Alison Pill co-stars in Zoom, a film that skillfully weaves together animation and live action yet is lacking in character.
Michelle (Mariana Ximenes) is writing a novel about Emma. Emma (Alison Pill) is drawing a graphic novel about Edward. Edward (Gael Garcia Bernal) is directing a movie about Michelle. Duuude.
Though Zoom skillfully weaves together animation and live action, I was not stoned when I watched it, and I'm not a fan of plot-plot-plot. So it left me meh. It's all situation, no character. The people are mere pieces that get moved about. The situations strive to be Outrageous!; instead, they're simply noisy.
Emma, who makes life-like sex dolls, gets caught up in the lust for surface beauty, and in a cocaine deal. Edward, an action-flick director who wants to make something beautiful, suffers from a shrinking penis. Michelle, a model, wants to be taken seriously, so she goes to Brazil, because they co-financed the movie – I mean, so she can write. Once you figure out the gimmick, you're left waiting for the situations to resolve. (That is, waiting for the film to end.) A movie that decries shallowness should go deeper.
Johanna Schneller