Firstly: No, this is not some kind of villain centric spinoff from The Flash. Secondly, what the feces is going on in this movie?! Zoom is a new trippy action comedy drama animated movie starring Alison Pill as… Well, I think I’ll just let this rather lengthy synopsis handle that part, as it’s all kind of weird.
Emma (Alison Pill) is a comic-book artist who works by day in a factory that makes sex dolls, which is messing with her head. In an attempt to get herself closer to the plastic fantasy image that surrounds her, she makes a rash decision. Then she decides she wants to reverse that choice, but it’s too late and too expensive to turn back. Fortunately, Michelle (Mariana Ximenes), the aspiring novelist writing Emma’s story, gives her a way out. In turn, Emma controls the story of Edward (Gael García Bernal), the filmmaker at the centre of the comic book she’s drawing. He’s a successful action-movie director with no shortage of confidence and an urge to make more artistically ambitious films. But, in a cruel joke, Emma takes her pen to the root of this man’s vanity, shrivelling his confidence instantly. He begins to struggle with his film about Michelle, a Brazilian model living in Toronto and trying to write a novel about a cartoonist. In a bid to escape the fashion world and immerse herself in her writing, she returns to Brazil, finding a small fishing village where the pressure to complete her novel leads her to Alice (Cláudia Ohana), a hotel owner who changes her life. Of course, the hand of Michelle’s creator, the action-movie director who wants to be a serious auteur, is never far behind.
Okay, so just so that we’re clear, this movie actually tells of an aspiring young novelist who is writing a book about a comic book artist who is going through some stuff which she then takes out on her comic book character, a Hollywood director who is having issues with his film, which is about an aspiring young novelist writing a book about a comic book artist. Got all of that? Probably not.
Anyway, here’s the film’s trailer which cuts down a bit on the Inception-styled overlapping realities, then throws in sex dolls and creepy mustached drug dealers as well for good measure.
Zoom also stars Tyler Labine, and is scheduled for limited release on 2 September.
Last Updated: August 23, 2016
