Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg’s first feature as a writer/director was a thriller cultivated in a social satire about fans looking to share celebrity viruses – with 2012’s Antiviral adding a twist on body horror that was worthy of his father David’s earliest work. It seemed reasonable to expect some kind of proper comedy as a follow-up. Instead, Possessor is a sci-fi spy flick that earns more re-watchings than Tenet. The film also does a lot more with old-fashioned practical special effects in this tale of an assassination bureau using cerebral implants to take over the minds of innocent people. Christopher Abbot does an amazing job salvaging what should be a thankless role as a shallow creep whose body is hijacked to murder his future father-in-law. Andrea Riseborough counters by underplaying her ethereal killer lurking in the brain of an unexpectedly resourceful host. The official Cronenberg legacy ties Possessor to Dad’s classic Scanners. The big reveal, however, is that Brandon is already capable of helming a quietly great work like his father’s eXistenZ.

[NR]