Rent Zeros and Ones (2021)

Dismal (literally) - Zeros and Ones review by Alphaville

The clue’s at the beginning, before the opening credits. Star Ethan Hawke appears in person to tell us what a great film it is. Nice try, Ethan. He appears again at the end, totally bemused, to say that was a promo and that he didn’t understand a word of the script. He took the part only because of writer/director Abel Ferrara, who’s made some interesting if not always convincing films in the past (eg The Bad Lieutenant). Ethan probably now wishes he’d stayed well away.

It’s such amateurish nonsense you’ll probably give up on it before any of it makes sense… if it ever does. Technically, it’s filmed in darkness with a handheld camera and mostly in close-up (‘guerrilla filmmaking’). In other words, there’s nothing interesting either to see or to hear.

Have a laugh at Ethan’s performance on the trailer and don’t be fooled by the exciting music.

You don't need to eat the whole steak to know that it's tough - Zeros and Ones review by MD

I didn't understand any of it. The movie jumps from one scene to another and none of it follows or makes any sense. Maybe it's just me. I watched about 3/4 of it before I fell by the wayside. It wasn't a pleasant thing to see, whatever it was.

Dull and Incoherent - Zeros and Ones review by GI

An incoherent and muddled film from director Abel Ferrara who seems to be channeling Michael Mann type stylings with chiaroscuro lighting in city nighttime scenes and blurry handheld camera work offering lots of grainy close ups. Even the soundtrack is very reminiscent of Mann's films. But there's an incomprehensible narrative that ultimately leads to a boring film. You watch hoping something good is going to happen but no, you're just disappointed. Ethan Hawke, no doubt attracted to getting to play two parts, is ostensibly some sort of American soldier cum mercenary who is in Rome to prevent a terrorist attack on the Vatican. He's also interested in finding his twin brother who may be dead, maybe in prison or held hostage... to be honest I'm confused about this. There's some strange scenes involving Russian gangsters and lots and lots of characters watching footage on cameras or computers which after awhile becomes all very meaningless. This ends up as a boring exercise in indulgent film making and it's not worth your time believe me.