Antiviral

source: Antiviral

One of the worst movies I've ever seen in my entire life. Bored as hell No sense at all. The story is boring, the movie is slow and it is badly acted. Do not waste two hours of your life watching this crap. It is incredible that today someone continue to spend money on making trunks like this. Totally meaningless.

I think what worked well in the film was the rhythm and the pacing of the film. We are moved from scene to scene in a timely manner and each scene reveals a piece of the plot which draws us into the story. I think this is very commendable for a first time director. The film never lets up for a minute and I would hardly call it slow as another reviewer has done. I would also disagree with others here that Caleb Landry Jones carried the film very well. To begin with he is too young and baby-faced for the circles he moves in within the film. I found it hardly plausible that he would have the underground connections as he did. Even more grating for me was that I found him entirely one dimensional in his approach - scowling, hunched over, drooling, coughing, raspy voice, the cane. ad infinitum - and this during the whole film as he is in pretty much each scene. I think a more subtle approach to the role at times would have been appropriate and more interesting for the audience. It did feel at times repetitive. Despite Caleb's exorbitant display I had trouble seeing the person underneath. I wondered if say a young James Woods were given the role what heights the film could have reached. Final point - The slightly indie American austere sets/costumes made the film feel a little demonstrative for me. I think this was an easy way out so to speak for the director. Cold bare white apartment (sandwiches/orange juice), cold ultra modern office with guys in suits, and the hotel with flowers. This all felt a bit manipulative but on the other hand the outdoor shots of the city Hamiliton were interesting.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) works for Lucas Clinic which buys viruses from celebrities to be injected into obsessed fans who are willing to pay. They have exclusive rights to celebrity Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) which is very popular. Then he harvests and injects the Geist sample into himself. Others like celebrity butcher Arvid replicates celebrity cells and sells them as meat. Hannah Geist dies and Syd starts to get sicker. This is a great idea for an original indie. The script needs a few more passes to elevate the tension and add some thrills. The idea seems to be all there is in this movie. It's not particularly exciting. It also needs a section at the beginning to do an exposition on what the products are about, the science behind it and the legal ramifications. Brandon Cronenberg should have made a fake TV ad for the product. It's also probably important to bring in the law early to explain the legal world these products exist in. I love the machine that he gets hooked up to. It's definitely has the Cronenberg style. However the movie lacks any energy. It's creepy but not much more than that. I like the weird creepiness. I'm just waiting for Brandon to take it to the next level.

I just have to ask: Is this really a movie? I mean... OK, yes it's a movie but come on!! It's hard to really understand this thing. And being serious even I'm a kid and maybe none of you'll read my comment, this movie is.... I just can't describe it. The truth, is that I can't figure out how did this movie won something. I'll quote my dad's joke: ¨How can anyone pay for watching this movie. If i had to pay to see this I'd shoot myself. I think they gave free drink and popcorn to the people to watch this movie.¨ This is top worst movies we saw in 5 years. Which is the budget of this movie? Only 5.000$? Or even less? No cars, 20 people...

There are times when the quality of the camera-work reminded me of French cinema and the last sequences of 2001. it is good, without a doubt. However, sadly, visual imagery alone cannot sustain a film. There has to be some credibility in a story line so you can maintain suspension of disbelief by being too engrossed to query the occurrences you see, that creates the film experience. Antiviral's link to scientific and engineering reality is so tenuous, the happenings so illogical, even within its own story line, that you become uncomfortable with the leaps of faith the makers demand of you to remain engaged with the story as credible, even acknowledging it is set in the future. There is a feeling of low budget that afflicts the sets, the locations - an uncomfortable mix of studio future and external present day location selection - the props and even the secondary acting. At times, for those Brits amongst us, it reminded me of the poorer offerings from Dr. Who meets the cast of Interview with a Vampire and Stanley Kubrick. I would not recommend it, not even for the curious. It is neither Art nor Cinema.

Honestly, don't bother unless you enjoy constantly seeing shots of needles inserted, blood, and sickly looking people. That is all the movie will deliver; the only emotional response it will invoke is disdain. No matter how interesting the concept may seem, this movie doesn't do it justice. Things going for it: A novel concept. A few artistic scenes On the other hand, it fails to fully exploit the concept, and the aforementioned scenes seem randomly inserted into the film with no real connection to the plot. With no background history provided, it is impossible to understand the world view of the characters, and thus impossible to form an emotional connection/emphasize with them. The sickly and gross scenes make you feel ill, but without any titillation, they literally just make you feel yuck. On top of it all, the movie often feels slow, and you wonder why you are watching it. How that can possibly happen with such a novel concept I don't know. Really, I can't recommend it. It doesn't do the concept justice. It doesn't do cinema justice. It is a struggle to keep watching it - reading the Wikipedia entry is more rewarding; writing this review was more enjoyable. The director obviously has a creative mind, and some technical ability, but he has utterly failed to combine them in production. Just. Don't. Bother.

Syd March works for a cosmetic company that sells you a way to share the viruses and diseases your favourite celebrities have. It's a very intimate experience knowing you have been infected with herpes by the same blood of your celebrity crush. Syd is also involved in dealing with the black market over these samples of viruses and finds himself in over his head when his celebrity crush dies. This is not a comedy. This is a gritty, blood-gushing, stomach-churning, grotesque sci-fi thriller from Brandon Cronenberg. However exciting that above sentence may have sounded, Antiviral is a slower-paced horror art piece. It is hard on the eyes and stomach, as such a story should be. This is the film all of the original David Cronenberg fans have been waiting for. It's come a decade too late and not through him but through his son. Unlike Sofia Coppola or Jennifer Lynch, Brandon Cronenberg doesn't seem to be trying to find his own voice. With this film, he seems content filling the shoes his father had left unfilled over the last decade, making more audience-friendly dramatic thrillers. Antiviral very much could be a lost 2003 film David Cronenberg shot right after Spider. Like father like son.

I really liked this film. It's not without its flaws, but I give it major points for a unique, interesting concept and its sterile visual style. As a horror and sci-fi fan, I wish there were more films like Antiviral. Ones, that either on their own or by effectively combining the two genres, bring new ideas to the table and use thoughtful art direction. Sadly nowadays, most just regurgitate the same old concepts and then throw gratuitous amounts of special affects on top to make them feel "new". Antiviral seems to step out of that box. As mentioned, it isn't perfect, but a really great film for sci-fi/horror fans looking for something less cliché and more unique, something that can be hard to find within these genres today. It's a pretty low-budget film, so don't expect a ton of crazy sci-fi special effects. But this is exactly one of the things that works for it. It feels futuristic, but only just enough so that it feels like the not TOO distant future. This fits perfectly with the idea of people being so obsessed with celebrities they pay to be infected with their diseases. Since our society is already relatively obsessed with celebrity culture, Antiviral's world feels distant, but not too far off. One issue is that the plot can feel a bit unfocused here and there. Viewers won't feel lost, but this flaw does prevent Antiviral from being a really solid film. Also, the acting and dialogue feel contrived at times. But I did enjoy Caleb Landry Jones's portrayal of Syd.

Well am not gonna write an essay on this movie, it's just not worth it everything up to the idea behind the movie is way too messed up to sound even close to plausible.. Celebrities illness sold to hardcore fans by the thousands, cloned celebrities meat (yeah meat) sold for some fancy disgusting looking restaurant or whatever.. really? so in middle of that kind of messed up ideas you have that guy, he looks as messed up as the story he's stuck in, always speaking as if he's on heavy sedation, whispering horribly (hard to catch everything he says even).. no matter what happen to him you can't feel any sympathy for him, or anyone in the movie for that matter.. you just look at them and hope for the movie to finish soon, there is no fancy twist in the plot or anything on the technical level the movie isn't all that bad even if it does look cheap (probably is a cheap budget anyway it doesn't really matter), but that's not the issue here... really just save yourself some time, skip this movie, and while am at it, the ending is terrible, doesn't make much sense, the way the hero recovers magically and whatever.. gah there is no end to this badness!