CLUB ZERO
(director/writer: Jessica Hausner; screenwriter: Geraldine Bajard; cinematographer: Martin Gschlacht; editor: Karina Ressler; music: Marcus Binder; cast: Mia Wasikowska (Ms. Novak), Sidse Babett Knudsen (Ms. Dorset), Elsa Zylberstein (Elsa’s Mother), Amanda Lawrence (Ms. Benedict), Sam Hoare (Fred’s Father), Mathieux Demy (Elsa’s Father), Amir El-Masry (Mr. Dahl), Ksenia Devriend (Elsa), Luke Barker (Fred), Florence Baker (Ragna), Samuel D Anderson (Ben), Gwen Currant (Helen); Runtime: 110; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Bruno Wagner/Philippe Bober/Mike Goodridge/Johannes Schubert; Gold Rush Films; 2023-Austria/France/UK/Denmark/Germany-in English)
“The pointless and irritating psychological drama is a cult film, supposedly a satire on environmental gurus that go too far in their ideas.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner (“Little Joe”/”Lourdes”) directs and co-writes with regular collaborator Geraldine Bajard a modern-day retelling of that classic Middle European folk tale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The pointless and irritating psychological drama is a cult film, supposedly a satire on environmental gurus that go too far in their ideas. It is set in an elite UK based international boarding school that has a new radical nutritionist teacher, Ms. Novak (Mia Wasikowska). She’s a believer in ‘conscious nutrition’ or ‘zero eating,’ who warns her gullible adepts that eating big portions is harmful. Ms. Novak forms a disturbing relationship with her extracurricular class (5 girls & 2 boys). They side with her by connecting her theory with such things as climate control, saving the planet, eating disorders, self-control, detoxifying the body and too much consumption.
What makes it a bad watch is that all the characters, especially those Gen Z-ers, are so detestable and full of themselves. In one revolting scene the teenage girl (Ksenia Devriendt) eats her own vomit.
The film’s nicest person seems to be the progressive principal, Ms Dorset (Sidse Babett Knudsen), an advocate for democratic values and free speech. Ms. Novak, on the hand, is an advocate for ideas that become pathological under her teachings. The filmmaker has no trouble mocking the teacher’s absurd ideas.
Last year Ruth Mader’s “Serviam-I will Serve” played at the Locarno film fest. It was a much stronger film that had a similar plot.
It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 5/26/2023 GRADE: C+