Zenith

There is so much to unpack in this film. I saw it a decade ago and followed some of its meta-narratives online when it came out. I saw it again now. It's bewildering to think how much the context is the same but also different from ten years ago - from Anonymous to conspiracy theories to the pharmaceutical references and everything else- reality is truly stranger than fiction. I'll leave it at that, so as not to spoil the fun of discovering this unique film. Zenith is even more timely now than when it was initially released. Lots of comparisons to dystopian films and books have been made, but I would say James Graham Ballard is the most apt one. This film is a wild ride for free souls and open minds. If you take it literally and think that it doesn't make sense that people would take medication to feel pain, or that Jack's inner monologue is not a tongue-in-cheek literary reference, or trust his father to tell you the truth about that famous psychological experiment and consider the ending to be a cop out, you are missing the point. It's like saying why doesn't Godot show up in Waiting for Godot. Duh.

I just re-watched this film. Now almost a decade old, Zenith became a cult underground thing for people in the know back then and subsequently inspired more mainstream films and series that followed its themes, most obviously Mr.Robot. While these projects took some of the ideas and the look and style of Zenith, they toned them down and made them "safe" for mass consumption. Zenith was way ahead of its time and still is. While conspiracy memes and the one percent narrative have become common place by now, the film still leaves you with a lot to process and think about.

Zenith is not a science fiction movie. It uses an imagined future to highlight contemporary issues. It is related to films like Godard's Alphaville, and has no relation to Star Trek and similar. As the credit reads, this is an experiment. It uses cinematic and literary tropes to invite the audience into a dialog about human psychology and societal convention, power and control. Before the latest corporate takeover of cinema, that wouldn't have been unusual. Nowadays, many or most viewers are conditioned to evaluate movies only in terms of budgets, spectacle, celebrity names, and how well they execute trite formulaic plots. If you don't belong to that group, this film will speak to you.

A risky genre-bender that brings the story's central question back in the end to the viewer to answer, it's a rare film that dares this somersault. What do I mean? Commercial narrative movies mostly plot a storyline that ultimately plays to the expectation to entertain. Rarely does a film slap us in the end to wake up out of the trance of watching a movie and re-think what we've seen. Like the Schrodinger cat experiment, we'll only know the answer if we open the box, but the film only leads us to the box. Sometimes that's a gimmick, but given the subject matter, here it's a clever device to get us to rethink everything and reconsider the crucial question of the story. Of course it will alienate many viewers who will watch it because of the "thriller" and "sci-fi" taglines, since it uses the genre formulas only as disguise. Cinematically, it's well done, playing around with standard movie tropes and conventions and crossing some lines but not going overboard. It's a shame Peter Scanavino settled for Law and Order. Based on this performance he could've done much more. Jason Robards III is eerily reminiscent of his late father and David Thornton is brilliant. Why aren't they more present in mainstream movies? Bottom line, recommended if you're up for a subversive cinematic experiment in form and content.

Zenith has a great set-up, once everything has more or less been laid out to the viewer as to what's happening. Its a plot line that calls to mind (and is kind of a blend of) 12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko (which this movie clearly yearns to be) and The Stepford Wives (of all things)but mixes and matches the 3 in such a way that it really feels likes it stands as its own film--which is quite impressive when you think about it.

Movie works best quite honestly when you know as little about it as you can going in--but since you're here on the IMDb--you're gonna figure out the plot eventually anyways so i'll tell you very briefly what its about without giving away any spoilers---In the future (2044) there's an ex med student dealing black market drugs (depressents mostly) in a bleak world where well the things that are bad in today's bad economy/ society get extremely worse. The drug dealer (who narrates the film in 3rd person) eventually finds out his dad was on a never ending quest to stop the current world's conditions from getting worse (which it of course did) and this quest ended up driving him crazy--a fate that the narrator is trying to avoid himself (its not really important what the quest is so much as that it getting done...but its something concerning the mysterious project zenith.) The narrator finds scattered videotapes that his dad left for him to ferret out what can be done to well save the world more or less from these nefarious people who would stand to profit from the bleak way the world currently is...and off we go.

This is a very clever way of having the plot being set in 2 different time lines while running concurrently--- both in the narrator's time (which is the future) and in the dad's time (which is in our current present) where you see the narrator's dad in the videotapes trying to do his thing--the film essentially cuts back and fourth between the narrator in the movie's present and the videotapes of the dad's adventures in the movie's past which is of course actually our present--OH movies--i love you sometimes!) Anyways that gives you an outline of what the film's content is without actually telling you anything about what specifically is happening-- how its happening, or whether or not it all adds up to anything or not. (hint--film tries to have it both ways in its ending...which may prove to be a little too cute for its own good--but by this point i was so wrapped up in the film's narrative that it didn't really matter until i thought about it after-wards.) Film is very very confident in its ability to grab and hold your attention--and it very, very much succeeds on that basic level. Film is extremely watchable-and is very well shot (and edited) to boot. The 2 lead performances are completely perfect. You definitely buy the 2 lead characters as presented. Even if the constant third person narration reminded me a little of Fight Club (another influence?)it was still very helpful in keeping track of what was going on, and which timberline we were currently in.

The only real flaws in the film come after-wards in retrospect while thinking about it--which is of course where the fun in dissecting it comes into play (and will no doubt cloud many viewer's opinions of it overall) But it doesn't really matter because you will be engrossed while watching it--you can debate later on whether or not film adds up to anything--but you'll definitely pay attention to it while its unfolding and that sheer watchable factor cannot be underrated enough.