Killing Zoe (1993)

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nTitle: Killing Zoe (1993

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nDirector/Writer: Roger Avary

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nCast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hughes Anglade

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nReview:

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nSo the story with director/writer Roger Avary is that backnwhen they where nobodies, Tarantino and Avary worked in a  video club in Los Angeles called ‘VideonArchives’ ; a place of gathering for cinephiles and future film directors andnproducers. This video club turned out to be Tarantino and Avary’s breedingnground, after working there, they both went on to have successful filmncareers. Avery and Tarantino collaborated in a couple of films like ReservoirnDogs (1992), True Romance (1993) and Pulp Fiction (1994), though for whatevernreason, Avary would go uncredited on some of these projects. Both of thesentalented individuals parted ways because as two great creative outputs, theirngeniuses would clash. Currently Avary says he can’t hang out with Tarantinonbecause in Avary’s own words: “he sucks stuff from me”. Hey, I’d be pissed toonif my buddy would steal ideas from me and then call them his own, or get allnthe credit for them. The lessons here being, don’t share your ideas with anyone,nespecially not Hollywood people.

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nBut anyhow, Avary has gone on his own path in Hollywood. Hisnfirst attempt at directing a film was Killing Zoe, a bank heist movie notnunlike Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs in that it’s a heist movie in whichneverything gets blown to hell. There’s two kinds of bank heist movies out there,nthe ones in which the heist is spectacularly pulled off, and the ones whereneverything goes wrong. Well, this is one of the ones where everything goesnseriously wrong. First we meet Zed (played by Eric Stoltz) a safecracker whontravels to France in order to help an old friend named Eric pull off a banknheist. All he has to do is break the safe, get in, get what they want, get out.nThe heist sounds simple enough to Zed, especially when the tough shit is left tonEric and his gang of misfits. All Zed has to do is open the safe. Nothing muchnto this films plot except the question that everyone asks while watching thisnkind of film: will they pull of the heist?

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nWith Killing Zoe, you definitely feel like you are watchingna Tarantino film, there’s drugs, hookers and violence, only Killing Zoe is anbitter affair, there’s no comedy to the proceedings. Avary seems to have a morenacid outlook on things and it’s because of this that Killing Zoe is such anserious affair. Save for Eric Stoltz ‘Zed’ and Julie Delpy’s ‘Zoe’, most of thencharacters in this film are not likable at all, they feel like real douchenbags. The first taste of bitterness comes when Zed has had sex with Zoe and theynimmediately like each other. They seem to be really hooking up, but then Ericncomes storming into the room and coldly kicks Zoe out of the room even thoughnshe’s completely naked! What a douche bag! So right off the bat, we get a tastenof this Eric character, who is very obviously a real asshole. He’s the kind ofncharacter who’s bitter sweet.  He’s Zed’snlifelong friend, but he is also extremely rude. We then have to hang out withnEric and his gang of equally douchie junkie friends during a night of debaucherynin the streets of France. Eric tells Zed “I’m going to show you the real Paris”.

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nThis whole crazy night was a great part of the film; Inreally got the vibe that I was hanging out with a group of low lives who likento live on the edge. They’ll try every drug they can, push the limits of whatntheir bodies can take. They hang out in these seedy pubs, doing heroin whileneveryone watches. You kind of have to wonder how they are going to pull offnthis heist with the hangover they will probably have the next day. This part ofnthe film feels genuine, probably because the script is partially based on Avery’snown experiences while visiting Paris, you have to wonder what kind of tripnAvery took to inspire a film like this, but anyhow, after a crazy night of drugs,nbooze and broads, the movie shifts into the heist which starts out well enough,nbut soon degenerates into a blood bath.

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nEbert called this movie “generation X’s first heist movie”nand the first film from the “film generation”. This whole “film generation”nthing that Ebert referred to in his review makes sense, considering this filmncomes from a real cinephile like Avery. These are really the best kind of filmsnin my book, the filmmakers behind them feed off other films and then do theirnown updated version of the movies they love, with their own style infused intonthe proceedings. Tarantino, Scorcese and Del Toro are this way, they are allncinephiles, true lovers of cinema that make movies influenced by hundreds ofnother movies they’ve seen before. Though to be honest, I couldn’t reallyncompare Killing Zoe to anything I’ve seen before! It has its very own style andnmood, very realistic, gritty and violent. It’s got that nihilistic 90’s vibenthat the youth of that decade had. I remember being a teen during the 90’s, thenyoung people of that decade were very angry, very upset at the world; theirnmusic was not happy music. This is where grunge came from, from all that pentnup anger.  The characters in Killing Zoe havenan anarchic “fuck everything” mentality to them, these are men who don’t give ancrap what happens to them. To them, life is just one big fat stupid joke notnmeant to be taken seriously.

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nThe only real problem for me with Killing Zoe is that thenfilm is very thin. It’s only about these crazy pissed off characters pullingnoff a heist, with not very much to say about anything. One of the charactersnhas Aids, and some seem to think the film is some sort of metaphor for aids,nbut honestly I didn’t see that. Zoe and Zed have a pseudo romantic involvement,nbut it’s doesn’t go further than their first encounter as hooker and customer.  For a movie coming from a writer, to me KillingnZoe didn’t have any depth to it. It has crazy characters, violence, nudity,ndrugs, and an overall chaotic feeling to it, but did it say anything to me pastnits crazy characters and situations? Not in my book. In comparison ReservoirnDogs has all sorts of themes and depth to it, Killing Zoe simply has itsnkinetic energized style, that’s it. This could have something to do with thenfact that Avary wrote the film in a couple of weeks when producer LawrencenBender found this abandoned bank while scouting locations for Reservoir Dogs. WhennAvery heard of this location, he immediately wrote the screenplay based on his experiencesnwhile traveling through Paris. This is probably why the “hanging out with thencrazy junkies” part of the film feels so genuine. Not that I’m complaining, I’mnsimply saying that Killing Zoe is a good example of style over substance. Butnis it boring? Not in the least! The film entertains with its sordid charactersnand the complications that occur during the heist, just don’t expect anythingnmore than that.

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nRating: 4 out of 5       

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