Movie review
January 27, 2023 · 118 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Infinity Pool.
Woke representation / casting
Lead roles go to Alexander Skarsgård (white), Mia Goth (white), and Cleopatra Coleman (mixed heritage) as a wealthy wife; diversity is incidental and unemphasized in a fictional setting with local supporting players. No visible identity signaling, girlboss tropes, or quota-style casting in prominent positions.
Woke political dialogue
No explicit activist speeches, identity lectures, or DEI-style conversations; dialogue stays focused on personal hedonism, morality, and class privilege.
Identity-driven story themes
Strong focus on personal identity (clones and self-destruction) and moral consequences, plus satire on wealth and tourism exploitation. This registers as noticeable class critique but stays existential and horror-driven rather than modern identity politics or representation themes.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Satirizes rich Western tourists exploiting a poor country’s system, justice for sale, and consequence-free excess, with some readings noting tourism’s colonial-like dynamics. Remains broad anti-elite horror rather than targeted anti-patriarchy, anti-whiteness, or current activist institutional critique.
Review
Infinity Pool follows struggling novelist James and his wealthy wife Em on vacation at a luxury resort in the fictional country of Li Tolqa. After a fatal accident outside the grounds, they learn that rich foreigners can pay to have exact clones executed in their place, leading the couple into a world of hedonism, violence, orgies, and moral collapse among privileged Western tourists. The film uses body horror and dark satire to explore personal identity, the loss of self, and how wealth buys impunity, with clear critiques of elite excess and exploitative tourism that some viewers notice as class commentary.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. This is an original story with no established canon, legacy characters, or historical figures altered for ideological reasons.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No significant public complaints that the film pushes woke, DEI, or identity politics messaging. Reactions center on gore, weirdness, and satire strength, not political agenda.
Creator track record context
Brandon Cronenberg’s work repeatedly explores identity, body horror, and critiques of privilege/consumer culture in an artistic, non-didactic way. Mild liberal satirical bent but no recurring pattern of DEI, queer, race/gender, or representation-first activism across his output or public statements.
Production
