MY DAY OF CINEMATIC WEIRDNESS

 
As part of my first London Film Festival experience - I somehow managed to blag myself a press pass* - I spent half a day at the Shaftesbury Avenue Cineworld.

In that time I saw two films: Terry Gilliam's new feature, Zero Theorem, starring Christoph Waltz, and The Double, written and directed by Richard Ayoade, and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. A double dose of black holes and doppelgangers in two separate servings, here are my twin reviews at less than 200 words apiece.

*I actually got the pass through my former school, but "blag" sounds so much more adventurous.

ZERO THEOREM

Terry Gilliam’s first film since the ill-fated, but enjoyable Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Zero Theorem showcases the former Python animator’s uniquely discordant worldview, as well as confirming Christoph Waltz as the supreme director’s resource. The bald-headed, hunched-over, strangely grotesque Qohen is light years away from the smooth Hans Landa or charming Schultz – we first see him naked and fetal, orbiting the mouth of a star-guzzling black hole. Set in a vaguely satirical dystopia – Qohen is followed down the street by cajoling advertisements – there are definite parallels with Gilliam’s previous work. There are the same officious caricatures – substitute a twitchy, beleaguered David Thewlis’ for Michael Palin’s smiley sociopath in Brazil – and similar themes – Qohen’s sensual cyber-space liaisons with Mèlanie Thierry’s Manic Pixie Call Girl pose whether fantasy can overcome existential angst ala The Fisher King – but Zero Theorem is simply over-packed. Bursting with ideas and talent – Ben Whishaw, Peter Stormare, Sanjeev Bhaskar and a barely recognizable Tilda Swinton all make appearances – Zero Theorem is just not quite magical enough. Still, with a less scattershot approach and more coherence, latter-years Gilliam might yet reclaim his crown as the king of imaginative, surrealist SF/fantasy.  

6/10

THE DOUBLE

The Double, the second film of Richard Ayoade – whose first, Submarine, accrued a BAFTA nom for Outstanding Debut – might not receive enough mainstream exposure to completely revamp his image as Moss from The IT Crowd, but as far as offbeat, art-house adaptations of Dostoyevsky novellas go, it’s a cracker. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Simon James, a lonely, hardworking and underappreciated office drone. He may spy on his neighbor, Hannah – a radiantly normal Mia Wasikowska – with a telescope, but Eisenberg’s wistful expressiveness avoids overt creepiness. Then his doppelganger, a man named James Simon, turns up at Simon's place of work: confident, commanding, a conman, seducer, James is everything he's not. Even side-by-side, identically dressed, Eisenberg’s slight, studied smirk as James Simon sets him apart from the shy, downcast original. As the twin proceeds to take over his life, Simon is forced, against type, to either fight for or surrender it. Subtle, enthralling, and beautifully – if nightmarishly – shot, The Double develops its central Freudian trope magnificently. With cameos by Submarine’s Craig Roberts and the elusive Chris Morris, it also works both as a psychological drama and studied comedy of Kafkaesque frustration. 

7.5/10