Seekers of Infinite Love: Rip Roaring Cult Comedy | SXSW 2026

Families. Most of us have them, love them, want to wring their necks out if you spend any extended amount of time with them. It's natural; they're the people who know you best in the world, and that kind of intimate recognition is as infuriating as it is heartfelt. It’s also the central emotion Victoria Strouse’s Seekers of Infinite Love drives along, which, having taken a good 20 years to develop before premiering at SXSW, is blisteringly comedic proof that success is sometimes a marathon run, not a sprint.

Raised by inattentive parents and racked by a bevy of phobias and addictions, the Bachman siblings can barely share a room without devolving into an argument. Elder brother Zach (John Reynolds) is a dickish lawyer with a secret passion for folk music; middle child Kayla (Hannah Einbeinder) is a novelist with agoraphobia and terrible taste in men; while Wes (Griffin Gluck), the baby of the bunch, is content to waste his money on sports bets and drugs. When little sister Scarlett (Justine Lupe) up and joins a cult—the eponymous Seekers of Infinite Love—the trio embarks on a wildly winding road trip, with an off-kilter deprogrammer (Justin Theroux), to rescue her, finding love, trust, and maybe a chance at family harmony.

Seekers of Infinite Love is slow to build, but once it does, you can't help but strap in for the ride. Strouse’s script is subtly brilliant, setting up its characters and very smartly characterizing them with a frightening collection of flaws and avoidant tendencies. I've been putting stock in John Reynolds since I watched him carry the very acerbic but disappointing OH, HI! on his back, and I love being right. His role as the reluctant leader of this family reads like a straight man to the hijinks surrounding him, but Reynolds plays Zach with this light dose of insanity that shows he's not quite as above Einbinder and Gluck’s more obvious abnormality as he likes to pretend he is. Gluck and Einbinder's stellar chaos demons, the former passing out and weathering the road in an ADHD spiral while the latter shines as a needy, nervous mess with no clue what she's doing. The way that Einbinder holds a gun in this? Crazy, like it has to be seen to be believed.

Though essentially a breezy road movie, littered with obstacles and attractions—mostly in the form of actor cameos (Missi Pyle as a fat camp directress, or Greg Kinnear’s tether ball themed cult leader) and crazed setpieces (the car chase is an all timer)—the Finding Dory writer stamps her directorial debut with a startling amount of heart that sets it apart. Hewing to the indie spirit of Little Miss Sunshine, Seekers Of Infinite Love looks at all our dysfunctions with relentless understanding, complicated by cracks and all the mistakes we make, but…still good, and better for being glued back together. It’s a film that wouldn't feel out of place in the 2000s indie scene, its confessional honesty spiked by jokes that aren't crass but…gently sick and twisted? And so super totally relatable if you have siblings. Come for Hannah Einbinder, but stay for the whole crazy family.