Steven Soderbergh has always been at the forefront of the moving image since he burst onto the scene 35 years ago with Sex, lies and videos. It’s always a good idea to pay attention to whatever you associate with your name, and it’s executive produced by Eddie Alcazar. Divinity (now streaming on Shudder). This low-budget, high-concept sci-fi curiosity is definitely worth pushing past any initial “WTF” feelings.
DIVINITYSTREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: Immortality is in the air in any world. Divinity Idealistic scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) creates a serum that brings humanity closer to overcoming death, and his son Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff) sells it as a testosterone supplement to cash in on its financial potential. That perversion of the drug’s promise backfires when two menacing brothers, both named Star (Moises Arias and Jason Genoa), hold him hostage in his own home. From there, their simple assault escalates into something beyond anyone’s wildest imagination with a little help from the mysterious seductress Nikita (Karruche Tran) pulling the strings.
What movies will it remind you of? Divinity It defies description, and any concoction that attempts to reduce it to a series of influences will inevitably underestimate its value. sui generis This thing is… The best comparison I can think of is that it’s like watching David Lynch in… Eraserhead mode making your own version of Trailer for Tucker Carlson’s “The End of Men” which promoted tanning of the testicles.
Performance worth watching: No one seems to be giving a very traditional performance here, but the award for best supporting actor has to go to Stephen Dorff, for giving himself physically and emotionally to everything Alcazar asks of him. No one can accuse him of playing this movie safe.
Memorable dialogue: “Imagine what we could accomplish when our time is limitless, when our worldview has no boundaries,” Sterling, played by Scott Bakula, offers in a voiceover to describe the philosophical underpinnings of his ambitious experimentation. “Maybe then the universe will wake up and have a new beginning.”
Sex and skin: Plenty! Divinity It gets hot, though these sensual, skin-filled moments are often interspersed with psychedelic animal imagery or some sort of poetic voiceover. There’s a lot going on here!
Our opinion: Eddie Alcazar confidently leans into an avant-garde cinematic style in DivinityWhat she produces feels less like a traditional narrative experience and more like a Rorschach blot. You see what you want to see: yourself and your own fears. This is a film that refracts cultural anxieties around vitality and virility into a strange bricolage that might be seen as prophetic one day… or maybe just plain crazy. (The line between these two things is thin, after all.) Alcazar tries to have it both ways—going with the vibes, but having a plot that moves forward—with mixed results. She’s not particularly interested in the intelligibility of her story, but at least the images are never less than compelling to watch pass by on the screen.
Our calling: STREAM IT. If you haven’t been creeped out by all the descriptions so far, then chances are you’re the kind of person who would be willing to at least tolerate DivinityIt’s an oddity. Eddie Alcazar offers far more in images than in ideas, but there’s a nagging sense that he’s unconsciously behind something that only future viewers will understand about his reflection of the world in which he was created. For now, at least, he never stops being interesting.
Marshall Shaffer is a freelance film journalist based in New York City. In addition to Jugo Mobile, his work has also appeared in Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist, and many other outlets. Someday soon, everyone will realize how right he is when it comes to talking about Spring breakers.
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