Um Ponto Zero

In the near future a young software engineer is the victim of scheme for his mind. Paranoia and fear take over in a quest for survival. The horrible end seems inevitable. For he will be less and less able to make the difference between real and unreal, who to trust and who not.

The viewer is in the same position here, so you also have to make up your mind and try to figure out what is happening here. The clock is ticking.

Nice obscure characters and reliable acting by most of them. Although the dialogues could have been a little bit more acute.

If you like movies which leave you search for answers and will not give you all of them, go see this one. A little bit like Cronenberg.

What begins as a paranoid gloss on David Lynch's "Eraserhead" (the central character is an antisocial loner in a fittingly creepy apartment complex) eventually unravels and stalls due to its own hyper-allegoric art-house pretensions. But for a while, it's an engrossing, unconventionally entertaining tale of a computer programmer (Jeremy Sisto) who receives empty packages inside his apartment...even after he changes the locks. While it's clearly a work of science fiction, the conceptualization of "the future" is presented in a minimalist manner–save for some complex-looking computer screens and virtual-reality scenes–that envelops the cerebral thriller elements quite nicely. In addition to "Eraserhead", it also bears some resemblance to David Cronenberg's more playful "eXistenZ," with a similar emphasis on the blurred line between hallucination and reality (metaphors abound), but the double- and triple-crosses the plot lays out eventually become tiresome.

Paranoia 1.0 portrayed a not-so-distant future of isolation and corruption. Our protagonist - Simon J - suffers from the very beginning and his deteriorating state grows exponentially by the end. There is a clever gimmick behind his "sickness" which I can agree to be plausible.

This cinematic adventure's strengths are not in the casting, but in a grim atmosphere that entices the viewer with a special peek into the world of a paranoid being. This is done exceedingly well and I give much respect to the set designers.

Overall, 1.0 is a look into what corporate power may one day be able to exact upon the masses, in ever evolving, technologically proficient world.

It is easy to draw parallels between this movie and contemporary science fiction like The Matrix or less astute films like the Thirteenth Floor.

However, there is another level of storytelling in this film, something very akin to the way science fiction was told in the late 50's. Reminiscent of classical Twilight Zone or the more modern Cronenberg tradition of weird but very compelling scifi, One Point O makes a point that very few contemporary science fiction films does: it's not about effects or flashy stunts, convoluted terms or flashy names for characters. It's about the actor, director and the film crew telling a story.

The film is strange, no doubt, and maybe somewhat inaccessible to many viewers. But it delivers everything it promises in the outset, and in my opinion succeeds where so many others fail; Minority Report to name but one.

On the contrary to what many seem to think, I found the film quite clear. I had no trouble following the story and wasn't surprised at the end - but in my opinion there is no attempt made to surprise you.

One Point O is a film I will see many times again, as there are so many little details to be found - in the sets, the dialog and the characters.

Certainly it is NOT a film for the impatient.

The film is often compared to Darren Aronofsky's "Pi" and it's actually similarly intelligent and visually creative, yet "Pi" is more consistent and logical. So what we have great about "1.0"? First and foremost is its message, which is very relevant for the consumer society of today; the very discovery of that message while watching the movie is a rather exciting thing, yet it's a common thing for intelligent movies; but that's not the point, the point is that "1.0" warns you about living to consume products, the corporations will never care much about you, they only want money, more and sooner. That's why they would never care much even about debugging the programs they put into their consumers. Of course, this movie is a sci-fi because I think it's virtually impossible to create a virus for the human brain, even with some kind of microscopic electronic "mites". But doesn't, say, propaganda sounds like someone's trying to put a mind virus into your brain, to make it possess your will and so to control it? Or weren't communism and fascism a real kind of mind plague striking billions of people? May be then even there are demons who possess people and make them do things they wouldn't like to, and they are actually mind viruses, thoughts that have an ability to transmit themselves using verbal channels? We should learn to watch attempts to control our will and to resist them, or we won't be human anymore just like those poor people in this amazing movie. 7 out of 10, because the pace of the story is yet too sluggish and the visuals are overly grotesque which I don't really like, here "Pi" did better.