5/10
Antiviral is the debut feature from Brandon Cronenberg, son of David. What's surprising is how similar its themes are to the work of his father - specifically body horror, bizarre fetishes, and celebrity obsession.
Its plot centres around Syd, the employee of a clinic in the unspecified future that sells viruses and diseases from celebrities to their obsessed fans. Syd also deals samples of these diseases to the black market, smuggling them out of the clinic in his own body and cracking their encryption in his home. When mega-celebrity Hannah Geist is revealed to be ill, Syd naturally co-opts her blood, realizing only later that someone has poisoned her, and now he's dying from the same mysterious ailment she is, and has to find some way to stop it - or at least deal with it.
Antiviral is on shakey ground from the start - at no point does it attempt to explain why people would want to infect themselves with celebrity diseases. We're just to assume that, In the Future, this is what we do. On the other hand, Cronenberg spends a lot of time explaining and developping seemingly insignificant or unnecessary plot points, which feel introduced only to overcomplicate things (the encryption, namely). The movie jerks about rather than ever settling into a comfortable flow, even if it always looks immaculate when doing so (this non-specific Future is the same one where everything is brightly white and well-lit, Stepford style).
I should also call attention to Caleb Landry Jones' performance in the lead role. If ever any performance on the planet needed reeling in - it was this one. I don't blame Jones - he does a great job. But Cronenberg is clearly pushing for too much. Jones spends almost every single frame heaving and sobbing and straining and vomiting and contorting. When the volume is at 11 the entire time, it's tough for anything at all to register.
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