Brandon Cronenberg, son of the brilliant David Cronenberg, is back with his new movie: Possessor. After being noticed in 2013 with Antiviral, the young filmmaker in his forties returns with a new work totally inscribed in the cinema of his father. Possessor tells the story of Tasya Vos, who works for a secret organization that uses advanced neurological technology for criminal purposes. Through this process, this organization sends Vos into the brains of third parties to take control of them and trick them into assassinating targets defined by wealthy clients. But soon, the protagonist will be confronted by a recalcitrant host.
Possessor: a rather well controlled trip
It's hard to get behind his father's almost faultless career. However, Brandon Cronenberg does not let himself be defeated and signs an astonishing, radical work, which nevertheless breathes the inspirations of his father. With Possessor, the young director offers an uncompromising work. He signs a fantastic thriller of anticipation rather well done, and which fits perfectly with the legacy of his illustrious father. At the same time, Brandon Cronenberg does not do much to create an independent cinematic approach as his first two films breathe the tone and atmosphere already imposed by his father for more than forty years. 
Brandon Cronenberg signs radical film on identity theft and the fragmentation of the individual. A feature film strong on the concept of identity, which sometimes offers an approach borrowed from Black Mirror. The technological concept at the service of a society that wants to pervert the human soul to make them soldiers of mass standardization is at the center of the plot. You gradually lose your own singularity, in favor of a distortion of your own unity, to become someone else: a being empty of soul and meaning. A heroine who gradually loses her footing, the notion of reality, family, love, and who drops everything for her work, even if it means being doubled by her employers. In this way, Brandon Cronenberg obviously highlights a capitalist society, dominated by work as a pervertible element, to the detriment of the great patterns of a family and maternal life. The filmmaker pushes this approach to its paroxysm, even if it means entering into a deep dehumanization of his character. A way for him to legitimize the extreme violence of his film and its purpose.
A radical proposal
Possessor is therefore a film like few of them. A personal artistic trip, a passionate author's vision, which thus offers the cynical look at a perverted society, dominated by terrible violence, and the annihilation of the individual. Sometimes minimalist film, especially in its dialogues but also in the expression of emotions, Brandon Cronenberg offers a harsh and calm look at this society that is gradually sinking into total insensitivity. The director thus offers a double prism on our society: those who suffer it and those who contribute to this biased system. 
A vision supported by a strong visual approach, through which the filmmaker stages this loss of landmark. Brandon Cronenberg uses close-ups extensively to materialize the inner feelings, and often the lack of emotion of his protagonists. The photography constantly flirts with abstraction, the time of some superb shots. Some visually impressive metaphysical trips. Moments of suspension where the fantastic reveals its full scope. David Cronenberg's son offers a fantasy thriller of anticipation rather well done. He signs a radical film on identity theft, and on the fragmentation of the individual. While keeping a certain finesse of writing. https://youtu.be/JOqqzd2bLPA Possessor is available on VOD from April 7, 2021, and on DVD / Blu-ray on April 14, 2021.
