{"id":21372,"date":"2020-10-01T13:28:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T20:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=21372"},"modified":"2020-10-01T13:28:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T20:28:46","slug":"possessor-accomplishes-its-disquieting-and-distressing-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=21372","title":{"rendered":"POSSESSOR Accomplishes Its Disquieting and Distressing Ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This film will be released at select theaters and\ndrive-ins October 2nd<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many filmmakers who have earned reputations as being provocateurs, making features that push buttons and stretch the boundaries of cinema. David Cronenberg (Videodrome<\/em>, Naked Lunch<\/em>, Crash<\/em>), Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo<\/em>, Santa Sangre<\/em>) and Lars Von Trier (Antichrist<\/em>, Nymphomaniac Vol. I and Vol. II<\/em>, The House That Jack Built<\/em>) and are just a few examples of moviemakers who march to the beat of their own drummer, finding large cult followings while simultaneously upsetting audiences looking for more conventional entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new film Possessor <\/em>is from Brandon Cronenberg,\nthe son of David Cronenberg. While the two people have different filmic voices\nand approaches, in some respects the younger member of the family certainly\nfollows in the footsteps of his father. There can be no doubt that that both are\nnot bothered by disturbing imagery and complex ideas. Admittedly, this picture\nwill horrify many viewers, but it\u2019s a bold and transfixing exercise that slowly\ntakes hold and pushes audiences down a transfixingly dark and chilling path.\nYou won\u2019t exactly have a wonderful feeling watching the movie, but it\u2019s almost\nimpossible to look away from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story follows Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) who works\nas a unique kind of assassin for a corporate organization. Her boss Girder\n(Jennifer Jason Leigh) uses advanced brain implant technology to hook up the\nemployee up to a machine that transfers her mind into the body of another\nperson, possessing them for a few days. Taking control and impersonating the\nactions of figure familiar to the target allows the killer to get close, commit\nthe crime and be transported back into her own body\u2026 all without leaving\nevidence of the real person responsible for the act. Vos\u2019 latest assignment is to\nexecute business tycoon John Parse (Sean Bean). She is quickly implanted into Colin\nTate (Christopher Abbott), an employee at Parse\u2019s firm who is dating the CEO\u2019s\ndaughter, Ava (Tuppence Middleton). Alas, Vos\u2019 history of body jumps begins causing\nside effects, including bizarre visions that lead to various complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While incredibly violent, early sections of the movie\nfeaturing Girder, Vos and her eventual host are still performed in a very cold\nand subdued manner, which does take some getting used to. However, as Vos\nbegins to suffer jarring symptoms from the technology, Colin starts to display\nmore and more odd behavior. These strange ticks show a person struggling to\nkeep control of her host\u2019s actions, and the events onscreen become more and\nmore engaging and increasingly tense as the story progresses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riseborough has a lot to take on as the icy protagonist on\nthe verge of losing any sense of order and humanity due to the cumulative\neffects of her body jumps and brutal profession. Everything about her life is\nrehearsed, including \u201cnormal\u201d interactions with family members. The performer is\nexcellent in the role, while Abbott\u2019s work as the man she is inhabiting is also\nimpressive. As Vos finds herself trapped in her host for much longer than\nanticipated, Abbott is required to display evidence of her personality in his\nbody, as well as show conflict over who is in control in a given moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In truth, it\u2019s an incredible concept that has so much\npotential. In fact, one almost wishes that it had delved even deeper into the\ninner landscape of the lead and elaborated even more on the complications that\nthe procedure causes the assassin. We also don\u2019t get much background as to the\nreasons for the company\u2019s actions or how it all came to occur, although not\nproviding any information may actually make the experience all the more\ndistressing. Instead, the movie demands that viewers pick up cues in subtle\ncomments and responses from the leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as mentioned in the opening paragraph, Cronenberg has no\nissues showing everything in a blunt manner. When Vos finds herself in danger\nand acting unpredictably, the depiction is unsettling. This isn\u2019t typical Hollywood\nviolence being shown in a stylized manner. The brutal attacks featured are\nwince-inducing and hard to look at, involving horrific stabbings and other\ngrotesque acts. Even overt sexuality isn\u2019t shied away from in the film\u2019s uncut\nform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, this is an incredibly downbeat and disturbing effort that won\u2019t strike everyone\u2019s fancy. However, the movie features a powerful concept and fully committed cast members, resulting in a feature that is disquieting and hard to shake off. Assuming the intent was to get viewers to think about the voyeuristic, violent and potentially horrifying uses of modern technology, as well as how we all are slowly losing our connection to basic humanity and compassion in the process, Possessor <\/em>accomplishes its distressing ambitions with horrific aplomb.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film will be released at select theaters and drive-ins October 2nd. There are many filmmakers who have earned reputations as being provocateurs, making features that push buttons and stretch the boundaries of cinema. David Cronenberg (Videodrome, Naked Lunch, Crash), Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Santa Sangre) and Lars Von Trier (Antichrist, Nymphomaniac Vol. I and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,1368,1896,3421,4364,4940,7206,9319,10576,16293,17772,17776,17857,23222,23355,23502],"class_list":["post-21372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-andrea-riseborough","tag-assassin","tag-brandon-cronenberg","tag-christopher-abbott","tag-cronenberg","tag-explicit","tag-horror","tag-jennifer-jason-leigh","tag-possessor","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction-2","tag-sean-bean","tag-transplant","tag-tuppence-middleton","tag-uncut"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}