Possessor + Recorded Intro at Picturehouse at FACT

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

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Possessor

FACT, City Centre
19 October 2023

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

FACT
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Brandon Cronenberg’s visceral 2020 techno-thriller wastes no time in setting out its stall. Possessor opens with a brutal pre-title sequence in which we witness a woman penetrating her scalp with a mysterious probe. She cries as she turns a dial. Cut to a gaudy, gleaming, crowded function room where she murders a man in a frenzied attack with a steak knife, her pristine white trainers squeaking in the blood. “Pull me out.” the woman says to an empty room, putting a pistol in her mouth…

As an opening, it is demonstrative of the kind of verve, mystery and extreme violence that characterise the film. Slowly, Cronenberg introduces us to a world of biohacking, murder-for-hire and corporate espionage. Andrea Riseborough plays Tasya Vos, an assassin who, through a grisly technological hook-up, quite literally takes control of the bodies of others in order to carry out her profession. Taking on different personas allows her to gain proximity to her targets, and as long as she ensures that her host body is destroyed in the aftermath, then the police have no leads.

Cronenberg uses his sci-fi scenario to explore base notions of identity, gender and penetration

Possessor is reminiscent of such art house provocations as Olivier Assayas’ Demonlover and Abel Ferrara’s New Rose Hotel in its slick, nihilistic depiction of the extreme logical conclusion of cutthroat capitalism. But there is more here. We see Vos begin to physically and mentally disintegrate as she takes a new host, Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott) — a man dating the daughter of his corporate overlord, and surveillance tech tycoon, John Parse (Sean Bean).

Vos has to live in Tate’s body for a few days. She slips his hand between his legs. She works his job. She has sex with his girlfriend. Cronenberg uses his sci-fi scenario to explore base notions of identity, gender and penetration as Vos prefers to execute her business with steak knives and fire pokers rather than the firearm with which she is issued. The director’s father is the illustrious Canadian auteur and Videodrome director David Cronenberg and their shared interest in relating bodily violence to philosophical ideas has been widely noted. But with this follow-up to his queasy debut Antiviral, it is clear that the younger Cronenberg is staking out a style and territory that is all his own.

Where to go near Possessor + Recorded Intro at Picturehouse at FACT

City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
Garden Cafe FACT

FACT Liverpool gets back to its coffee-with-creativity roots thanks to a foliage-full new café.

Liverpool
Restaurant
Next to Nowhere Café

Food From Nowhere is a weekly vegan cafe held in the basement space of much-loved radical bookshop News From Nowhere. It’s open every Saturday from midday to 5pm.

library
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Shop
News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere is a radical community bookshop selling texts on important current issues as well as leading social justice initiatives.

food and drink
City Centre
Restaurant
BAM BOO

BAM BOO delivers a slice of paradise right in Liverpool city centre, with indulgent meals and delicious cocktails.

City Centre
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Bold Street Coffee

A super cool cafe at the top of Bold Street, Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool serves a range of specialist coffee, cakes and sandwiches.

Liverpool
Restaurant
Maray

Much-loved Liverpool restaurant, specialising in forward-thinking small plate dishes.

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LEAF on Bold Street

Keeping Bold Street a hub of creativity, LEAF is more than a tearoom, it’s also a bar and thriving event space with a packed schedule of upcoming happenings.

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Music venue
Arts Club Liverpool

Based in Liverpool’s old Royal Institute of Arts and Science building, Liverpool Arts Club is a great spot to catch small touring acts.

food and drink
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Cafe Tabac

Cafe Tabac is the longest running café bar in Liverpool, serving food and drinks to arty locals and curious newcomers.

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