Kieran Culkin may have mastered the art of the immature nepo baby as Roman Roy in Succession, but the actor takes being a corporate man-child to a whole new level in a movie most fans have probably never even heard of. As delightfully absurd as it sounds, Infinity Baby is a 2017 sci-fi comedy directed by Bob Byington that more than lives up to its title, combining biting satire with a dash of dystopian capitalism to explore a near future where babies are immortal. Despite not connecting with a larger audience, the film is nevertheless well-regarded among critics and fans who saw it, and for good reason. With its unique blend of futurism and comedy, Infinity Baby is a thought-provoking achievement as entertaining as it is painfully relevant to modern society.
What Is ‘Infinity Baby’ About?
Unafraid to wade into the trenches of American politics, Infinity Baby takes place in a not-so-distant future where, in exchange for being allowed to ban abortion, the American government has authorized experimental stem cell research that inadvertently creates a thousand babies who can’t age. Seeking to profit off this opportune accident, Culkin leads the cast as Ben, a mid-level manager at the film’s namesake company trying to sell these miracle children off to prospective parents. The film’s supporting cast also reunites longtime collaborators (on and off-screen) Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, with Offerman playing the leader of Infinity Baby and Mullally ostensibly playing Ben’s mother, in a charismatic combination that never fails to entertain.
As for how Infinity Baby manages its own brand of entertainment, Byington’s film is entirely unique. The film’s comedy feels like what you’d get if you performed your own cinematic science experiment and mixed the offbeat, self-aware hilarity of a Wes Anderson film with the severely grounded realism of filmmaking in 1940s Italy. The result is a sci-fi comedy that feels both cerebral and morally heavy, less sentimental than Stranger Than Fiction and yet just as socially-conscious as Don’t Look Up, the kind of movie that distinguishes itself from other memorable genre hybrids with its unique perspective on the personal effects of living with late-stage capitalism. While not as outright funny as many other recent comedies, Infinity Baby‘s subtlety ultimately works to its advantage, allowing narrative tensions to boil just beneath the surface before coming together powerfully by the film’s conclusion.
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With its black-and-white aesthetic and scenes largely led by drawn-out dialogue, what really keeps Infinity Baby engaging is its dynamic cast, and none more so than Culkin as Ben. Giving the experienced actor free rein to embody the witty cynicism which has served him well in countless other notable roles, Culkin’s delivery is as sharp as ever in Infinity Baby, and it’s no small accomplishment that he continually manages to make his character fascinating to watch, even as Ben’s deeply misogynistic and manipulative mind is brought to the narrative’s forefront. Aside from providing Infinity Baby with a compelling screen presence, Culkin’s memorable performance also represents the central crux of the film’s messaging, embodying Infinity Baby‘s ambitious themes by following Ben along his unique narrative arc.
As the film itself notes in its final moments, not everyone in the world learns to grow up, and Culkin is most captivating in Infinity Baby when he captures Ben’s steadfast refusal to take accountability for his own age. If anything, Culkin’s character actually regresses throughout the film, rejecting the maturity the world normally associates with working at a profitable company in favor of the irresponsible youth romanticized by the American zeitgeist. This subversion of typical narrative convention highlights the irony that Infinity Baby derives from its absurd premise, proving that the real infinity babies are the men whose bad behaviors are emboldened by a system of unchecked profit.
Infinity Baby‘s colorless visuals capture the soullessness of the product-driven world it presents, but thankfully, despite the movie’s rampant materialism, Byington’s film isn’t all depressing. With a third-act twist that throws the whole premise into question and no small number of heartbreaking relationships, Infinity Baby devotes as much time to the small, understated moments of emotion that humanity navigates as it does to the systems seeking to exploit vulnerable infants. In the end, the futuristic comedy comes off as tender as it is timely, a film that captures the excesses of capitalism at a time when those same excesses have never been more pronounced, as well as a thought-provoking meditation on human connection that will leave you thinking long after the final shot fades.
