Club Zero

At an elite private school, teacher Ms Novak (Mia Wasikowska) starts a club called Conscious Eating for a group of students.

The filming style is slow with long uncut scenes. The dialogue is often done in a hush. That has more to do with the characters. It is a dark comedy that leans more on the dark. Some of these people are not acting reasonably especially the principal. She really should be more concerned about getting sued by one of the parents. For people who have dealt with the issue, this may hit close to home. For me, I get the sense of dread and frustration and hopelessness. It's like a cult where these young people get trapped by it.

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.

The film addresses a very interesting and distressing topic, but it was not executed masterfully. The performances are good and the story gradually keeps us intrigued, but the work in general doesn't have much of a "pulse". The film spends a long time without going anywhere, and when we think that a climax will arrive and that we will be shocked, predictable or simple things happen.

At least I'll say one thing: The background scene during the end credits is very interesting and a little scary. I think it was the scariest part of the film, but obviously I won't say what it's about here because I don't want to spoil it.

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.

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.