‘Infinite Summer’ Review: Miguel Llanso’s Trippy Thriller [Fantasia 2024]
Miguel Llanso tackles artificiality and mindfulness in his latest movie, Infinite Summer, the biggest “B-movie with A ideas” the world has seen in this current era.
Remember the scene in Ti West’s MaXXXine where Elizabeth Debicki’s Elizabeth Bender touts making a “B-movie with A ideas?” The closest we’ll get to this is likely Miguel Llanso’s Infinite Summer, which had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Cheval Noir section. Beginning with a refined opening credits sequence that sets the pace and tone of the movie, Llanso quickly shifts gears and presents an indescribable, quasi-experimental sci-fi thriller that teeters on the edge of a B-movie, with concepts so complicated Alejandro Jodorowsky may very well have directed it.
Describing the movie seems like a futile effort since it drifts into a completely different direction after presenting its conceit, where three friends, Mia (Teele Kaljuvee-O'Brock), Grete (Johanna Rosin), and Sarah (Hannah Gross), spend the summer in Estonia and take advantage of the last break they will have together before graduating from school. This sounds simple enough until Llanso throws a semi-sci-fi element into the mix, where the girls go on a virtual reality dating app to find potential male suitors.
Mia finds interest in Dr. Mindfulness (Ciaron Davies), who has developed a respirator that allows them to breathe in a brand-new ‘Mindfulness’ app. But when the ‘app’ begins to have negative consequences on the girls’ health, two police detectives (Steve Vanoni and Katariina Unt) attempt to bring down the doctor’s operation before someone has even more severe health effects, or worse, dies from his drug-fueled respirator.
Yes, it is a completely left-field turn from a movie that sets itself up as being a trippy sci-fi thriller with cerebral ideas of artificiality and mindfulness before ditching that storyline altogether in favor of a Cannon Group-like police procedural. Funnily enough, the parts that didn’t work were the most interesting sections of the movie, especially when focusing on a connection with Dr. Mindfulness and the Tallinn Zoo. None of this makes a shred of sense, and that storyline goes completely nowhere.
How Llanso frames this part is the most intriguing way a filmmaker could bring our attention to it, by staging it as the most important section of the movie when it feels like the least impressive one. This feels more in tune with the work of David Lynch, who frequently frames scenes that feel pointless as the most essential (they usually are). While I can’t say I grasped everything in Llanso’s Infinite Summer, what was on screen never bored or confused me.
In fact, the opposite happened. As the film grows more cerebral and elaborate, so does the aesthetic, evolving into a far richer and visually astonishing feature with some of the most impressive visual effects I’ve seen in an independent production in a long time. Infinite Summer feels like a completely different beast as it drifts into a B-movie that retains the concepts its opening sections introduced. It completely ignores its protagonist as it peers into potent questions on our relationship to technology and how it can reshape our individual selves.
But the less said about this part, the better. This is a movie in which you shouldn’t clearly try to understand, but feel, exactly what Christopher Nolan wanted us to do (but failed) with his Tenet. It works so well in Infinite Summer because Llanso grips us from the beginning with a rudimentary but effective first few scenes, only to shift its direction gradually into more elaborate sci-fi concepts before taking that left turn. Once he’s fully made that shift, there’s no going back, and you must trust the process Llanso has in store for you.
It also helps that the acting is completely believable, even if it often veers into absurd territory, particularly regarding the police officers, who deliver lines in a stilted, desynchronized way from the rest of the characters. But it’s part of the charm that makes Infinite Summer an unforgettable experience. It doesn’t ask anything of its other than engaging with the images in front of you and making you decide what you feel out of it.
Because of this, Infinite Summer is one of the most riveting films playing at Fantasia this year. It may not be for everyone, and it certainly feels like a big ask. But once you surrender yourself to Llanso’s madness, you may be inclined to think it rules and could be the closest thing modern audiences will get to a B-movie with A ideas. There’s no denying the film rules, and its aesthetic approach breaks all possible conventions, and it’s possibly why I would give it the highest recommendation.