#apartment zero

I fucking love this movie. Absolutely love it. Colin's performance is incredible, and so is Bochner's. The script is great, the side-characters are very well realized and flushed out, the plot is interesting. It's very dark, this is not a fun romp through the countryside, and it builds on the central mystery and final turn in a very subtle, effective way. Adrien wants to be Jack. Adrien wants to fuck Jack. Adrien wants to be Jack's most important relationship. Adrien doesn't want Jack to leave. Adrien needs Jack to need him in return. Jack is officially dead in Argentina, a ghost of a previous, bloody time, haunting Buenos Aires. He's "anything you want me to be."

Both men have no inner lives--they don't feel things for other people. Adrien compensates for this with his movies, and his flat is covered in headshots of famous people--the only faces on his walls with two exceptions. A portrait of his mother in his bedroom, and she is ill now, has dementia and is dying and appears to be the only friend he has ever had...until Jack. Jack is a perfect sociopath. He knows how to wear the right mask to appeal to the person in front of him, and the movie shows him shuffling from one mask to the other as he befriends/seduces the other tenants in the building--despite Adrien pleading with him to NEVER talk to the neighbors.

Adrien begins to suspect there is something up with this guy. There are summaries that indicate he's suspicious of Jack being the serial killer targeting the city, but he never indicates that's his concern. His paranoia is much more personal, and it's the same paranoia that keeps him isolated in his flat and his cinema--a paranoia of being "spied" on and "chit-chatted" and "chipped away". A paranoia that comes from having a secret that weigh on him day and night. I don't think Adrien ever considers Jack might be a serial killer, and when he learns about Jack's actual past, he doesn't seem interested in exposing him.

I'll stop there because I do not want to spoil anything. I went into the movie completely cold, and I think that's a good way to watch it. It's a shame that it doesn't appear to be available on streaming and I can't find a DVD, however, it is available on youtube.

Movie Review 10/10. I love this film. It's satisfying on a character level, a plot level, a direction level, a cinematography level, everything. It's available on Youtube and definitely worth a watch. And you don't have to take my word for it.