REVIEW: CLUB ZERO

3/5

The Last Supper

110 Mins. Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Elsa Zylberstein, Mathieu Demy, Luke Barker, Ksenia Devriendt, Florence Baker, Samuel D. Anderson, Gwen Currant, Andrei Hozoc, Sade McNichols-Thomas, Amir El-Masry, Amanda Lawrence, Sam Hoare, Keeley Forsyth, Lukas Turtur & Camilla Rutherford. Screenplay: Jessica Hausner & Géraldine Bajard. Director: Jessica Hausner. In: Theatres.

First things first, Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner's ('Lovely Rita', 'Little Joe') 'Club Zero' is disturbingly dark, but it's no black comedy. Satirical sure, in how it bites at Western consumerism, but this movie about a college course on intermittent fasting, that needs to slow its roll, comes with a trigger warning that should be heeded at all costs. Especially those who have suffered through eating disorders, directly, or indirectly (speaking to sufferer's family and circle of friends). This movie, or it's central idea that courses through its clinical cinematography, should not garner a cult following. If Netflix's 'To The Bone' with Lily Collins didn't sit well with you, then this one will leave you sick to your stomach as you avert your eyes. With less substance than the hit Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley movie, one particular scene, seemingly done for shock, is truly awful and reminds you of the sickest joke you ever saw on 'Jackass'. A zero-sum.

Sure, this movie has something to say, and for you to work it out all on your own, but it gets too biblical for its own good, or our belief in it. And in this age of 'Deadpool' fourth wall breaks, the final frame is so ambiguous, you'll wonder if this diet drama is actually peddling what it previously promoted as a cautionary tale. Surely not! But we don't want to drink the fasting tea that this idea could be chancing at. Still, we'd like to believe that Hausner's almost classic, like its look, is much more than all this, as it puts a mirror to us above the sink, and makes us think twice before we do everything we can and will to stop hating what stares back at us. Fasting is crucial and even beautiful to some religions (but that's not addressed here, although hinted at in other ways), and environmental and even individual concerns are paramount. Especially in this age of body-shaming, we're both women and men (see megastar Timothée Chalamet's early callbacks in Hollywood) face thick and thin from the peers if they're too big...or too small. Yet Jessica and Géraldine Bajard's story, to its credit, focuses on the dangers of this practice. Especially when other health concerns (like diabetes), and issues we shouldn't be ignorant to, are brought into play.

As controversial as it is cautionary, 'Zero' finally finds a theatrical home here in Japan after competing for the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, last year. Newcomers on their first credit, Luke Barker, Ksenia Devriendt, Florence Baker, Samuel D. Anderson, Gwen Currant, Andrei Hozoc and Sade McNichols-Thomas, all come up aces. So much so, you could have sworn you had seen them somewhere before, like old friends from school, as you care for these characters. Especially Baker, Anderson and Devriendt, whose changing characters show us the effects in all their inglorious consequence, no matter the previous pacificism, or resistance. In their vomit lime green polos, cargo pants and high blue socks and pumps, they could be contestants for the next season of 'Squid Game', this fall, their lives are that much at stake. Concerned parents, played with stunted power by Elsa Zylberstein, Mathieu Demy, Sam Hoare, Keeley Forsyth, Lukas Turtur and Camilla Rutherford, deserve an ensemble award. Ditto in kudos to the teachers of Amir El-Masry, Amanda Lawrence and 'Westworld's' Sidse Babett Knudsen in principle, joining the club. 

Yet it's Mia Wasikowska's teacher in this feature that will really have a hold on you like she does on her apt, raptured pupils. Decked out in fashionable Ralph Lauren polos, tucked into fashionable trousers that she's well and truly wearing, the 'Suburban Mayhem', 'In Treatment' and 'The Double' actress looks like the icon that all her star-gazing pupils want to be in their drab uniform and uninformed existence. But the kids are far from alright in the "wonderland" of this Alice, as the 'Crimson Peak', 'Lawless' and 'The Devil All The Time' star offers the young hearts and minds something they should refuse as they fall deeper and deeper into the hunger induced high of an abyss of this terrifying way of thinking. Wasikowska wows because her character's seeming innocence, purely believes in this way of thinking. Even if it is harmful when swallowed. And that's the crux of what makes all of this so controversial. Mia's best role to date, in terms of complexity, may just be her most maligned, in terms of integrity. But this fearless actress has always brushed outside the lines. Even in the mainstream when it comes to falling down, Tim Burton's blockbuster rabbit hole. For individuals and families going through this, there's a meaningful message to be read in-between the lines. Something we should all do, together. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Lovely Rita', 'The Substance', 'To The Bone'.