Zen Noir

The pre-credits opening scene of Marc Rosenbush's 2004 film "Zen Noir" shows an undershirt-wearing, unshaven, classic film noir detective gazing at himself in the bathroom mirror and saying in voice-over, "The morning fog clung to the city like the scent of desperation on an aging drag queen. Why do I talk this way?" Marc had me at the title of his film, but these first lines clinched the deal.

I stumbled upon the title of this movie in a list of Zen-related films on the IMDb. Never having heard of it before, I looked it up, and immediately set about getting myself a copy of it. "What is not to like," thought I, "about a movie that combines a love of film noir with Zen?" The answer to that koan, as it turns out, is very Zen in itself: Nothing.

Still in voice-over, our nameless detective describes how he got involved in his latest case: "I'd been up all night and had just hit the feathers when the phone went off like Easter Sunday in my skull. A guy with an accent -- Japanese maybe -- said to haul ass to the temple, 'cause someone is about to die. 'What temple,' I said, 'and who the hell are you?' but he'd already hung up. Three synagogues later it occurred to me that there aren't a lot of Chinese Jews, so I wound up here -- barely conscious, half asleep, and with a murder to solve." Cut to a Zen monk banging on a gong to call the monks to practice. The monks arrive, and sit there meditating. The first monk suddenly utters a kind of grunt and falls over, dead. The other monks at first just keep meditating, and then two of them look quizically at each other, like "What now?" Then the detective barges in wearing a trenchcoat and pointing a gun at everybody. "Nobody move," he says. Nobody was moving before. Then he says, "OK, who's in charge here?" and the two monks who looked at each other earlier turn and point to him. "My kinda movie," thought I.

Low-budget without looking it, this guy's first (and so far only) movie is a delight. Not Academy Award material, but a lot of fun, especially for a group of seekers watching it together and passing around the tofu popcorn while chuckling. Funny, and even with a spiritual lesson or two to teach, because it proposes a truly excellent koan.

Spiritual seekers are all detectives, eating an orange and trying to solve the mystery of their own inevitable murder at the hands of life. The koan posed by this film's Zen Master is, "You gonna freak out, or eat orange?" If you can find it, I suspect you'd really like this film. If nothing else, it's full of great one-liners you can chuckle over with friends like yourself who might like this sorta thing. Don't bogart the tofu.

A detective receives a call about a murder at the Buddhist Temple. He enters the Zendo, with his gun drawn, and pointing it at the rows of black-clad, shaven-headed meditators, shouts "Nobody move!" Now, if you get the humor in that, this film is for you. If you do not get the humor in that, please avoid this one; you'll feel bored, confused, and cheated.

This is a clever little Indie about the zen experience. The casting is good, the dialog sufficient. It's funny and sad and pithy and cosmic, and the writer/director struggled for many years to make it happen, but it's a film for insiders only. There was a steady stream of people leaving the theatre the night I saw it - maybe 20% of the audience left the place -- which is unusual for San Francisco. People are usually on the patient side here, especially with "art films" and exotica. Even I did not stay for q & a with Rosenbush. As I mingled with the crowd leaving the theatre at the end of the film I was hearing a lot of negative comments, but they were the comments of people who had no idea what they had just seen. How many people have a background in emptiness and egolessness? These are just not common concepts in American pop culture.

This film is opening in a dozen cities next month, which is good, but there should be a disclaimer so a lot of people don't waste their money, time and attention, and give it a bad rap, which it definitely does not deserve.

P.S. For a much more accessible treatment of Buddhism, see the diamond-perfect Korean film "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring Again." No pre-requisites for that one.

P.P.S. - I got a real kick out of the review from Boulder. Ha! If there ever was a film made for Boulder Buddhists, this is it. Probably the only place on earth, outside Dharmsala, that would draw a packed house and a standing ovation. ha!

"Zen Noir" is overall an enjoyable film with a decent storyline, but it has many amateurish elements that weaken the production significantly.

The story involves a nameless detective investigating a possible murder at a Buddhist temple, only to find his perspective on life challenged and transformed as he learns more about the situation. It's a simple concept that presents a pretty broad illustration of some Buddhist tenets, but the detective's character arc is engaging and strong enough to carry the story. I did not find the film's treatment of Buddhism too esoteric, as it concentrates mostly on the detective's perspective and growth.

The writing is mostly clever but has uneven parts. Despite the film's overall dedication to witty and unexpected dialogue, it includes moments like a sophomoric "laypeople are people who can get laid" joke. The comedic aspects in general feel very forced and weak, consisting of silly and predictable gags or very awkward slapstick. The director clearly didn't know how to make slapstick acting visually funny but insisted on trying a few times anyway, disrupting the film's otherwise thoughtful flow.

The detective and the monks are adequate actors, but the woman playing Jane proved very dull and tedious. It felt as if she was cast primarily to pad out the film by speaking very, very slowly as if she was bored with the script. The biggest problem with Jane is that we're supposed to care about her character, but she doesn't have any particular appeal or even interesting qualities.

The film is only 70 minutes, though, so if the concept of a hard-boiled detective investigating at a Buddhist temple sounds entertaining or amusing, you can probably get some enjoyment from Zen Noir. Honestly, if this film had been cut down to a mere 45 minutes, it would probably have contained all its necessary and most engaging elements.

If David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and the Buddha ever got together to make a film, this would be it. Zen Noir is that rare movie which engages you on every level – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And it's also funny as hell!! Rosenbush has a thorough understanding of both the noir genre AND zen practice, and he has managed somehow to merge them inside a single story. The gorgeous, powerful visuals and beautiful, haunting score reminded me of Bertolluci's Little Buddha, but with less sentimentality and more belly laughs. Deep and slapstick, sad and surreal, this is a truly inspiring work of art. Marc Rosenbush is one of the most original filmmakers I've come across in a long time, and I'm really excited to see what he does next!

As a reasonably good cinematic demonstration of the outward practice of Zen, "Zen Noir" will resonate with some viewers, annoy others, the difference owing largely to the exotic nature of the topic. The film is nothing if not different. A shallow, assembly-line Hollywood teen flick it is not.

With few exceptions, the story takes place in a meditation room, known as a Zendo. Enter a frazzled, 1940s-style "detective" trying to solve a murder. He's something of a blockhead, at least to begin with. But the contrast between his chaotic drama on the one hand, and the quiescence of the Zen students on the other, is stark, which thus conveys to some extent the point of Zen. The Zen students constantly offer the detective a cup of tea, which only frustrates and exasperates this "important" man trying to solve an "important" puzzle.

The film is in color, but most scenes appear in varying shades of black and white, with other muted tints thrown in for variety. Shadows and geometric angles add visual interest. Camera work involves lots of close-up shots. Music trends eclectic. Funky jazz alternates with complex music suggestive of the cosmic, and gong sounds punctuate throughout.

Dialogue veers toward elliptical terseness at times followed by periods of silence, during which the visuals convey the underlying message. Humor runs through the entire film. Sometimes the humor is subtle; sometimes it is more obvious.

Viewers who prefer conventional plots and big-budget Hollywood-style films will not have the patience to sit through this film. To these viewers "Zen Noir" will come across as boring or pretentious or both. For me, this low budget, indie film works. I give it high marks for originality, unusual visuals, great sound mixing, and thematic depth.