Paranoia: 1.0 (aka One Point O)

While the theme of this movie is admittedly somewhat formulaic--corporate greed--the execution is definitely original and deserves real notice. Most impressive of all is the powerful atmosphere, which goes a long way towards giving the viewer the creeps. The filmmakers have essentially drowned their visuals in sepia--not a bad thing at all, and strongly reminiscent of, for example, City of Lost Children by Jeunet-Caro.

There's a really effective Lynch-Kafka thing going on here as our main character, Simon J (Jeremy Sisto) gets involved with his neighbors, his landlord, his friend the messenger, and his super, all of whom, he thinks, could be involved in the delivery inside his apartment of a succession of packages which, when unwrapped, are found to be empty.

Neighbors include the overly kinky Bruce Payne, the wacked inventor Udo Keir (he's great), and sexy nurse Deborah Kara Unger. The super, Lance Henriksen, is another creepy turn for this excellent character actor whose rendition of "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" makes you shudder just a bit. Keir's invention is Adam, a talking robot head that takes the place of its inventor's son (he never married and had children), and that mouths off to him and sometimes spews out decidedly paranoid visions to Simon when the latter comes to visit.

The messenger zooms back and forth on his zippy motorbike and tries to reassure Simon about everything. Simon periodically goes to the supermarket to buy groceries, all made by the Farm company, and all of which cost an arm and a leg.

The filmmakers, clever indeed, use a simplified, pared-down approach in creating their twilit, sepia-washed surreal world. When Simon leaves his building to go food shopping, nobody's on the street. When he walks down the hallway on his floor, no other tenants are there. This minimalist technique is effective in providing an isolated world--more precisely, Simon's isolated world. Not only can you not trust anybody, but because of that, you can't trust yourself.

The ending, while somewhat predictable, is nevertheless just as creepy as the rest of the film. In addition, it's always nice to see some lovemaking in the middle of a film like this, because you know that the supposed solace it provides to one or both of its participants is false--that is, the relief they feel is temporary...like life itself (oy, pretentious).

For a shoestring budget effort, this is indeed a very nice piece of work. Highly recommended.

This movie is extremely suspenseful and extremely weird. It has a lot of imagery and subtle hints that require you to read between the lines to figure out what's happening to Simon (main character). I was on the edge of my seat for the better part of the movie. The ending is one of those where you have to draw some of your own conclusions and kind of leaves you hanging. A great sci-fi thriller with plenty of weirdness to keep you guessing.

Science fiction has never really caught my attention as much as the thrilling and intense "Paranoia 1.0" starring indie hero Jeremy Sisto ("May", "Thirteen") and Deborah Kara Unger ("Thirteen"). To tell you the honest truth, it is hard to know exactly what is going on throughout the movie, but somehow it keeps you hanging, wanting to see what will happen next. Not only is this due to the wonderful, clever script, but it is due to the great acting and the beautiful way in which the film itself was shot. It is such a weird, neurotic (if not hypnotic) film, one must keep his/her attention at full force. To put in a nutshell, "Paranoia 1.0" is a wonderful sci-fi/psychological thriller that will give your heart a run for its blood money and your mind, a twist for the better. Highly recommended.

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