Fantastic Fest 2023: Divinity — An All-Style-No-Substance Visual Stunner
The film centers on two mysterious brothers, who abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery.
If you were to put David Lynch’s Elephant Man, Darren Aronofsky’s Pi, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, and Nine Inch Nail’s The Broken Movie into a blender and pour its chunky mixture into a sci-fi mold, you’d have something close to the stylistic vibes of Eddie Alcazar’s latest flick, Divinity. The film affirms Alcazar as an eccentric visionary with a flair for striking visuals, but it also confirms him as a murky storyteller with a penchant for style over substance. Divinity admittedly flirts with some interesting themes, that of im/mortality, in/fertility, and pleasure vs love, twisting what should be a utopian vision of humanity into a slow-burning and strange dystopian nightmare, but it unfortunately doesn’t explore them to any meaningful affect. Its stunning look, shot on 16mm black-and-white reversal film, a sleek and sexy high-contrast black & white, full of grain and pop and 90s edge.
Taking place in a futuristic alternate world full of old technology (like news control boards, TVs, and computers) and set in essentially one location, the film follows Stephen Dorff’s Jaxxon Pierce, a pusher and manufacturer of a serum called “Divinity,” which promises immortality and hot bods to whomever imbibes it. Of course, there’s a catch though, which is that your extended life comes at the cost of your fertility and ability to reproduce. The serum, originally created by Jaxxon’s father, Sterling (Scott Bakula in a small role), who has since passed away, has been perfected by Jaxxon and commercialized it to the masses, warping society into vain hedonists. Jaxxon’s future takes a turn when two brothers mysteriously materialize from the sky and emerge from holes in the ground, where they easily invade his home, tie him to a chair, and begin pumping him full of his serum, overloading his system and mutating him into a bulbous monster. Meanwhile, there’s a faction of ethereal space ladies who are searching for an abstainer of “Divinity,” a rare fertile woman, a prostitute, who one of the mysterious brothers has fallen in love with.
Eventually, after a visually dazzling but cumbersome journey, things converge, but not in any fashion that fully connects the dots of Alcazar’s many themes and narrative pieces. Like the rocky, desert landscape that surrounds Jaxxon’s beautiful home where most of the film plays out, Divinity’s narrative is as inert and motionless — albeit sculpted and textured — as the location’s boulders and canyons. Stunning to stare at but totally half-baked, the film ultimately plays like a really cool music video or a kinky perfume ad that’s been expanded out to a feature. When Stephen Dorff’s Jaxxon is strapped to the chair and pumped full of strange fluids, high on his own supply and fully impregnated by his own self-importance, it starts to feel very symbolic; although not in the way Alcazar probably intended it to be.
Divinity contains some incredible visuals and plays with some interesting themes, but you get the sense that Alcazar was more interested in shooting something “cool” than he was engaging his audience’s mind or forging an emotional connection by crafting a compelling narrative or fully realized characters. Had he applied the same amount of effort and care to the development of its story and ideas as it did its look and feel, we would have something truly special, but as it stands, you’ve got a textbook example of style over substance. This is a pity because it’s got a lot going for it. The visuals are undoubtedly the top of the list, but the performances are solid, and the lush score (by DJ Muggs and Dean Hurley) and sound design make it a real audio-visual experience.
When it’s all said and done, Divinity might not amount to much, but it’s got style for days, and it’s very easy on the eyes. Not all of its stylish flair works, like its finale (shot in Alcazar’s “Metascope” technique) that blends stop-motion with live-action, but much of it does. This is a film that would make for great background visuals at a party, with the subtitles on, your own music playing, and other activities to keep your mind active.
Recommendation: If you’re looking for gorgeous visuals and muscular vibes, give Divinity a watch, but if it’s more than style that you’re seeking, wait to peep this one until it’s available on streaming.
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What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!