Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jessica Hausner
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Mathieu Demy, Elsa Zylberstein, Amir El-Masry, Ksenia Devriendt, Florence Baker
Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner clearly
didn't get the memo that we're no longer supposed to draw attention to
people's weight, regardless of how unhealthy they appear. If we see
someone putting themselves in danger with alcohol, drugs or cigarettes
we're still encouraged to intervene. But if someone is similarly
jeopardising their health by eating too much or too little, we're now
expected to leave them at it. We mustn't "body shame." We've been gaslit
by cranks who try to convince us that someone who is morbidly obese is
as healthy as an Olympic swimmer. When a female celeb loses so much
weight that her fans begin to express their concerns on social media,
the celeb in question will post a video reassuring the plebs that
they're in perfect health. In the past we would recognise this behaviour
for what it is, an obvious deflection, but now we're supposed to feel
bad for worrying over someone's scary weight loss, to feel like we're
bullies for even mentioning it. When I was in school teachers would
regularly ask kids if they were eating enough and even contact their
parents to question their diets. Doing so today would probably get a
teacher fired.
With Club Zero, Hausner attempts to satirise our current awkward moment with weight
loss. Trouble is, it's just not funny. Not because eating disorders are
no laughing matter - any subject is ripe for ribbing - but because
Hausner and co-writer Géraldine Bajard fail to inject
the sort of black comedy that the subject matter requires. There isn't a
single amusing line of dialogue or visual gag to be found here. Not to
get into the realm of ethnic stereotyping, but Hausner is from the
sombre school of Austrian filmmaking that has produced the likes of
Haneke and Siedl, not exactly known for their laughs. We're left to
wonder how this might play in the hands of more natural satirists and
absurdists like Solondz, Lanthimos and Ostlund.
Australian actress Mia Wasikowska continues her
commitment to avoiding Hollywood and working with more interesting
auteurs from the indie and arthouse scene. Here she plays Miss Novak, a
nutritional guru who is hired for a post at an exclusive English
boarding school and tasked with teaching a class on "conscious eating."
The small group of students who take her class do so for a variety of
reasons, ranging from wanting to have a positive impact on the
environment through lowering their consumption to simply getting the
extra credits required for a scholarship.
Novak's pseudo-science initially involves focussing intently on the
food you put in your mouth. Her pupils are encouraged to take a small
morsel on their fork and gaze at it contemplatively before chewing it
very slowly, to consider every bite. The idea boils down to "the slower
you eat, the less you eat." But as Novak gets her hooks into the kids,
she leads them down a dangerous path, encouraging them to become members
of "Club Zero", her real or imagined society of people who have learned
to exist without eating at all.
Club Zero is set in a vaguely identifiable world that looks like the 1970s
but which also features cellphones. The children are all English but
their parents are mostly European. I'm not sure what Hausner is
suggesting with this odd dichotomy, but it really doesn't add anything
of thematic import. The brightly coloured, immaculately laid out
production design suggests superficiality and sterility, but why the
retro stylings? The reactions of Novak's students are curiously racial
and gendered, with the sole black pupil the first to drop out, followed
by one of two straight white males (the other attends the classes but
stuffs his face outside of them). Of the four students who fully embrace
Novak's methods, three are white girls and the other is queer-coded and
possibly trans. The suggestion that straight boys and young women of
colour aren't as susceptible to image issues is frankly bizarre.
For Club Zero to work we need to buy into the idea of Novak exerting a
cult-like control over these kids. Lumbered with a vaguely Central
European accent, Wasikowska has none of her usual charm as the dry Miss
Novak, so it's difficult to understand why the kids are so in her
thrall. The young cast members seem confused regarding what tone they're
expected to register, and so their performances all come off as flat and
monotone. At one point, Hausner ironically tortures one of her young
cast members by making her eat food she has just vomited up in an
unbroken take. It's probably the only part of Club Zero that will be remembered. If you're looking for food for thought
on the subject of eating disorders, Club Zero will leave your brain rumbling like the hollow stomachs of its
deluded young protagonists.
Club Zero is in UK cinemas
from December 6th.
