Rating: NR | Runtime: 88 minutes
Release Date: October 13th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Sumerian Films / Utopia
Director(s): Eddie Alcazar
Writer(s): Eddie Alcazar

Most people here choose forever. Pleasure over love.

How do you define immortality? Is it the continuation of your body and mind in physical form? Or is it the legacy you leave behind? Those are the questions at the back of Eddie Alcazar’s Divinity since the world he created presents humanity that very choice: live forever by consuming the titular drug while becoming infertile or accept your mortality and maintain the opportunity to create new life. No one should be surprised to learn that most choose option number one.

The result is a dying planet both because new generations are no longer being born and because Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff) was only able to see his late father’s (Scott Bakula’s Sterling) invention come to half fruition. While he cracked the code of Divinity ceasing all biological degradation (and, even more, augmenting the body’s capability so the population can be overrun by muscle-bound behemoths), he still can’t figure out how to do the same with the mind. So, while everyone looks to be in their prime for perpetuity, who they are inside ages just the same.

As such, someone or something must put an end to this destructive cycle or watch mankind go extinct upon a pile of perfectly preserved physiques. Rather than a flood, the universe inexplicably sends two stars (Moises Arias and Jason Genao) to Earth instead. These brothers, in awe of life as a human, look to fulfill their goal by hooking Jaxxon up to his own, undistilled product with severe looks and the deadpan delivery that doing so will “save” him. He, of course, begs to differ—imploring them to let him go before the toxicity kills him. What Jaxxon sees as death, however, the brothers call rebirth.

If that all sounds a bit out-there, it’s because it most definitely is. And I haven’t even mentioned Ziva (Bella Thorne) and her group of angel-like apparitions that represent the handful of fertile women who still live. Shot on Kodak film in black and white (with a special format Alcazar says they made for him), the gorgeous low-fi effects enhance this other-worldly sense of surreal insanity with deep shadows, blinding highlights, and a fantastic cat’s eye glow from those whose minds have been opened to the wonders of the galaxy.

Add a Christ-like (Mary?) figure in Karrueche Tran’s Nikita, a prehistoric embodiment of power over thought via Jaxxon’s brother Rip (Michael O’Hearn), and an impressively orchestrated, climactic stop-motion battle that feels right in-line with everything else due to the consistent hazy grain of the stock and Divinity will not be something you can soon forget. It’s not action-packed despite all that, but it’s never boring. Not if you open yourself to its themes of awakening where the star brothers, Nikita, and Ziva are concerned.

I’ve seen comparisons to David Cronenberg and David Lynch and they are definitely present considering the body horror element and esoteric vibes. But I don’t necessarily know if they are apt beyond aesthetic purposes. To me it’s more aligned with an acid trip a la After Blue (Dirty Paradise)—a film I admit to finding much more style than substance. Divinity will surely have others thinking the same about it, but I personally liked it a lot more. Perhaps because its narrative is more straightforward in its messaging while still being just as bizarre.

---

(L-R) Jason Genao as “Star”, Stephen Dorff as “Jaxxon Pierce”, Moises Arias as “Star” in DIVINITY. Photo by Danny Hiele. Courtesy of Utopia and Sumerian.