Club Zero: Inky Black Satire More Disturbing Than Amusing

By Liz Braun

Rating: B+

Club Zero begins with a disclaimer about eating disorders, which may strike some viewers as comical. It’s unlikely anyone will be laughing at the end.

Ostensibly a dark satire, Club Zero is more like a bloodless horror movie about a Svengali-like teacher and the formation of a cult based on “conscious eating.” (The film concerns alienation rather than disordered eating, but anorexia and bulimia are front and centre here, just so you know.)

Set in a British boarding school, the film stars Mia Wasikowska as the utterly buttoned-up and benevolent Ms. Novak, a new hire who has come to teach what’s described as a nutrition course.

Ms. Novak is a calm and soothing presence who never talks down to the adolescents in her care. That she has some sort of messianic complex is made clear early on; her demeanour is a weird mix of science, maternal care, and religious faith.

In her conscious eating class, Ms. Novak gets each of the students to express their reasons for taking the course. Some are interested in helping the environment, some in improving their physical stamina, some in reducing stress. Reducing consumerism also seems like a good thing, one of the parents observes.

And so, Ms. Novak slowly initiates her flock into eating less, and then less again, and then mostly veggies, and then eventually… nothing at all.

This gradual control over their thinking and behaviour is fascinating to watch, and Club Zero is so beautifully written that Ms. Novak’s teachings usually ring true — as do her affection and encouragement to some students and her ability to mobilize peer pressure as required.

By the time a few shocked parents want to know why their child is so thin, it’s too little, too late. The film has already exposed how ineffectual these parents are, and Ms. Novak’s control over the children is quite advanced.

It’s creepy as hell, watching these kids with no purpose and a desperate need to be doing something important become sucked into notions about self-control and salvation. One supposes Ms. Novak could just as easily have been someone convincing them to strap on a suicide vest. Disturbing as hell, as satire goes.

Written by Jessica Hausner and Geraldine Bajard and directed by Hausner — who has expressed her interest in the fairytale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin — Club Zero is similarly fable-like, all unnatural colours and heightened reality. (A few visual details seem to nod to other fairytale-like movies, such as The Witches.) And the soundtrack is suitably hypnotic and church-y.

The film casts a cold eye on the social order and is particularly hard on the children’s affluent parents. Only one teen, Ben (Samuel D Anderson) has a good, loving, involved mother (Amanda Lawrence). Hard not to notice that she’s a single parent and the rules of patriarchy do not apply at Ben’s house. Just an observation.

As for the other adolescents, Ragna (Florence Baker) controls her parents, Elsa (Ksenia Devriendt) picked up an eating disorder at home and Fred (Luke Barker) has been more or less abandoned by his busy and important parents. Nearly all the young cast in Club Zero are first-time actors; their performances are wonderful.

With the release of Club Zero on March 29 comes news that Hausner’s first three movies, Lovely Rita, Hotel and Lourdes, are now available to stream.

Club Zero. Written by Jessica Hausner and Geraldine Bajard. Directed by Jessica Hausner. Starring Mia Wasikowska, Amanda Lawrence, and Sidse Babett Knudsen. In theatres in Toronto and Vancouver March 29, Edmonton April 5, and Winnipeg April 12.