to teach him a lesson by getting him high on his own supply.
This all plays as completely bonkers, albeit presented with punishing solemnity. A style experiment assembled mainly using storyboards in place of a script, the movie combines live action and stop-motion animation, old-school prosthetics and retro accessories. The occasionally arresting visuals, though, are repeatedly undercut by dumb dialogue and often atrocious acting, the whole experienced through a wall of throbbing, squawking sound. This is not the movie to see if you are nursing a hangover.
Exploring some of the same ground he covered in his previous feature, “Perfect” (2019), Alcazar has made what feels like a very grouchy film, one that rails against our craving for youth and beauty and chides those who choose pleasure over procreation. There is something undeniably sad, though, in both its naïveté and its reliance on repurposed tropes, like the winking television ads that recall Paul Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers” (1997). And I have to ask: If everyone here is supposedly focused exclusively on pleasure, why can’t we feel some? Instead, “Divinity” is deeply depressing, the announcement “Steven Soderbergh Presents” above the title (he’s the executive producer) perhaps not the antidote to the funk that its maker might have hoped.
A more daring movie might have explored the notion that limited reproduction could offer some benefit to our struggling planet. But “Divinity” (at least for those who are inclined to hang around long enough to learn the drug’s ingredients) appears to favor a more retrograde anti-science message. You won’t have to squint too hard, though, to spot the irony in a narrative that cheerleads for fertility, yet is itself too barren to entertain.
Divinity
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
