SXSW 2026 Review:
"The Seekers of Infinite Love"
“The longest relationship you have in life is not with your parents, your children, or your spouse—it’s with your siblings. Is this a gift from the universe or is a life sentence in the psych ward with lunatic roommates?” writes Hannah Einbinder’s author Kayla Bachman at the beginning of writer/director Victoria Strouse’s SXSW 2026 quirky and intuitive familial comedy The Seekers of Infinite Love. How you process Kayla’s observation depends on your own relationship with your sibling or siblings (if you are fortunate--or unfortunate--to have one or more). For Kayla, it definitely falls into the latter category, at least for most of the time that The Seekers of Infinite Love is on the road. Kayla is anxious and pedantic, which feeds into her complicated relationship with her elder brother Zach (John Reynolds) and her younger brother Wes (Griffin Gluck). Zack is an annoying know-it-all lawyer whose life is very much in order. Wes is a graphic novelist with a drug habit and a gambling addiction that play into his fast and loose lifestyle. The three must put aside their differences when their sister Scarlett (Justine Lupe) joins a Doomsday cult called the Seekers of Infinite Love. They hit the road with deprogrammer Rick (Justin Theroux) to persuade the emotionally and psychologically unfulfilled Scarlett to “evacuate voluntarily” from the cult. Strouse fuels The Seekers of Infinite Love with the overwrought dynamic between the three siblings. Without Scarlett, who appears to the only sibling Kayla, Zach, and Wes individually get along with, the three can’t seem to get out of each other’s way. Strouse mines many laughs from the distrust, suspicious, and resentment the three share. But, of course, Strouse employs Scarlett as a unifying factor and the road trip as an excuse for the three to hash out decades of bitterness and intense sibling rivalry, which seems to stem from their parents’ “selfish version of love,” per Scarlett’s rationale for joining a cult. As with any keenly aware road comedy, reaching the destination is not as important as what happens en route, and The Seekers of Infinite Love does an amusing and admirable job of forcing its three combative siblings to get to know each after years of taking each other for granted. Strouse’s aim is not to resolve all issues between the three but for them to connect in a meaning way for them to start working on their toxic relationship. And Strouse throws in a few unexpected and hilarious incidents on the road that requires the three to work together in a way they have never done. While ostensibly an ensemble comedy, The Seekers of Infinite Love places its primary focus on Kayla, who comes across as an extension of Hannah Einbinder’s Hacks comedy writer Ava Daniels. Einbinder, masterful at conveying neurotic neediness without demeaning her characters, maintains the center of attention without drawing away from her fellow cast members. John Reynolds strikes the right balance of sarcasm and aloofness to Zach, whose superiority complex masks many of his insecurities. (Zach is an aspiring singer-songwriter, and one of his seemingly derivative songs is used to good effect in the third act.) Griffin Gluck digs deep into Wes’ self-destructive way, resulting in a silent cry for help that Kayla and Zach must acknowledge and answer as best they can. Justin Theroux’s Rick is positioned as the glue that holds everyone together. He’s delightfully blustery as the seemingly calm and centered deprogrammer prone to speaking in idioms and jargon (which makes him attractive to Kayla). But Theroux brings an air of mystery to Rick that makes his interactions with his clients are the more intriguing and potentially harmful to the mission at hand. As with another SXSW 2026 dark comedy, Saviors, The Seekers of Infinite Love realizes that a little of Greg Kinnear goes a long way. Kinnear offers a serenely silver-tongued cult leader who is skilled in luring in and manipulating the weak and the willing to his own ends. To all others, Hal is just another charismatic egomaniac out to control his blindly loyal followers and damage their lives in the process. Whether writer/director Victoria Strouse intends for Hal to a stand-in for a certain politician with an inexplicable but highly devoted cult of personality is open to question. But The Seekers of Infinite Love is very much concerned with what it takes to bring a divided family together. To this end, Strouse offers a funny but insightful examination of sibling relationships in need of repair. Sure, those relationships represent a life sentence of sorts, but Strouse contends they are a gift if you treat them as such. Posted: March 30, 2026. Web site: https://schedule.sxsw.com/films/2241401 |
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