Trigger Warning: Viewers with audiovisual sensitivities may find elements of the film disconcerting or triggering due to various auditory elements.
If you’ve seen some of the more recent V/H/S anthology movies, then you know their stories focus around a central VHS tape that starts the story going, veer off into sub-stories, then come back to the central tape to finish the anthology off. What does this have to do with Simon Glassman’s Buffet Infinity? It feels like that central tape — something that is interesting in a segment, but at a 99-minute, feature-length run time, it runs its course. The gimmick and style become a little *much* at times, quickly wearing thin the novelty of what is presented, leaving a little bit of dullness in the second act before the truth behind the smorgasbord of offerings gives the film the final kick it needs to be memorable, even though it took a little while to get there.
Image from BUFFET INFINITY. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Buffet Infinity starts (and essentially stays) through the singular POV of the “viewer,” in this case the audience, watching advertisement after advertisement. Whether it is about competing buffets, a car dealership whose manager is fighting off the evils of price gouging, or a lawyer who’s as despicable as one assumes and slightly insane, it’s everything one can expect from the television in the ‘90s on a late Saturday night, surfing for something to watch. But it expands into something evil, something sinister, something unexpected, and something for the audience to get behind. We slowly find out there is a sinkhole in town — we don’t see the sinkhole, we get cut off from it, but it’s used in the adverts for directions and to state that one place is better than the other due its distance from the sinkhole.
Image from BUFFET INFINITY. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
That is not where the intrigue ends. We get a red screen (something ominous), something unusual, and a black dot with cryptic messages. Could this be a message from a different universe? Can it be someone or something trying to talk to us? There is something embedded here, something horrifying, something deranged in this, but it is the hook we need. It keeps us interested and invested in what is happening between this endless cycle of ads and their stories as they become more unhinged and unglued and more disturbed.
Image from BUFFET INFINITY. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Some of these appear to be recreations of real television ads, continuing to run throughout the feature and get more and more absurd, insane, and rather hilarious in a dark twisted way. For Simon Glassman to not only create this world for us to get sucked into, but also manage to curate the content and direct his vision of madness to be something coherent (even if it is a little bumpy of a ride to get to the finish line) is impressive nonetheless. While the film is a cornucopia of madness, the underlying dread and mystery that lays afoot is something of intrigue and excitement that needed to be tightened to fully come together and work.
BUFFET INFINITY writer/director Simon Glassman. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Partnered with Buffet Infinity is also the equally chaotic and entertainingly hilarious Shrimp Fried Rice. This pairing allows audiences to truly be prepared for the chaos that Glassman has brought forward. Creating a world and story around old adverts and making them a coherent movie with some truly sinister aspects is an ambitious take for a first feature in the director’s chair and behind the pen and is a marvelous feat to pull off. With some tighter editing and better pacing, this all-you-can-consume adventure would have felt more satisfying and less bloated.
Screening during Fantasia International Film Festival 2025.
For more information, head to the official Fantasia International Film Festival Buffet Infinity webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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