Saturday, May 18, 2013

Zenith (2010)


So, I'm a little late in posting this. Let me explain: 
  1. When I started this project I wanted to review all genre of movies. While I hadn't pre-selected my movie, yesterday I wanted to do something in the horror genre. I just couldn't do it. I will at some point, but a lot of stuff is torture porn, which I just can't watch.
  2. The movie I did end up choosing is Zenith. Once I finished watching it, I had this, "What the fuck did I just watch" feeling. Not because it was super weird or gross. It's a convoluted story with multiple framing (story telling) tools that left me extremely confused. I thought I'd better watch it again just so that I can explain how bad it is properly. And because I felt this way, you better believe there will be a spoiler alert at the bottom.
According to IMDb.:

A retro-futuristic steam-punk thriller, about two men in two time periods, whose search for the same grand conspiracy leads them to question their own humanity.

The movie begins with an older man, Dale (Raynor Scheine), turning on a camera and recording another man, Ed (Jason Robards III). The Ed begins to explain the Milgram Experiment. They then "muscle" their way into a house. A gun shot is fired, and the camera is dramatically rustled about and then goes to black.

We then cut to the main character, Jack aka Dumb Jack (Peter Scanavino). He begins to explain his story. The year is 2044 and the world has been genetically engineered to be happy. However, with this happiness,  the world has also become numb. Emotional words and feelings are lost to the world as no one has reason to use them anymore, except Jack knows these words. "Virtue, Comfort, Curiosity, etc". Jack is a med school drop out turned drug dealer. In this dystopian world, the drugs of choice are emotions; epiphany, pain, etc. Ed is Jack's father, now dead, and one someone he still resents. The movie captures Jack, falling down the same conspiracy rabbit hole that his father fell down.  

Jack searches for these tapes with the help of his mute friend, Nimble (Al Nazemian), random old-timer friend Mateo (Arthur French) and eventually a bookkeeper, Vito (Michael Cates)

We being to see that Ed, once a preacher, has become wrapped in the conspiracy theories of the world and it began with him happening upon a book called Zenith. He records his thoughts on VHS (really???) and subsequently numbers them. At least that's what I believe the tapes are.

Jack finds a tape years later and then begins the hunt. Not just for the tapes but for the answers to the questions Ed had been searching for. Along this search he meets Lisa (Ana Asensio). A woman who "knows words too." She is the wife of a very rich and powerful man. When she predictably finds herself in trouble, Jack rescues her and they then begin a romance.

Literally, mid-way through the movie (minute 40) they begin to share the plot.  Up until this moment it was all background and build up. But wait, there are no real new plot points.  The only thing new thing is that the beginning moments of the movie (when Ed and Dale go into the house) are explained and Lisa and Jack's love really begins to bloom. We are given more about how Lisa's trapped in the marriage and how there is virtually no way to get out.  

Before I spoil this movie let me air a few things out.

Let me tell you how many elements you'll have to deal with if you watch this.  Ed in live action. Ed through a camera. Jack reciting words in a camera. Jack in live action. Jack doing voice overs throughout. Jack speaking in the third person. Cuts to numbers meant to show you the order of these mysterious tapes. A search for the truth and the conspiracy that's covering this up.  The obligatory love story that gets intertwined.

This movie is billed as being made by Anonymous.  I don't know if this is the hacktivists group (whom I do have the utmost respect for) or some other entity that didn't want their name out. Either way, this movie is awful and I don't blame people for not wanting their name attached.  But perhaps I'm not being clear.  The acting is fantastic. Perhaps a bit forced at moments, but believable. My problem comes from the story trying to hard. to be too many things. There are so many ideas in this movie that the viewer gets a bit lost and having to focus on so much that is only peripherally related is dizzying. 

Lastly, I have a problem with dystopian story-telling. They chose the year 2044, which seems lazy. VHS's are not still a thing, let alone VCR's to play them on. It's almost as though they chose a time so close to the current date so that design of costume and creativity wouldn't be necessary. They could have taken a huge leap forward and said 4167. Design aesthetics could have been explained by a halted society.  With numbness comes a lack of beauty and a reverse evolution of society. Not a big deal, but an annoyance throughout. The movie relied so heavily on dark, muted colors and run-down abandoned environments. This, to me, didn't feel like a strong story-telling point of view. Just a personal opinion though.

Spoiler Alert

Jack is prepared to leave the area with Lisa, but destiny intervenes   Another tape is found and it traces back to Lisa's husband. In the last 20 minutes of the movie we are given back and forth few of Jack and Ed confronting the same man, Lisa's husband, Berger (David Thornton) or is it Schleimann, because at this point the story is so confused it's hard to know who everyone is and what the truth really is. 

Ed is brought to Berger. When speaking to Ed, it seems it is at the beginning of the moment when happiness is going to be pumped throughout the world and genetic engineering will allow people to live for 300 years. Ed is told there is no conspiracy, that it's all about happiness and that we now has a choice, he can leave the house and go back into the world where everyone thinks he's crazy, or he can have a new life. This new life would give him a new face, a job, a new chance.

On the other side there is Jack. He enters Berger house with a gun not wanting answer, but Lisa. See Berger tries to give Jack the same chance as Ed, but Jack leaves no room for discussion.  Oh, by the way, Jack has epilepsy. It's mentioned in passing throughout the movie but does not become a main tool of the story until this moment. When Berger sees Jack won't listen to reason, be pushes a button and turns the room into a strobe light, that severely cripples Jack. In this moment, while the strobe light is flashing a few things come out. Vito, the bookkeeper, is really Ed. Lisa is pregnant but doctors are giving her an abortion at this very moment. He could have had eternal life with them, but he decided to be dumb.

He wakes up in a hospital room unable to remember much, but being addressed as Ed Crowely. According to the calendar, the year is 2012. Apparently he had a brain tumor which caused a brain tumor and the epilepsy. It's weird, it seems we are meant to believe that all that transpired is a brain malfunction in Jack (Ed's?) imagination. Or has he been exiled from his world so that his mental balance is always called into question?

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