Antiviral is the debut feature film from Brandon Cronenberg. Simply put, it explores a world of celebrity excess gone mad. There are meat markets where you can purchase a slice of your favorite leading lad or lady grown from cultured cells. If consuming them isn’t enough for you, medical clinics contract with celebrities to obtain any disease they may contract and sell it to the adoring public.
Syd March, played by Caleb Landry Jones, works at the Lucas Clinic which boasts an exclusive contract with Hannah Geist, one of the world’s most beloved obsessions. He’s a rather effective salesman with a well-rehearsed pitch. On the surface Syd is selling the contents of a tiny glass vial, but in reality he’s selling a connection. Clients aren’t paying for the flu or a cold sore, they are paying for her flu or cold sore. A direct connection from her body to theirs, from her cells to theirs. For this connection patients willingly and happily subject themselves to the symptoms of sickness.
The pathogens once obtained from the subject are put through a ‘ready face’ machine that analyzes and then slightly alters them. This serves two purposes, to copy protect the pathogen and to make it non-communicable, after all, once I’ve got Hannah’s flu you don’t want me passing it along, my friends and neighbors have to pay for that luxury.
We quickly become aware that Syd has a second income made from infecting himself with Lucas Clinic pathogens, removing the copy protection on a stolen machine and selling them on the black market. However, lately Syd has been scooped by another bootlegger so when the opportunity to harvest a new disease directly from Hannah presents itself, he jumps at the chance. But things begin to go wrong.
Brandon Cronenberg has a bit of a legacy to live up to, he’s out to prove himself and this robot was satisfied. Often times in a theater I’m left feeling like I’ve seen a movie before either directly via reboot or indirectly via similar story types. This isn’t one I’ve seen before, though I’ve now watched it twice. It wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen but it was good, and it was nice to see something original.
The styling is deliberately clean, mostly white on white, with blood splatter. While the setting feels sterile is still leaves you feeling dirty. There are moments that the whole concept seems far fetched. Then again, in a world where anyone can hit eBay and buy a lock of Justin Bieber’s hair or Alice Cooper’s t-shirt, it doesn’t seem too far off that this could happen. It’s a story of celebrity obsession that at times feels more familiar that I’m comfortable with.
There were a couple of things that bothered me, Specifically one scene wherein Syd puts the virus into his stolen ready face and it destroys the machine, but since he obtained it directly from Hannah, no copy protection had yet been added so there was no reason to run it through. This plot point was important as it drives the story but it didn’t make sense to me, perhaps I missed something. The scene then falls into some sort of strange fever dream that gets pretty weird. It makes the film feel like it’s going in a different direction but then reels back, it sort of pulled me out. That being said, I enjoyed it more than the average redbox pull.
I won’t spoil anymore for you, it’s worth a watch, just keep the sanitizer handy.