Review of Killing Zoe (1993) by Maz H — 01 Aug 2007

I don't know why this movie passed me by for so long, but last night I finally watched it and what can I say, it was brilliant. The acting is amazing, the story is gripping and the cinematography is poignant and dark.

A lot films have stereotypical "good" characters for the audience to feel an affinity with; but make no mistake, there are no heroes in this film.

One can't help but notice that the main character, although smooth and sexy, is involving him self with something ridiculously stupid. Zed also seems to have trouble standing up for him self, especially against his friend the ringleader, Eric. Even in the first 10 mins of the film he's hard to like for these reasons. He is however, the only character in the film you can feel any kind of empathy for. This is mainly because he is the main character and it's almost as if we are made to.

I'm sure one could empathize with Zoë if she wasn't featured and characterized so little throughout the film. Her role is a very important one however, and I think we spend such little time with her in order to realize that Zed is just starting to live his life (Zoë means "life" in Greek), when he meets feels an affinity with Zoë. The audience is suppose to see what Zed sees and feel what Zed feels. He doesn't get to know Zoë well during the course of the film therefore neither do we.

Another way this is achieved is through the cinematography. If you remember during the sex scene switching between the black and white horror film that was on the television and a naked Zoë from the perspective of Zed, who was lying below her. We see what he sees. Most of the shots in the first half of the film are fairly close up as well if you remember, this gives us a sense of closeness to Zed, and also of nervous tension, which is the emotion he must be feeling coming to a new city for such a reason as armed robbery.

One of the things to remember when watching this film is that in order to to enjoy and appreciate a film, you don't nessecerly have to like the characters or what they do. On quite a few occasions during this film I found my self flinching, especially at the treatment and portrayal women and of course the homicidal actions of some of the main characters. However, this film is an enthralling roller coaster ride of violence, drugs and depravity and despite everything cringe worthy, it is very enjoyable.

The acting is very natural, so much so that one wonders if some of it was ad-lib. Eric Stoltz is wonderful as always and Jean-Hugues Anglade is the best I've ever seen him. He plays a really good maniac!

Roger Avary really should stick to what he's good at and make more films like this one.