Tasya
Vos works for the corporate equivalent of brain controlling parasites, like the
exotic “zombie ant” fungus. She’s the fungus, or in this case, an assassin who
commits hits while controlling the body of an unwitting host. She is a lethal
legend among the limited numbers aware of her company’s true specialty, but her
next assignment will involve unexpected complications in Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor,
which screens during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
The
process is pretty simple—and sinister. Through some kind of cyber-punky
procedure, Vos’s consciousness is inserted into the abducted host. She
establishes a pattern of suspicious behavior over a few days, before killing
her target. Then she blows the host’s brains out just as her handlers extract
her. We can see pretty clearly from the opening hit how the process is supposed
to work. It is also pretty easy to see Vos is increasingly troubled by
lingering memories and flashbacks, even though she manages to conceal it from
her employer, Girder.
She
really should have more down time between possessions, but she agrees to do a priority
rush job with little rest. Her next target will be John Parse, the CEO of a
data-mining firm, who happens to be played by Sean Bean, which does not auger
well for his potential survivability. The host will be his daughter’s low-life
boyfriend, her former drug dealer, Colin. He doesn’t seem like much, but he
manages to wrestle control of his body back from Vos, at least temporarily,
after much damage has been done.
Cronenberg,
a chip off the old block, balances scenes of intense violence with trippy surreal
passages in a sleekly stylish package. Fans of his father should also eat this
up with a big spoon. However, it should be duly noted there is a previous precedent
for the body-jumping assassin: Jesse Atlas’s short film Let Them Die Like Lovers, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, so nobody should say it
is completely unknown. To be sure, Cronenberg comes up with plenty of his own
twists. Nobody is implying anything, just acknowledging Atlas.
Andrea
Riseborough (again with multiple films at Sundance) is quietly weird and subtly
mental as Vos. Instead of going up-and-over-the-top, she takes in down and
inward. Christopher Abbott is appropriately sweaty and beady-eyed as the
schizophrenic Colin. Of course, Bean is cool chewing the scenery as the
arrogant Parse, but the surprise treat is Jennifer Jason Leigh playing Girder
as a steely villain as well as an understanding boss.
Reality
gets fractured and blood flows in this film, so prepare for a nutty ride.
However, it is definitely impressive genre filmmaking. Anyone attracted to
extreme sf and action cinema should be drawn to it like a moth to flame. Highly
recommended for cult movie fans, Possessor screens again today (1/30)
and tomorrow night (1/31) in Park City, as part of this year’s Sundance.