Submit your Screenplay to the Festival TODAY
Director:
Writer:
Stars:
The execution of the movie is as queer as its conception of the infinity baby. INFINITY BABY, shot in black and white is a absurdist social comedy that almost becomes a viable satire.
THE INFINITY BABY is so called because this baby does not age (hence being a baby forever). By giving the baby a fixed medication, the baby only needs to eat once a week and have its diaper changed once a week. The baby never cries but coos as cute as any cooing baby can be. The whole package comes at a cost of $20,000. The film follows one such baby that had her medication changed, died and ended growing up. How all this happens with all its absurdist hilarity makes up Byington’s occasionally very funny movie.
It is not this baby person that is the subject of the movie. The subjects are the employees involved with the infinity baby enterprise. These are imperfect people with imperfect lives which the film milks for all its hilarity. The inventor of the infinity baby is Neo (Nick Offerman) rich and powerful, and in his own works gives advice that people actually listen to. In his employ is Ben (Kieran Culkin, brother of the HOME ALONE Culkin) who wants a woman but is afraid to commit to a relationship. When things get too sticky, he brings the girlfriend to her mother who will ream her out and therefore break up the relationship with no guilt accosted to Ben. It is later learned that this woman is not really his mother, but a woman he pays to impersonate his mother to break up his various relationships. These scenes have to be seen to be believed. Ben is nothing more than an overgrown child, wonderfully portrayed by Culkin.
More outrageous are the two baby delivery guys, Larry (Steve Corrigan) and Malcolm (Starr). They are a gay couple who end up stealing a baby and keeping the $20,000 in order to boost their relationship. But they are lazy and increase the medication doses of the baby so that they do not have to clean and feed the infant so often. The bay dies. All hell breaks loose.
Director Byington claims that the film is inspired by Woody Allen’s BANANAS. The relationship part of the Wood Allen film is similar – the one where the character played by Allen’s then wife, breaks up with him. Byington’s film, based on the script by Onur Tukel (CATFIGHT) is made up of a series of comedic set-ups that are related by the theme of the infinity baby but mostly unconnected in flow. The film feels disjointed not aided by a non conclusive ending.
One would hardly expect a proper closed ending from a film with an absurdist plot. Still INFINITY BABY is highly amusing for its inventiveness, weirdness and very funny humour. The film was selected for the SXSW Film Festival and also won the CENTER Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature.
Festival Reviews 