The version of Infinity Pool that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival is not the version of Infinity Pool that’s coming to theaters this weekend. The Sundance cut, so to speak, was rated NC-17, and “shocked” festival-goers with drugs, orgies, adult breastfeeding, and a scene where “Alexander Skarsgård’s character ejaculates, with his member in full view of the camera.” Sounds like a bunch of squares to me.
Some of the “gloriously perverse” hedonism will remain in the theatrical cut, but not all of it, considering the film is only (“only”) rated R.
“The U.S. has a sort of particular issue because of the NC-17 rating,” director Brandon Cronenberg explained to Collider. “NC-17 was an attempt to rebrand the X rating, but they didn’t do it successfully, and it came with all this stigma. You can’t actually market a film if it’s an NC-17 rating. So specifically in the U.S. that means that you can’t really have a theatrical release of any size.” In other words, if Infinity Pool had an NC-17 rating, like the Oscar nominee Ana de Armas-starring Blonde, it wouldn’t be playing at your local AMC. That’s the kind of heartbreak Nicole Kidman should have been talking about.
Cronenberg continued:
“But I knew that going into it, and it’s not a problem everywhere and usually there’s a plan to release the full film. The R-rated version isn’t hugely different, I should say. I would love people to just see it in theaters and not worry about the versioning. It’s fine.”
Mia Goth is delightfully unhinged in both versions. Infinity Pool comes out on January 27.
(Via Collider)