Club Cero

I know this movie has gotten no so good responses from critics and the public but I personally liked it. Filmmaker Jessica Hausner clearly has an thought-provoking concept about nutrition, diets, and a satirical approach on control and misguidance. While the narrative does feel lacking and certain concepts does leave me starving for more, I still found the atmosphere, deadpan approach and style to be interesting.

The production, costumes, and the settings is colorful and beautiful. The dialogue is weird as admittedly, it does feel too fake but whether it was intentional on the direction, I did like some of the weird dialogue choices. The performances were mostly solid while there were a few dull performances.

Obviously the movie fault lies on the lacking of certain concepts and some of the style feels way too similar to Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos. Overall, I know this movie isn't liked but I don't think it's as bad as everyone has said.

I found this film rather fascinating because at the present time my 10 year old great granddaughter is being manipulated and brainwashed by her father and her school.

It's takes a little getting used to the pacing of the film, but once you do it's almost hypnotic. The sets and costumes are eye candy to me. The direction thoughtful and intentional. Some one commented about the end credit scene......for me it was extremely reminiscent of the Leonardo da Vinci painting The Last Supper. The message one could get from the film is that if we want anything to change we will need to change our beliefs, not turning to any religion or cult, but by limiting our consumerism while we still can. Our children's children's children are already paying the price for our follies.

Club Zero is categorized as a comedy/drama/thriller but in my opinion it's just a drama. Not really thrilling and certainly not funny or whatsoever. Not a bad drama though. It's all about control, brainwashing, dieting and self control. Almost like the beginning of a cult. Everything looks very minimalistic, from the decor to the dialogues to the cinematography. The acting was good and that from the entire cast. Mia Wasikowska plays the weird brainwashing teacher and did a convincing job. It's all watchable, just don't expect too much action as it's mostly deep conversations about basically eating disorders. I don't know if they tried to make a point, but it's a fact there is a lot of bad food on the market, just look around you if you live in the USA and you will see the results of bad nutrition everywhere. It's not a coincidence the vast majority is obese or has diabetes, it's all about what you eat.

I saw this premiere in Cannes and absolutely hated this film. I simply didn't get the point and understand why I was watching it. I think it was meant to be satirical, but it felt poorly executed and scripted. Nothing in this movie really shocked me and the film seemed as bland as its meticulously crafted aesthetic. The movie felt very long at time and the tone was quite somber. At the end of the film I kept wondering why did this movie get made, and how did it get into the competition.

Some of the things I enjoyed were the actors were quite good. The actor playing Fred will probably have a great career. The art direction was quite on point.

I would not watch again.

There are films that gives you ample time to ponder why it was made in the first place.

While having a supreme premise, the storytelling is pedestrian at best as it resolves to the mere treatment of a thesis. While this thesis contains elements of a satire with its overdone costumes and with its lifeless model house settings it lacks any sense of humor or wit.

There is nothing close to what I would call acting in this movie. Actors, some of them very talented, some of them even among my favorite actors, are as stiff as a log, reciting lines that could have been written by sophomores on a home assignment on nutrition.

My biggest takeaway was that even great actors can appear to be hopelessly untalented and hollow with the proper direction. There is no subtext at any moment whatsoever. I am assuming this is intentional. For me it ruined what could have been an engaging take on group dynamics.

During what felt like an eternity of incremental losing hope this film would go somewhere, I kept wondering why no one during financing, casting, shooting, editing and especially releasing had a hunch that a story poorly told could be a waste of time.