Divinity

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Divinity" is a story about two mysterious brothers, who abduct a mogul during his quest for immortality. Meanwhile, a seductive woman helps them launch a journey of self-discovery. Director Eddie Alcazar clearly takes influence on films like Lynch and strange art-house science fiction stories and with this being his first feature-length film, there are some great aspects to it.

There are some weird stuff happening. The black and white colors, sound designs, and visuals are very interesting and great. The performances from the cast is interesting as the performances feel kind of weird or dull but I think it was intentional for the setting. It has a surprising cast and for the whole cast, they do a pretty good job on playing their strange roles. I don't mind strange films like these as they are one of the types of genre of filmmaking that I enjoy seeing.

The main narrative is a bit strange and while it's very ambitious, the ambitious tone and presentation takes away from some of the writing elements as the writing elements at points felt underdeveloped or unfocused of what the intentions of the film wants to be. Some of the dialogue moments were pretty rough. The third act does start to feel a bit too silly at times which takes away some of the tension.

Overall, it's definitely ambitious and a very strange type of film to watch. It's no where near one of my favorites on weird art-house films but there are some cool ideas that felt original.

Rating: B-

Divinity is a very stylized, black and white sci-fi/horror adjacent/thriller. Destined to be divisive, but very much worth checking out if the trailer peaked your interest.

The film is very strange but I was never lost. There is a clear and defined plot that isn't convoluted. The acting is rough around the edges, the dialogue is not polished, but in many ways this contributes to the style of the film.

That's not to say this movie is "so bad it's good." The style will not work for everyone though. The one thing that is inarguable is the movie's ability to stay cemented in your brain. This is a movie that I don't believe will leave your mind so quick like a big budget Hollywood film.

Is this movie empty, vapid and all style over substance? Is it a deep and meaningful reflection about what humans value? For me, somewhere in between but nonetheless a very entertaining film.

Divinity will definitely find its audience but it still isn't the next Blade Runner. Check it out.

Starts out okay while you wonder what is going on.... but once you piece the story together you can't stop looking at the horrible practical effects. By the time you are ready to see the story move to the next level, you are all of a sudden watching a claymation celebrity death match with horrible stop-motion... the only way to truly understand the crap ending this movie has, is to sit through it yourself. We are left with a horrible mess of a film that leans too heavily on 50 year old film tropes to help trod along this story's narrative. The filmmaker got lost somewhere along with way with this movie, as the very ending makes no real sense. Though I'm sure there are people who will come up with their own explanation and say "see, this us what he meant". But no no, he was actually just confused.

Eddie Alcazar's Divinity is one of those hyper-experimental films where you're either joyously in or vehemently out in the first few frames, the sort of cosmically unhinged arthouse scifi-shocker madness that filmmakers like Panos Cosmatos or Alejandro Jodorowsky traffic in. This type of work is so insanely stylized, visually blown out and structurally impenetrable they're really not for everyone but if it's your thing, you'll know it. Stephen Dorff plays the half mad heir to a pseudoscientific cosmetics corporation founded by his guru father (Scott Bakula, of all people) that specializes in life extension techniques with some, shall we say, mildly egregious side effects. When he's kidnapped by two radicals with a murky agenda and force-fed a gargantuan dose of his own formula, he begins to... change and the decision to shoot him up with it backfires spectacularly. Elsewhere, his odd bodybuilder brother (played by that super jacked influencer guy from all those great slow motion memes with the slowed down version of "baby don't hurt me" in the background) ponders his absence and launches a hilariously theatrical rescue mission. There's a healthy dose of gooey body horror as Dorff transforms into something monstrous, an extended cameo from Bella Thorne who has still not learned to read a line without sounding just so awkward and it all culminates in a visually delicious stop motion animation battle that would make Ray Harryhausen proud. This kind of thing will always inevitably get accused of being style over substance and, well, I'm a style man myself so my response to that is when you have style this good, the style *is* the substance and you really don't need much else to make it work. Aesthetic is everything, as they say. Well, as I say. This works, if you're in the mood for something thoroughly weird, like a cassette futurism nightmare with a stark black and white palette and berserk full moon energy that doesn't let up.

While watching this movie it reminded me of Tetsuo Iron Man. The themes of body modification and technology overtaking the core of what it means to be human. Some scenes also reminded me of a bad b-movie like something from an Ed Wood 50s sci-fi or even Neil Breen. There were definitely things I hadn't seen in a while like stop motion animation techniques in place of CGI. It feels like a breath of fresh air at this point where we are just inundated with things that look the same. It is not going to be everyone's cup of tea but if you like Ray Harryhausen, Tetsuo: Iron Man, cheesy sci-fi movies, you may like this.