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Film Review: ‘Zoe’

Léa Seydoux and Ewan McGregor star in Drake Doremus' sci-fi love story about a future of synthetic romance that does't look so far from our own.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Zoe ,” a chilly but soft-headed do-androids-dream-of-electric-love? sci-fi romance, is one of those movies in which the future is depicted as being a heartbeat away from the present, a scheme that serves two neatly interlocking purposes. It allows an ambitious indie filmmaker — in this case, Drake Doremus — to make a science-fiction fantasy on a relatively low budget. It also allows him to make an atmospheric statement about how the technological fetishism of today is fast becoming the only reality of tomorrow.

In “Zoe,” love is something that people still pine for, but it’s been quantified, codified, systematized. Every one of your deepest yearnings is on-line. (Sound familiar?) The film centers on a company called Relationist, which interviews people by computer to match them up with ideally fitting partners (lady-robot voice to prospective couple: “Your chances for a successful relationship are 75 percent. Congratulations!”). The company also markets a drug that simulates feelings of romantic euphoria (“Try Benysol, and fall in love for the first time. Again”). And then there’s its most revolutionary invention, which is just emerging from the experimental stage: astonishingly lifelike synthetic humans, all designed to be the “perfect” partners who will never leave or disappoint you.

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It’s hard to discuss “Zoe” without revealing the film’s essential premise, so let me toss in a spoiler alert before I explain why Cole and Zoe, even when they’re just glancing at each other, appear to be floating on a gauzy romantic cloud somewhere above the rest of humanity. Zoe (pronounced “Zoh”) is a synthetic human, designed by Cole. So is Ash, a Relationist prototype played by Theo James, looking more than ever like a suave young British Billy Zane. These two characters are the film’s dream image of the future; they’re the touchy-feely replicants you want to fall in love with. What makes Zoe even more special is that she’s been designed to have no awareness that she’s synthetic. And Cole, unwittingly, has nudged himself right into the center of his experiment by swooning for his own creation.

Léa Seydoux, from “Blue is the Warmest Color,” doesn’t play Zoe as an eerily flawless virtual beauty who’s too good to be true. On the contrary, she seems just good enough to be true, which is, of course, part of the logic of movies. After all, it isn’t just A.I. nerds of the not-so-distant future who are in the business of devising impossibly perfect human beings. So are filmmakers. (They’ve been doing it for 100 years, starting with Lillian Gish and Cary Grant.) Seydoux, her wide face and toothy incandescent smile framed by straight blonde tresses cut, strikingly, into bangs, speaks with a mild accent, and she floods the screen with awareness. The whole design of “Zoe” is that we never question Zoe’s humanity — her desire, her ability to feel inner pain — because Seydoux, with her delicate radiance, makes it apparent that those things are all too real.

So where’s the downside of Cole falling in love with her? Where’s the dramatic conflict? It’s all there in Cole’s reticence. (In other words, there isn’t enough of one.) Doremus is a talented director, but he’s too in thrall to the elevated sentimentality of his conceits. This is his second feature in a row, after “Newness,” his perils-of-the-hookup-culture love story, in which he has dissected the spirituality of “feelings” in the age of technology. But “Zoe” doesn’t have much to say that’s new on the subject.

The film’s novelty is that Doremus, having devised a sci-fi projection of where the world of digital connection is headed (with a cautionary wink at the use of pharmaceutical drugs to enhance our emotional lives), has built his story around the warm and fuzzy idea that the romance between Cole and Zoe is just fine. In its way, it’s a fashionable light-side-of-the-machine L.A. view of things. If it feels good to love a replicant, do it!

It’s Cole who has the problem. He dives in, then draws back. As Zoe’s creator, he knows more than anyone that she isn’t real. Yet where are his feelings for her coming from? “Zoe,” like Cole, ties itself up in a lot of high-minded hand-wringing, and the result is that the movie, though it’s not badly told, fails to grip you. Could it find an audience? A modest one, perhaps, but it’s too moody, too languid. It should have been called “Fifty Shades of A.I.”

It’s not as if Doremus is above commercial calculation. Once again, he has fallen for a visual scheme — a filtered metallic glow — that’s supposed to be soulful but makes the movie look like a pretentious wine-cooler commercial. And he creates a subplot set in a brothel of robot prostitutes — not realistic ones like Zoe, but obvious synthetic-skinned party-doll androids, notably one portrayed by Christina Aguilera, a piece of stunt casting that works well enough (she’s fine playing a character of sexy vacancy) but that still doesn’t add up to much. Doremus has been spinning out variations on his moony, push-pull romantic vision ever since “Like Crazy” (2011), and here’s some advice to him: He should consider signing on to do something more studio-friendly and less “personal.” Because right now what he’s making is okay, but it’s really just the squishy art version of studio conventionality.

Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (Gala), April 22, 2018. Running time: 104 MIN.

Production: An IM Global, Scott Free Productions prod., in association with Amazon Studios. Producers: Kevin Walsh, Michael Pruss, Drake Doremus, Robert George. Executive producers: Ridley Scott, Stuart Ford, Greg Shapiro, Kate Buckley, John Zois, Lawrence Bender, Michelle Ton Zhou, Li Li, Michael Flynn.
Crew: Director: Drake Doremus. Screenplay: Richard Greenberg. Camera (color, widescreen): John Guleserian. Editor: Douglas Crise. Music: Dam Romer.
With: Léa Seydoux, Ewan McGregor, Rashida Jones, Theo James, Christina Aguilera, Miranda Otto, Matthew Gray Gubler, Helen Johns.

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‘zoe’: film review | tribeca 2018.

'Zoe,' Drake Doremus' robot/human love story, stars Ewan McGregor, Lea Seydoux and Theo James.

By THR Staff

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When they write the histories of our currently developing boom in smart, internet-age sci-fi movies that are concerned as much with love as with guessing how our tech will change us (note to the historians: It was well ahead of the pack, but don’t forget to include 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ), Drake Doremus ‘ Zoe may be cited as a kind of coming-of-age moment: the point at which self-respecting art house films in the genre dipped their toes into the sort of emotional button-pushing employed by their old-fashioned multiplex peers. A human/robot love story that is less deeply imaginative than Spike Jonze’s Her and less heartbreaking than Doremus ‘ own Like Crazy , the picture is nevertheless a beautifully acted, affecting drama that teases some questions society may need to answer sooner than we expect.

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Zoe Reviews

While Doremus' work centers around connections, it's near impossible for the audience to connect with Zoe.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 6, 2018

What helps to set "Zoe" apart is that Doremus aims equally for your head and your heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 11, 2018

Zoe constructs a dialogue between these two critically adored movies and peels apart the kind of fantasy they satisfy in order to obligingly critique it.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2018

In fact, don't bother waiting until the end of this movie to learn the general lesson that you should go into everything with an open mind and an open heart.

The yearning displayed by Cole and Zoe is meant to be profound. But at a certain point the examination of loss in love ceases to show sensitivity and begins to look like emotional immaturity.

Full Review | Aug 14, 2018

While the end result is more tender than tech, twists in the script by Richard Greenberg could rope in a young crowd which is drawn to "can-you-top-this" cyber tales.

Zoe's detriment, as mentioned, is not necessarily any of its individual parts, such as its cast, cinematography, score, or direction. It's that, despite all of this, they don't quite add up to anything more impactful or memorable.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2018

This philosophical questioning of love and authenticity is what makes Zoe so unforgettable among the sea of other festival films.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2018

Slow-moving sci-fi love story falls flat; some sex, drugs.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 2, 2018

"Zoe" gets most of the way there, but Doremus doesn't know when to quit with this drama, which eventually spirals out of control.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 2, 2018

Zoe has plenty of fascinating ideas embedded within its code, but the execution feels more like a test run with a highlight on its weakest points.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 25, 2018

Details are drowned in the tortured love story, which does McGregor, a normally incredibly appealing and captivating actor, precisely zero favors.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2018

Wrestling with the intrinsic creepiness of the premise would involve some social commentary, self-awareness, and honest-to-God storytelling, and that's not Doremus' bag.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 24, 2018

The non-stop, navel-gazing, faux philosophical dialogue about love starts to feel like some strange experiment itself.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jul 20, 2018

Zoe's main focal point is love, and unfortunately for me, no matter how hard I yearned for a connection, I didn't fall head over heels.

Full Review | May 12, 2018

You'd be better served just watching the most sexist bits from The Island and calling it a day.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | May 9, 2018

While the story itself was blasé, the soundtrack's loud, techno beat made my heart race, forcing me to keep myself invested in the film

Full Review | May 8, 2018

This is a movie that casts Christina Aguilera as a robot and yet still manages to be boring.

Full Review | Original Score: C | May 2, 2018

...a floaty, maddeningly sulky film that wants, more than anything, for its audience to feel it. By the end, all we're feeling is wearied out.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2018

Zoe is a film that mixes science fiction with romance in a way that makes it stand apart from the likes of Her.

Full Review | Apr 28, 2018

You can’t replicate emotion. You can’t program heartbreak, anger, or grief; realist artifices aren’t enough. Set in a parallel-world near-future, “Zoe,” directed by Drake Doremus (“Like Crazy,” 2011) and starring Ewan McGregor (“Trainspotting,” 1996) and Léa Seydoux (“La Vie d’Adèle;” Eng.: “Blue is the Warmest Color,” 2013), mulls over the desperate urge to feel a connection to something—or someone. Like all of Doremus’s films, it’s primarily a love story. Its romance, however, is only a front to explore the depths of emotional intelligence and the ability and agency to feel anything.

In many ways, “Zoe” feels like a lost sibling to the director’s 2016 futuristic romance drama “Equals,” a love story in a world where possessing any emotional ability is illegal and a stigma of sorts. What makes this film stand out, however, is the questions it raises on who gets to feel and who doesn’t. Twisted though it may be, the concept isn’t revolutionary. Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982)—Scott, interestingly, also executive produces “Zoe”—and Denis Villeneuve’s subsequent sequel may already have attempted to understand the ethical complexities of artificial intelligence “breaking program” and choosing to tap into their vulnerabilities and volatilities.

Doremus similarly touches on what living means to “synthetics” and how this affects humans around them, but it also attempts to predict the implications of replicating peculiar human emotional triggers. Cole (McGregor) is an AI engineer for a company responsible, in particular, for overseeing the successful completion of a unique drug (Benysol, if you were wondering, not that it’s real) that basically simulates the emotional excitement of first love. While this arc occurs mainly in the background, it pays off with incredible, heartbreaking intensity in the movie’s second half.

Playing the eponymous Zoe, Seydoux delivers a performance that may initially seem stilted compared to her previous works. Stick around, though, and you’ll find a lot of reasons why she’s incredible, not just as an actor, unsurprisingly, but as her character in particular. Playing off her strengths, Theo James (the “Divergent” series, 2014-2016) comes out a surprise winner, his body language delivering onscreen with impressive nuance. He’s what the movie’s inhabitants call a “synthetic,” and he’s perfect as someone on the precipice of replicating romantic love and nursing his own heartbreak.

Perhaps the film’s two most important—and arguably living and breathing—characters are the ambient electronic soundscapes of Dan Romer (“Beasts of No Nation,” 2015) and John Gulesarian’s (“Love, Simon,” 2018) glossy, hypnotic cinematography. Romer and Gulesarian turn Doremus’s vision into an audiovisual sensory experience. The end result might turn contemporary story structures on their heads, but like “Equals,” there’s a bizarre lyricality to its almost whimsical pacing—almost like a visual clash between chaos and order.

The result is a restrained, meditative, and almost poetic look at love, longing, and intimacy, which at this point is practically a long-running motif in the director’s romances. From “Like Crazy” to “Newness” (2017), Doremus has been persistent in his neverending exploration of emotional desolation, alienation, companionship, and acceptance. The conflicts he resolves might superficially look tame, but the intricacies of it all he focuses on making it all the more remarkably haunting. Is it a movie for everyone? No, but the only way to know is to try. And with a director who’s this committed to the exploration of romance, it’s worth it.

True to its uncompromising vision, Drake Doremus gives its viewers a melancholic look at love and emotional agency, if at the cost of limiting viewer accessibility. But that’s a weakness you wouldn’t mind having if you know yourself—and “Zoe” does. At the price of being forever misunderstood, the film comes off as a towering achievement with a singular voice you’ll either love or hate but can’t really ignore.

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Review: zoe.

In Zoe , you see the honeymoon phase but not the emotional intimacy that makes a relationship last.

Drake Doremus’s Zoe may surprise you: once with a standard, “pull the rug out” twist, and a few more times with contradictory shifts in tone and emphasis. The surprises are a mixed bag, but they’re a relief after a smug, technophobic opening sequence, in which we’re introduced to Cole (Ewan McGregor) and Zoe (Léa Seydoux), who appear to be the two principal employees at Relationist, a near-future company specializing in technological solutions to romantic anxiety, like an algorithm that determines compatibility for couples after a series of probing questions. We see Cole and Zoe return to their apartments alone after work, and brace to be hit upside the head with irony and righteous outrage for the next 90 minutes. The people who make dating apps are lonelier than their users! Technology is destroying romance!

Thankfully, Zoe isn’t that sardonic. Relationist also makes synthetics, lifelike robots that are designed to be the ultimate romantic partner, and when Cole and one of his creations fall for each other, the film avoids lecturing us about the dangers of artificial intelligence. This particular synthetic is a hybrid of man and machine, implanted with real memories and feelings that raise questions about the ethics of giving robots the desire to be human and the awareness that they’re not. Zoe doesn’t explore these questions with the empathetic grace of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her , but it engages with a tricky premise, rather than taking an easier, more condescending route.

Cole may think the future of love lies in engineering, but he’s a little squeamish about starting a relationship with a machine he assembled. You may read their romance as somewhat stilted, the result of an uncanny valley that a lifelike replica of a human being can’t quite bridge. And you may read Doremus’s visual style as a deliberate attempt to represent that divide. The film’s world is colored in muted tones, and its characters and their sparse apartments seem to be dressed from a single catalogue inspired by IKEA and H&M. The future feels as if it were designed by algorithm, and so do the close framings and gentle but persistent tremors of Doremus’s camera. His compositions seem to be motivated by the idea that there’s no more profound image than sunlight reflecting off one-half of a character’s face.

Against this backdrop, Cole’s relationship looks more like a performance of love than the real thing. Cole and his partner can smile and stare longingly at each other all they want, but it’s telling that many of their most affectionate moments are captured in montage. You see the honeymoon phase but not the emotional intimacy that makes a relationship last. You can also read Zoe as a straightforward Hollywood romance, in which the difference between love and excitement is indistinguishable. This perspective gains traction in the third act, which shifts the film’s focus toward Benysol, a drug that can make its users fall in love for a short interval. The pills are smashed and poured into water that turns a radioactive blue. It looks like trouble and, obviously, it is; scenes involving a strange hookup culture that begins with glances between park benches create a foil against which Cole can arrive at a somewhat reductive conclusion about his discomfort with dating a robot.

At this point, you may wonder if the questions the film has asked about how closely we want artificial intelligence to resemble human consciousness are simply window dressing for a naïve vision of love that considers failed relationships as unsolved equations missing a single variable. You may wonder if Doremus’s visual decisions aren’t as perceptive as they seem, and fear that when Cole asks for his laptop in an attempt to revive his former partner during the technological version of a medical emergency, he doesn’t realize that he sounds a little ridiculous.

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Zoe review – Ewan McGregor falls for a robot in stylish, dour drama

The director of Like Crazy has made another film about a fractured relationship but strong performances can’t save a story that suffers in comparison to similar, better dramas

W ith 2011’s Like Crazy, writer-director Drake Doremus announced himself as a skilled observer of the heart-swelling highs and soul-crushing lows of being in a relationship. Specifically in that film, the minute intricacies of being in a long-distance relationship played out by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin. It picked up the grand jury prize at Sundance and while the buzz didn’t translate at the box office, it led to Doremus landing a string of starry follow-ups.

While Breathe In, which paired Jones with Guy Pearce, was a moderate critical success, with each ensuing film, Doremus’s star started to fade. Despite a splashy premiere at the Venice film festival and a cast headed up by Kristen Stewart, Equals was a misfire and the following year saw a muted reaction at Sundance to Nicholas Hoult in Newness, later dumped with little fanfare on Netflix.

In his latest, premiering at the Tribeca film festival , Doremus returns to themes that he has now become synonymous with. Like his previous projects, it’s an examination of modern romance and like 2015’s Equals, there’s an added sci-fi bent. In the near future, synthetic humans have become commonplace additions to society. While most inhabit service roles, making drinks and cutting grass, one company has mastered a higher class of robot, virtually indistinguishable from the humans around them. Zoe (Léa Seydoux) works in this lab alongside designer Cole (Ewan McGregor) and the two share a light workplace flirtation.

But underneath the surface lies a secret, something that prevents Zoe and Cole from progressing any further. When Zoe takes a compatibility test at work to check who would make a match for her, Cole is forced to tell her the truth: Zoe isn’t human. With Zoe now aware of who and what she is, so comes a re-examination of the world around her and her place within it. While initially Cole tries to fight his attraction to her, he soon relents and the pair forge ahead into uncharted territory.

There’s an ever-expanding subgenre of films that imagine a future where dating and relationships have been irrevocably affected by technology. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Marjorie Prime, Her, The Lobster and Black Mirror’s Hang the DJ all existed in this heightened territory and all managed to find identifiable truths wrapped up in fantastical packaging. The world created within Zoe exists alongside these, not too dissimilar to the one we’re in now but with a clear, profound difference. Given the rise of AI and, more specifically, the rise of AI aimed at decreasing loneliness, there’s a timeliness to the events that take place in Zoe.

The company at the center of the story creates a range of products that feel a mere modification away from many that are being developed at the moment. There’s a pleasingly casual nature to the way that tech is embedded within the story. While some exposition is a bit clumsy, the world feels mostly well-constructed and easy to believe. It’s not hard to see the appeal of an aesthetically pleasing partner who, as the employees keep reminding us, will never break your heart or leave you. The characters here are weathered by heartbreak, tired of disappointment and looking for something or someone to believe in.

Doremus, and screenwriter Richard Greenberg, have packed their film with intriguing questions. How much of tech is biased by its creator? Is compatibility able to be predicted through an algorithm? How much perfection does one really want in a partner? But while the script’s early observations are delivered with subtlety, as the film progresses others are given a more heavy-handed touch. One of the products in the film is a pill that mimics the sensation of falling in love so couples either take it to briefly recapture their early romance or strangers take it for a more intense sexual high. As with Doremus’s last film Newness, this world of easily accessible casual sex becomes emotionally destructive but the script doesn’t get much further than that hardly earth-shattering conclusion. Although it does allow us to see a robo-brothel with a strange, underwhelming cameo from Christina Aguilera as an android of the night.

One of the bigger problems here is how easy it becomes to compare Zoe with better, richer films of its ilk. The social commentary feels somewhat shallow compared to the perceptive nature of Her or Eternal Sunshine or even a number of episodes of Black Mirror. It’s so stylishly made that one wishes the world on screen could have housed a more emotionally complex story to match.

At its core, there’s a strong, haunted performance from McGregor playing a man wearing his heart and his emotional baggage on full display and at times, he has a naturalistic flirtatious rapport with a striking Seydoux. Yet the film demands so much investment in their relationship that when events lurch into rockier territory, the shift is so sudden that it’s difficult to really feel what is required. There’s also an underused Rashida Jones as McGregor’s understanding ex, a somewhat meaningless role for Theo James as a curious experiment and a campy turn from Miranda Otto as a madam.

Zoe is an attractively made yet dour and often shallow look at love that muddles along when it should be searing a hole. It’s an impressive shell that needs a bigger heart.

Zoe is showing at the Tribeca film festival and will launch on Amazon Prime later this year

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Common sense media reviewers.

Slow-moving sci-fi love story falls flat; some sex, drugs.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Love changes you in profound and unexpected ways.

Cole is a kind, caring, and empathetic but emotion

A woman's hit by a car, no blood or gore is shown,

Several scenes take place in a brothel where peopl

"S--t" once.

Drinking to excess isn't depicted, but many scenes

Positive Messages

Love changes you in profound and unexpected ways. Asks lots of questions about finding happiness, accepting yourself, and accepting others for who they are. Can there be any humanity in something you can turn off? If a machine has feelings, does that mean it's real? You're not going to find what you're looking for in a pill. Brief negative message about being overweight when Zoe admits being embarrassed about the fact that she used to be "heavy" and still has a problem with food.

Positive Role Models

Cole is a kind, caring, and empathetic but emotionally detached. He and his ex-wife model a very good relationship, although early on he's clearly still grieving the loss of their relationship. He's also a loving father. Zoe want to experience everything life has to offer, but what she wants most is for Cole to return her affection, to love and be loved. Ash is supportive and loyal, and he gracefully accepts that Zoe doesn't feel the same way about him that he does for her.

Violence & Scariness

A woman's hit by a car, no blood or gore is shown, and she survives. Some mild fantasy gore when a human-looking "synthetic's" torso is opened.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Several scenes take place in a brothel where people interact sexually with "synthetics." There's no nudity, but one or two brief glimpses of simulated oral sex, and the females are scantily clad in stereotypical prostitute outfits. Lots of kissing, cuddling, and caressing, often in bed but without any nudity or sensitive body parts shown. Blackboard drawings show human reproduction in doodles representing a penis with testicles and a "camel toe" that looks like the letter W. Drops are then drawn from the penis to the camel toe and it's jokingly explained that that's how humans are made. A man is briefly seen nude from behind jumping into water; a woman jumping in after him is seen topless from behind.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking to excess isn't depicted, but many scenes take place in bars or pubs, and adults are frequently shown drinking. A fictional drug that makes people feel like they're deeply in love for several hours comes in pill form and is shown being crushed and mixed into liquids for consumption. The drug use isn't glamorized and consequences, mostly emotional, are shown. One character abuses the drug but eventually stops.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Zoe is a quiet, gently-paced, sci-fi love story. There's a brothel where brief simulated sex acts are briefly shown (without nudity), as well as women in stereotypical prostitute outfits and depictions of people using and abusing a fictional drug. Those and other adult situations make it best for older teens and up. A man is briefly seen nude from behind jumping into water; a woman jumping in after him is seen topless from behind. Lots of kissing, caressing, and cuddling, sometimes in bed but without nudity. Blackboard drawings show human reproduction in doodles representing a penis with testicles and a "camel toe" that looks like the letter W. Drops are then drawn from the penis to the camel toe and it's jokingly explained that that's how humans are made. "S--t" is used once. A woman's hit by a car; there's no gore and she recovers. Brief, mild, fantasy gore when a human-like robot's abdomen is opened. Adults frequently drink alcohol, mostly wine, and never to excess; many scenes take place in bars or pubs. The movie asks a lot of questions about the nature of love and its power to transform, and a lot of typical sci-fi questions about artificial intelligence and the line between real humanity and machine. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

Cole ( Ewan McGregor ) and ZOE ( Lea Seydoux ) are coworkers. Cole designs and engineers "synthetics," robots with the most advanced artificial intelligence that are so realistic that people don't even know the latest models aren't human. Zoe uses computer algorithms to calculate the probably of successful long-term relationships so clients can find their perfect mate. Zoe starts to develop feelings for Cole, but he doesn't seem capable of returning them. When Zoe learns the truth about who she is, it completely shatters her life and her relationship with Cole. Both of them enter a downward spiral, and when they hit rock bottom, they finally understand the transformative power of love.

Is It Any Good?

Two of Hollywood's leading luminaries and talented supporters like Rashida Jones , Miranda Otto , and Christina Aguilera unfortunately weren't enough to help the script find its way out of a paper bag. Just because they're spoken quietly by attractive people, cliches about love and artificial intelligence don't magically become profound. Possibly in attempt to balance some of the awfulness, McGregor and Seydoux improvise a number of scenes, but even those seem forced, possibly because the two fine actors never quite generate any on-screen chemistry.

The quiet, gentle pace of Zoe is sometimes at odds with the lens flare that seems to be mandatory in science fiction movies now. And the pace is sustained throughout the movie, which makes it a bit of a slog from about the halfway point. Adult situations, fictional drug use, and sexuality make it best for older teens and up, although there are many better choices out there for viewers interested in exploring man's relationship to technology and its effects on our emotional well being.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Cole's character. What are his strengths and weaknesses? What about Zoe's?

What other movies have you seen about artificial intelligence, cyborgs, or realistic robots? Which do you like best? Why?

Do you think we'll ever have "synthetics" as realistic as the ones in this movie? Should we? Why or why not?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : July 20, 2018
Cast : Ewan McGregor , Lea Seydoux , Theo James , Rashida Jones
Director : Drake Doremus
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Amazon Studios
Genre : Science Fiction
Topics : Robots
Run time : 104 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : Sexual material and drug content
Last updated : March 31, 2022

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A Robot Romance on Amazon, American Indies and a ‘Taxi Driver’ Commentary

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By Glenn Kenny

July 13, 2018

The best way to approach “Zoe,” a science-fiction romance that debuts on Amazon Prime on July 20, would be to skip past the first 25 minutes. At this point, you can enjoy a good swath of the chemistry between the lead actors, Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux, as their characters discover each other and enrich their time together. They really do make a nice couple. It’s the buildup to this section, and the subsequent fallout from it, where you find trouble areas.

The film’s director, Drake Doremus, first made an impression on me with his 2011 picture “Like Crazy,” a story of young love fraying apart because one character, a British woman with a limited visa, might have to leave the United States. The movie was frank and brisk; its lead performances, from Anton Yelchin ( who died in 2016 ); Felicity Jones; and before-she-was-a-star Jennifer Lawrence were all excellent.

The director took what I considered to be a very wrong turn in his futuristic 2016 romance “Equals,” set in a ludicrous society in which Love Is Forbidden. In 2017, “Newness” brought matters back to the present, critiquing the Tinder-driven dating life with splashy but mixed results. (All these films can be seen on Amazon; “Equals” is free for Prime members.) For “Zoe,” written by Richard Greenberg, Mr. Doremus goes back to the future, focusing on a love scientist, Cole (Mr. McGregor), who’s engineering “synthetic companions.” One of the best employees at his low-rent-looking company is Ms. Seydoux’s title character, who crushes hard on Cole.

After shrugging off the interest shown in her by Ash, a very sleek synthetic, Zoe wonders why her compatibility test with Cole came up with zero chance for a successful relationship. Those of you lucky enough to have seen the 1962 cult film “Creation of the Humanoids” will have guessed the answer by now. Hell, you’ve probably guessed even if you haven’t seen that film.

Despite all the complications, Cole and Zoe take a chance on love. And it’s in these scenes that the movie exhibits the most charm.

I will not trot out Proverbs 26:11 on Mr. Doremus, but I really don’t think sci-fi is his calling. Although the flaws in logic and general implausibility of the proceedings have to be laid at Mr. Greenberg’s feet as well. It’s clear that the world-building here, such as it is, is less concerned with being convincingly futuristic than it is in reflecting the Way We Live Now. After the couple experience a schism, they each seek solace in drug-fueled liaisons with others, and the rationale for sci-fi allegory is pretty much dispensed with.

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Amazon Prime Video

Summary Two colleagues at a revolutionary research lab design technology to improve and perfect romantic relationships. As their work progresses, their discoveries become more profound.

Directed By : Drake Doremus

Written By : Richard Greenberg, Drake Doremus

Where to Watch

Ewan McGregor

Léa seydoux, rashida jones, christina aguilera, miranda otto, the designer, anthony shim, donovan colan, matthew gray gubler, richard brimblecombe, interviewer, arlen aguayo stewart, woman on lab tour, janine theriault, helen johns, muriel théroux, vincent d'arbouze, middle aged guy, kyle gatehouse, average guy, walter lyng, quiz master, jordana lajoie, other robot, patrick abellard, synthetic man, stephen spreekmeester, critic reviews.

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‘Zoe’ Is More Than Just a Movie About Humans F**king Robots

Ewan McGregor and Lea Seydoux in Zoe (2018)

Where to Stream:

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We all knew it wouldn’t be long before we had to ask ourselves, would I have sex with a robot? And now, with the release of Drake Doremus’ latest sci-fi romance flick Zoe (pronounced like Joe) you’ll be facing that question even sooner than expected. Some people might already know the answer to that question, and others will be challenged by this movie, available now on Amazon Prime Video.

Zoe is the typical “less you know about it, the better” movie. The very basics here are that Ewan McGregor stars as Cole, the man behind Relationist Laboratories, a company that has created a compatibility test that determines the likelihood of your relationship lasting, as well as the “synthetics” division, essentially very, very human-like robots that are designed to love you and never hurt you. If it sounds like a lot, that’s because it is.

There are many moments in Zoe where you’ll have to employ a bit of a “just go along with it” spirit to allow yourself to sink into the movie. In no way is Zoe a flawless film — I left with many questions. But once again, no other filmmaker is nailing the way we interact with technology and therefore each other, especially when it comes to romance, the way Doremus continues to. Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult were nearly perfect in 2016’s Equals , the futuristic romance about a world where people don’t have feelings. Last year’s Newness was a bit more realistic where Hoult teamed up with Laia Costa to examine the effect of dating apps on our interactions and expectations.

And for his latest project, with a script from Richard Greenberg, Doremus applies his signature synth-y soundtrack and dreamy close-up shots to deliver a movie that is sure to make you think and feel. There are holes and questions that will arise, but the film is long enough as it is, at 1 hour and 44 minutes. If you like both science and romance, it helps if you’re watching Zoe a bit more for the romance, which ends up being the more satisfying part of the equation, especially when not all of the science seems to add up at times.

That’s not to say the technology isn’t presenting some interesting ideas, but it’s the performances here that will carry your intrigue through the end. McGregor’s Cole, is captivating, quiet and curious in his jeans and sweaters, and Léa Seydoux turns out a more than effective performance as the real heart of the film. Zoe is also stacked in the supporting character department, with Rashida Jones as Cole’s ex, Christina Aguilera popping up as a brothel member, and Theo James coming through with one of the more charming performances of the film.

Again, do your best to avoid the internet and just jump into this movie. Don’t click on IMDB, don’t read full reviews that give away way too many pivotal moments of the film, and maybe even avoid the conveniently placed trailer above. In fact, don’t bother waiting until the end of this movie to learn the general lesson that you should go into everything with an open mind and an open heart.

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Julie Delpy seems to always be the life force for any film that she stars in. In Richard Linklater ’s romantic "Before" trilogy, her Céline was the sun; in her own projects as a writer/director/actor, she's embodied the slight screwball that can emerge from real-life situations, whether they involve electric relationships (“ 2 Days in Paris ,” " 2 Days in New York ") or romps about a jealous adult son's sabotage (“ Lolo ”). And because it’s Delpy determining the energy, the movies are grounded in their own unique space, somewhere between "only in the movies" and "just like real life."

In “My Zoe,” her latest film as a writer/director/actor, Delpy's character Isabelle is the mourning blue of its melancholic story, which presents a mother and ex-wife grieving over her daughter Zoe ( Sophia Ally ) falling into a coma, while clashing with her ex-husband James ( Richard Armitage ), and opting for a futuristic way out of her pain. Delpy handles this in such a raw, aching, trusting fashion. It is stunning then, to see Delpy claim in the film's press notes that it's not a personal story, so much as inspired by a fear of losing her own son. This is more about Delpy's imagination about such a horror, and yet it has the compelling stream of consciousness of watching someone write a journal entry. It's a strong testament to her emotional boldness as a storyteller, in front of and behind the camera.

There is a great deal of slowly building sadness in this story for Delpy's Isabelle, starting with the failed marriage that we get glimpses of in numerous spiteful conversations. Before Zoe is in a coma, the film's biggest problem is about the couple sharing custody of their daughter, trading days and finding some balance, her job as an immunologist often getting in the way. James is vengeful about how the marriage ended, even though there’s a clear urgency within him to try to salvage it. Isabelle broke it long ago, and though she hugs him when he asks for it after a fight early into the movie, she does so with her eyes wide open.

One morning while staying with Isabelle, Zoe does not wake up. Her comatose state, brought by an aneurysm after a playground accident the day before, is a nightmare that the film slowly slinks into. Inside a Berlin hospital, Isabelle and James wait for answers and volley their angst, while Stephane Fontaine's cinematography sometimes catches their spats from a distance, always with an icy blue sheen. With dialogue that’s sometimes clunky with backstory about their complicated past, they seem to only find a break when Zoe's latest news proves too much bear. Blame about Zoe’s condition becomes the only type of resolve that seems in grasp. The news gets worse and worse, and Delpy and Armitage show the natural, quiet wear these developments would have on a parent.

Grief can be freeing, in one small way: it makes one realize what normalities do not matter in the bigger picture. That sense comes in a stolen moment in which James sits next to a similarly broken Isabelle, and slightly reaches for her hand—the desperation to choose peace and comfort instead. And it comes in a major development in Delpy's gradual storytelling, when Isabelle goes to Russia, alone, to see a controversial embryo doctor named Thomas ( Daniel Brühl ) who might be able to help clone Zoe. "I want to smell her little head again," Isabelle pleads.

Like a lot of facets in this movie, you go along with Delpy's emotional propulsion, the same with its more subtle scientific touches (like the world-building that comes from Isabelle's large wristband that turns into a large, flat phone). Thomas is initially hesitant to help, but he sees the pain in Isabelle and agrees, leading to conversations with his own wife Laura (played by Gemma Arterton ), who disagrees with human cloning. Though its placement in the story is intriguing, this subplot can show the weakness of Delpy’s ease, as Thomas and Laura almost put too fine a point of how Delpy the writer/director is embodying this story simply so that others can understand why Isabelle is being so audacious.

But "My Zoe" always comes back to Delpy on-screen, and the way that the movie wants us to process Isabelle's experience right alongside her. The film's energy is her restrained performance, her heavy emotions expressed with muted urgency; the movie switching between scenes of Isabelle's pain swallowed, and then Isabelle's lone determination to do the scientifically improbable. For whatever “My Zoe” lacks in story momentum, it largely makes up with Delpy’s transparent, sincere dedication to presenting such an unfathomable experience. "My Zoe" dares to lead with its feelings, and that fearlessness provides a striking spectacle itself.

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Directed by Drake Doremus

Two colleagues at a revolutionary research lab design technology to improve and perfect romantic relationships. As their work progresses, their discoveries become more profound.

Léa Seydoux Ewan McGregor Rashida Jones Theo James Matthew Gray Gubler Miranda Otto Christina Aguilera Helen Johns Kyle Gatehouse Sarah Levesque Arlen Aguayo-Stewart Jordana Lajoie Anthony Shim Frank Marrs Richard Brimblecombe Stephanie Ng Wan Letitia Brookes Adam Bernett Tristan D. Lalla Vincent D'Arbouze Stephen Spreekmeester Donovan Colan Noémie Leduc-Vaudry Janine Theriault Kai Lennox Walter Lyng Patrick Abellard Daniel Chichagov Chris Sandiford Show All… David Noël Francesca Barcenas Nora Guerch Alexandre Daigle Patrick Baby Eddy Philantrope Ellis Arch Al Connors Alex Kaluza Jason Gangxu Xiang Xiaoli Ruan Béatrice Aubry Ava Brackers Franco Decrescentis Jimmy Chantal Sophie Emma Rose Nichole Bird Jack Thorpe Ediz Ibrahim Ali Dunn Marie France Denoncourt Tim Cody

Director Director

Drake Doremus

Producers Producers

Michael A. Pruss Robert George Drake Doremus Kevin J. Walsh Rich Greenberg

Writer Writer

Richard Greenberg

Story Story

Drake Doremus Richard Greenberg

Casting Casting

Courtney Bright Nicole Daniels

Editor Editor

Douglas Crise

Cinematography Cinematography

John Guleserian

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Sean Vawter Alix Croquet

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Ridley Scott Greg Shapiro Li Li Kate Buckley Lawrence Bender Stuart Ford Michael Flynn Michelle Tong Zhou John Zois

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Sean Stiegemeier

Production Design Production Design

Katie Byron

Art Direction Art Direction

Nicolas Lepage Charlotte Rouleau Josh Crockett Keith Christensen Michael Broom

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Rachael Ferrara Emmanuelle Boies François Archambault Joao Baptista Hans Barzeele Nicolas Clouâtre Bruce Farrell Marc-André Krukowski

Special Effects Special Effects

Michael McCarty

Stunts Stunts

Tyler Hall Dave Mckeown

Composer Composer

Sound sound.

Bryan Parker

Costume Design Costume Design

Alana Morshead Christopher Dooly David A. Brooke

Makeup Makeup

Bruno Gatien Jason Collins

IM Global HLCG Media Global Road Entertainment Scott Free Productions

Releases by Date

21 apr 2018, 19 jul 2018, 02 aug 2018, 28 feb 2019, 11 jul 2019, 20 jul 2018, 08 nov 2018, releases by country.

Digital Netflix
Physical 12
Digital VOD

Netherlands

Digital 12 Netflix

Russian Federation

Theatrical 18+

South Korea

Theatrical 15세 이상 관람가
Premiere Tribeca Film Festival
Digital R Amazon

104 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Kat ★★ 9

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Started off strong but the second half was dreary af. Ultimately it had nothing to say and instead of being some profound movie about how we treat AI it turns into a toxic romance story. Barf.

Ewans character is such a loser in this that a robot literally kills itself lol. Needed way more Theo James and Mathew Gray Gubler. Great soundtrack though.

Review by Brian Tallerico ★½ 1

Imagine if SNL’s Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party just saw Her and wanted to talk to you about it.

Review by davidehrlich ★ 1

Not even Christina Aguilera’s cameo as an obsolete robot prostitute can save Drake Doremus’ inanimate story of designer dating,” a high-concept, low-reward romance that hopefully completes the “Like Crazy” filmmaker’s trilogy of lifeless movies about the near future of love.

It began with “Equals,” a moribund Kurt Vonnegut riff about a dystopian society where emotions have been outlawed. It continued with “Newness,” a banal vivisection of relationships in the age of Tinder. Now this informal triptych bottoms out with “Zoe,” a humorless (and characteristically half-baked) glimpse at a tomorrow in which singles are matched together by algorithms, and the tech community has started creating androids — Synthetics — to satisfy people who would rather build their ideal partner from scratch.…

Review by megan ★ 1

wannabe ex machina

Review by Lorela ★★★★★

Many people find this movie lifeless, but I could feel Lea's emotions better than mine.

Review by renee fournier ★½

the only scene i cared about was the scene of ewan mcgregor teaching theo james how to slow dance

Review by Logan Kenny ★ 2

Zoe walks into the facility and sees a video of her personality tests before walking through and seeing a series of identical robots to her, just a series of replications, she sees the designs in front of her, exact to her being, the things that make her existence obsolete. she has to reconcile the fact that her identity is completely artificial and that her fate is one of being this prototype forever, that she can never live a normal life or even pretend to be one. she already knew that she was fake to them, she could never escape that, even the person who designed her viewed her as fake, not real, just a machine. she stares at them and…

Review by annabel m lee ★★½ 1

i can't believe that matthew gray gubler saved this movie

Review by jade ★★½ 1

if i turn myself into a cyborg will ewan mcgregor fall in love with me

Review by Tabby ★★ 2

IF THEO JAMES SAYS HE WANTS TO BE WITH YOU, YOU SAY YES.

Review by {Todd} ★½ 2

"The future isn't inside of our computers...it's inside of you" -Zoe,

2018 Ranked: boxd.it/1O9TO

In a world where people take drugs that can make them feel love and A.I. is reaching unseen heights, Zoe explores many of the ethical and practical effects of living in a future where emotions and feelings are more difficult to understand.

There are a number of interesting concepts that are fun to work with in this film, but overall Zoe just feels like a rejected black mirror episode or an Alex Garland first draft. The excellent cast is hampered by a boring script and a weird style of direction. This is not a recommend unless you are a hard core sci-fi fan.

Review by Simon ★ 2

UPDATE: FULL REVIEW

Derivative, tedious, and just very, very lifeless. Takes concepts/ideas from far better films, such as Ex Machina and Her , but does nothing new or remotely interesting with them.

Like Crazy was mediocre at best. Equals was boring* . Zoe was absolutely infuriating .

*(so boring that it straight up put me to sleep and, to this day, I still haven’t bothered to finish it) Drake Doremus, please just stop.

More thoughts to come.

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Zoe is the dopey sci-fi love story that doesn't know it's creepy

In the near future of Drake Doremus’ sci-fi inanity Zoe , androids (called “synthetics,” because it’s that kind of movie) have become ubiquitous, but true love remains scarce as ever. Hip and good-looking people turn to the Machine, a computer matchmaker that’s basically OkCupid, or gobble up 100 mg doses of the euphoric drug Benysol, which simulates the feeling of falling in love—both products of a company called Relationist, the market leader in such things. Its latest promises to be a game-changer: a line of next-generation, super-realistic synthetic life partners with glowing white goop for guts, programmed with real memories à la Rachael in Blade Runner . The genius behind these enamo-robots is Cole Ainsley (Ewan McGregor, with glasses and very close cropped hair), a roboticist whose marriage fell apart after he and his ex-wife were given a low score by the Machine. Working late hours at the lab, Cole toils away at a male prototype (Theo James) that’s been implanted with some of his own memories, while his assistant Zoe (Léa Seydoux, with ’60s bangs) watches longingly.

It seems that Zoe (the e is silent, for some goddamn reason) has a serious crush on her older (albeit Ewan McGregor-looking) boss, whose goal of designing a perfect mate for mass production should set off all kinds of alarm bells. But there’s a reason he keeps giving her the cold shoulder: She’s actually the female prototype. There’s a long history of cautionary tales about screwed-up scientists and designer dream girls that stretches from Metropolis to Ex Machina (not to mention the likes of Her and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind ), and Doremus’ staging of this early twist as an “it’s not you, it’s me” break up offers a glimmer of hope that this dull, unimaginative movie might be on to something. Built with only the barest anatomical features, Zoe can’t cry. But, as a sex scene later in the film reveals, her creator did deign to give her some kind of vaginoid orifice. The question of android pleasure is left unaddressed.

My Dead Friend Zoe

Engaged in a mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army, a female Afghanistan veteran comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family's ancestral lake ... Read all Engaged in a mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army, a female Afghanistan veteran comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family's ancestral lake house. Engaged in a mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army, a female Afghanistan veteran comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family's ancestral lake house.

Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
A.J. Bermudez
Cherish Chen
Sonequa Martin-Green
Natalie Morales
10 User reviews
13 Critic reviews
72 Metascore

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris previously acted together in Gone Baby Gone (2007).

User reviews 10

josbodybalance
Mar 17, 2024
How long is My Dead Friend Zoe? Powered by Alexa
November 1, 2024 (United States)
United States
Radiant Media Studios
ReCre8 Entertainment
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Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 38 minutes

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Zoe Saldaña reacts to the Avatar franchise concluding in 2031: 'Great! I'm gonna be 53'

After a major reshuffling of Disney's release schedule, Saldaña remains committed to the 26-year journey.

Zoe Saldaña is in for the long haul.

The actress, who first introduced the world to Na'vi warrior Princess Neytiri in 2009's Avatar , just got word that she'll be wearing blue makeup for many years to come. Yesterday, Disney revealed its reshuffled movie release calendar , which delayed all three Avatar sequels by many years — extending the franchise into 2031.

"Great," Saldaña wrote in her Instagram stories, alongside a screenshot of the news. "I'm gonna be 53 when the last Avatar comes out. I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar ."

While Avatar 3 was only pushed back by a single year, moving from Dec. 20, 2024, to Dec. 19, 2025, the final two installments in the franchise were delayed by a few years. Avatar 4 went from Dec. 18, 2026 to Dec. 21, 2029, while Avatar 5 moved from Dec. 22, 2028 to Dec. 19, 2031. If the Avatar movies stay the course of this slate, then the franchise will conclude after a whopping 26-year journey. Director James Cameron will be 77 when the final Avatar movie hits theaters. As for Saldaña's costar Sam Worthington , who plays Neytiri's husband, Jake Sully, he will be 55.

On the bright side, the young actors portraying their children won't have aged as dramatically. Cameron previously told EW that he took precautions to avoid what he calls "the Stranger Things effect." Cameron made sure that the second and third film, as well as the first act of the fourth, were shot at the same time.

"Otherwise, you get — and I love Stranger Things — but you get the Stranger Things effect," Cameron explained. "Where they're supposed to still be in high school [but] they look like they're 27. You know, I love the show. It's okay, we'll suspend disbelief. We like the characters, but, you know."

Cameron once said that he was content to end the franchise after three movies , if audiences didn't turn out for Avatar: The Way of Water . But following its release, the much-anticipated sequel crossed milestone after milestone, eventually becoming the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. This development also marked a record for Saldaña, who made box office history as the first actor to star in four of the highest-grossing films of all time.

2009's Avatar , 2018's Avengers: Infinity War , 2019's Avengers: Endgame , and 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water have all crossed the $2 billion mark at the box office. If the Avatar sequels follow suit (and a competitor doesn't arise), then Saldaña could keep breaking her own record with each new release.

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This 'Star Trek' Alum's New Indie Dramedy Is Hitting Theaters This Fall

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The Big Picture

The indie dramedy "My Dead Friend Zoe" set to hit theaters on Nov. 1, 2024.
The film stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Merit, dealing with PTSD and a ghostly friend, Zoe, played by Natalie Morales.
Director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes draws from his own experiences, with a strong critical reception anticipated.

Star Trek: Discovery may have crossed the galactic barrier last month, but Sonequa Martin-Green 's next project is coming soon to a theater near you. The indie dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe will be released in theaters on November 1, 2024. Variety reports that distributor Briarcliif Entertainment has acquired the film for North American release.

So far, the release calendar for November is fairly sparse. My Dead Friend Zoe will face the Vatican City thriller Conclave , from All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger , as well as holdovers from symbiotic sequel Venom: The Last Dance , which will be released the previous week. The next week will see the release of two family films; the much-anticipated sequel Paddington in Peru , and the Judy Greer / Pete Holmes holiday film The Best Christmas Pageant Ever . My Dead Friend Zoe has strong critical headwinds behind it; it won the Audience Award at the South By Southwest Film Festival earlier this year, and has been widely acclaimed. In his review , Collider's Matt Donato called the movie "a heartbreaker in the best, most fulfilling way", and praised Martin-Green for delivering "one of the best performances of not only South by Southwest 2024, but possibly of the year".

What Is 'My Dead Friend Zoe' About?

My Dead Friend Zoe stars Martin-Green as Merit, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who's dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and the ever-present ghost of her friend and colleague, Zoe ( Natalie Morales ). Group therapy with Dr. Cole ( Morgan Freeman ) isn't helping, so she decides to become the caretaker for her Vietnam War-veteran grandfather ( Ed Harris ), who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. They'll have to overcome their differences as Merit tries to overcome her trauma and let go of her past - and her dead friend Zoe. Utkarsh Ambudkar ( Ghosts ) plays Merit's love interest, while Gloria Reuben ( E.R. ) co-stars as her mother.

My Dead Friend Zoe was co-written and directed by first-time feature director and former paratrooper Kyle Hausmann-Stokes , who based the film on his own experiences. Writer A. J. Bermudez co-wrote the script. Among the film's producers is Kansas City Chiefs star and Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce .

My Dead Friend Zoe will premiere in theaters on November 1, 2024 . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

My Dead Friend Zoe (2024)

Engaged in a mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army, a female Afghanistan veteran comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family's ancestral lake house.

Sonequa Martin-Green

Daily Newsletter

First Trailer for Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez Starring Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón & Selena Gomez

One of the splashiest and most divisive movies coming out of Cannes Film Festival this year was Jacques Audiard’s musical crime comedy Emilia Perez , which stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez. Picking up the Jury Prize as well as the Best Actress award for its female ensemble, Netflix acquired it for U.S. and U.K. distribution but first it’ll arrive in France this August and they’ve debuted the first trailer.

Emilia Pérez follows the story of Rita (Saldaña), an overqualified and undervalued lawyer at a large firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice. One day, she is given an unexpected way out, when cartel leader Manitas (Gascón) hires her to help him withdraw from his business and realize a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman he has always dreamt of being.

Luke Hicks said in his Cannes review , “In good-spirited fashion, nothing offends. But nothing lands, either. It simply lacks inspiration, which is strange for an Audiard film, the likes of which are never the same. That’s what made the prospect of Emilia exciting and, doubly, its emptiness so flattening. For as patently fierce as it tries to be, it has no bite, no intrigue, no grip on the viewer.”

Watch below and we’ll update if a version with English subtitles arrives.

The Rookie: Why Mercedes Mason's Zoe Andersen Was Killed Off

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Captain Zoe Andersen's death in The Rookie shocked fans, as she was a major character and the first series regular to leave the show.
Zoe's death had a strong impact on the series protagonist John Nolan, who had grown close to her, and it added stakes and tension to the show.
Killing off Captain Andersen was a way to establish real stakes, showing that no character is invincible.

Captain Zoe Andersen, played by Mercedes Mason, started on The Rookie as a major regular character. Naturally, fans were shocked when she was killed in Season 1, Episode 16, "Greenlight." The episode delivered an unexpected twist when Andersen received a fatal wound during a shootout against a criminal gang. She was the first series regular to leave, but she wasn't the last. Surprising and tragic, her death was used to set a precedent on the police procedural that no character is ever safe from consequences on the show.

Andersen's death strongly affected series protagonist John Nolan, played by Nathan Fillion, who had grown close to his commanding officer. His inability to fit into the police force as a geriatric rookie was a big part of the first-season premise of the show. It's also not uncommon for dramas to kill off characters, and The Rookie has killed off more than one . However, Andersen's death rubbed viewers the wrong way. It occurred early in the series, and she was as well-loved by the audience as by the show's characters.

Updated by Jordan Iacobucci on June 12, 2024: With The Rookie Season 6 in the books and a seventh season on the way, this article has been updated with new information and to adhere to CBR's current formatting guidelines.

Who Was Police Captain Zoe Andersen on The Rookie?

Mercedes mason's character was an important authority figure on the rookie.

Mercedes Mason as Zoe Andersen the Rookie

Trivia
, including a flashback sequence in Season 3.

20 Shows to Watch If You Like The Rookie

The Rookie is an effortless blend of police procedural and human drama, but how many other shows like that are out there for fans to watch?

Before the events of The Rookie , Zoe Andersen previously served in the Marines and the United States Pentagon Police Force. After joining the Los Angeles Police Department, she proved a hard worker and dedicated officer, distinguishing herself from other rookies and rising through the ranks. When she became a captain, Andersen wanted to change the police force for the better. She strongly believed in leading by compassion and held her officers accountable for their actions. In the pilot episode, she revealed that she had personally requested Nolan for her unit, a show of faith the character hadn't yet gotten from his peers on the force.

Unlike many other characters in The Rookie , Andersen took Nolan under her wing throughout the season because she appreciated his perspective and life experience, believing he would serve the police force well. But her story was tragically cut short after she was taken captive by Cole Midas's gang in "Greenlight." Irritated by Andersen's lack of fear and refusal to grant his demands, Midas knocked her into a swimming pool while she was still tied to a chair, leaving her to drown. Andersen managed to break free from her restraints and killed several gang members. Midas shot back, and a "lucky" shot hit her in the neck . Even if Nolan hadn't been bound to a chair himself, there would have been nothing he could do to save her.

It was a shocking moment in the show's history. It is meant to differentiate The Rookie from other police procedurals that put characters in harm's way that the audience knows will ultimately be fine. Since no announcement was made about her departure beforehand, it was a shock. Yet, as the show goes on, the Season 1 characters who remain in the series, now approaching its seventh season, feel "safer" than ever.

How Andersen's Death Affected The Rookie

Zoe andersen's death wasn't the plan from the beginning, but felt like the right choice.


IMDb Rating	Rotten Tomatoes Score	Streaming
8/10	76%	Hulu
5.3/10	86%	Buy/Rent on YouTube

Split: Lucy Chen (Melissa O'Neil) and John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) in The Rookie

The Rookie's Big Romance Nearly Doomed the Series

The Rookie's pilot episode introduced a romance between Nolan and Chen that would have ruined the series if it had continued past Season 1.

Although Mercedes Mason has never formally spoken about her departure from The Rookie , she live-tweeted during the episode's broadcast and told fans, "I just want to say thank you guys for being so supportive of the show and of me." In The Rookie 's third season, she returned to make a cameo appearance when Andersen was seen in a flashback showing Nolan, Lucy Chen, and Jackson West's graduation from the police academy. This shows that despite being killed off early, she still has a fondness for the series and is eager to return whenever the show can accommodate it.

According to showrunner Alexi Hawley, Andersen's death wasn't always part of The Rookie 's plan. "We went back and forth about it in the writers' room. But it ultimately felt like the most dramatic and powerful way to impact our story, " he said via Twitter in response to a fan asking why she was killed. In a second Twitter post, Hawley further explained that "It's heartbreaking. But the stakes of this new life Nolan has chosen are all too real, and we can't run away from them creatively." Zoe Andersen's death on The Rookie took a valuable ally from Nolan's corner, but losing his former mentor and friend motivated him to work harder toward advancing his career and honoring her memory.

Since then, other series regulars have left, though not all the characters have been killed off. Nolan's original Training Officer, Talia Bishop, left the series after actor Afton Williamson alleged she experienced a pattern of racial discrimination from executive producers, the makeup, and hair department. Following her departure a few seasons later, Titus Malkin, Jr.'s Jackson West was killed off, too.

Killing Off Captain Andersen Was The Right Call For The Rookie

Fans know that no one is truly safe in the rookie.

Mercedes Mason as Captain Zoe Andersen talking to Nolan in The Rookie

Trivia
, but was followed by others shortly thereafter.

What Happened to Chris Rios in The Rookie?

Officer Chris Rios on The Rookie played a small role in the series, but his ultimate fate had a momentous impact on the characters and series itself.

In the seasons since its debut, The Rookie has become less about Fillion's John Nolan and more about the ensemble cast. While Fillion might have been the main heartthrob on Castle , other characters and couples have captured fans' imaginations. Tim Bradford, played by Eric Winter, and Lucy Chen, played by Melissa O'Neil, are the "one true pairing" couple on the series, lovingly called "Chenford" by fans . Killing off Captain Zoe Andersen, especially since Mercedes Mason was so good in the role, might seem like The Rookie 's storytellers wasted a character. Yet, that character's death was the perfect way to establish real stakes in a show where life and death are everyday struggles .

Television writers use a term called "schmuck bait" to describe scenes in which series regulars are put in mortal peril during an episode. The reason for this uncharitable term is that anyone who understands how TV shows work knows the main characters aren't going to die in a random episode in the middle of a season. Yet, using a trick Lost pioneered , the death of Captain Andersen showed audiences that nearly any character is at risk for death. Not only that, Captain Andersen wasn't killed off grandly, but instead unceremoniously taken out by a stray shot from a forgettable villain. This underscored for audiences that no character, perhaps not even Nolan himself, is invincible in the story. Mason played a great character, which is why losing Andersen had the impact it had on the show and its audience.

Where Else You've Seen Mercedes Mason

Mercedes mason has appeared in several popular television series outside of the rookie.

Ofelia Salazar (Mercedes Mason) is bruised from a fight in Fear the Walking Dead

Trivia
. The film follows the exploits of a rabbi who becomes an unwitting gunslinger after his town is overrun by a band of criminals.

Why Was The Rookie: Feds Canceled?

The Rookie: Feds is a spinoff of a popular show that broke ratings records for ABC, especially with streaming, but the network canceled the series.

Mercedes Mason may be most recognizable as Zoe Andersen to fans of police procedurals, but The Rookie is far from her only major acting role. The actress has made a career of appearances on popular television series, often as a guest star who appears in a single episode or a short arc. Throughout her respectable career, Mason has appeared in guest roles on such series as Chuck , NCIS , NCIS: LA , American Horror Stories , How to Get Away with Murder , and plenty more.

Most notably, Mason starred as Ofelia Salazar in AMC's The Walking Dead spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead . Ofelia was a central character in the series from the beginning until her tragic death in Season 3 . Although her time in Fear the Walking Dead was limited, Mercedes Mason's character profoundly affected the characters therein, especially her father, Daniel, who continued to mourn her loss for the rest of the series.

Mercedes Mason's contributions to various series throughout her career have been phenomenal. From Fear the Walking Dead to The Rookie , she has elevated her characters to become memorable facets of a larger narrative, even if they don't always live to tell the tale.

The Rookie cast posing on TV Show Poster

*Availability in US

Not available

Starting over isn't easy, especially for John Nolan who, after a life-altering incident, is pursuing his dream of joining the LAPD. As their oldest rookie, he's met with skepticism from those who see him as just a walking midlife crisis. After earning his place on the LAPD, Officer Nolan becomes a training officer with his own rookie as he tries to balance life as a cop and new love.

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Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet” Is an Exquisitely Moving Film Début

By Justin Chang

Woman with glasses looking to the right at another person in a field of grass.

The first time we meet Janet in “Janet Planet,” a wondrous début feature from the celebrated playwright Annie Baker, she is standing on a rural road a little way from the camera. The distance is subtle, but crucial. Glimpsed from afar, surrounded by grass and sunshine, Janet (Julianne Nicholson) is a vision of loveliness—serene, earthy, and a little remote. We’re seeing her through the eyes of her eleven-year-old daughter, Lacy (Zoe Ziegler), an owlish misfit with whom she shares a close bond, though we can already guess that things are about to change. Janet has come to fetch her daughter from summer camp, yet summer is far from over; Lacy called the night before, demanding liberation or death. “I’m gonna kill myself if you don’t come get me,” she announced, before calmly replacing the receiver. (Yes, the receiver; the movie takes place in 1991.)

If Janet was at all disturbed by Lacy’s threat, she doesn’t show it now. Instead, she fixes Lacy with a smile, devoid of reproach or alarm, and pulls her into a warm, reassuring hug. She knows her daughter’s anxieties too well to be taken aback by them, and loves her too deeply to hold them against her. Lacy loves her mother, too, yet the quality and intensity of that love will fluctuate over the remaining summer months. You could call “Janet Planet” a coming-of-age story, but that would risk lumping it together with countless movies it doesn’t much resemble. It’s more a story about a child at the stage where one moves beyond the intense, almost romantic, idolization of a parent—a process that, as Baker is aware, is gradual, full of hesitations and stumbles. To capture a process of disillusionment requires uncommon patience, plus keen powers of observation. Hers are up to the challenge.

It will surprise none of Baker’s admirers to hear that, onscreen as well as onstage, she is attuned to the quotidian, allergic to melodrama, and borderline monkish in her appreciation for silence. Back home in woodsy western Massachusetts, Janet, an acupuncturist, meets clients at her in-house studio, leaving Lacy to her own devices. Janet has a boyfriend on the premises, too: a terse, tetchy older fellow named Wayne (Will Patton), who mostly keeps to himself. And so we watch, for unhurried stretches, as Lacy busies herself practicing piano on an electronic keyboard and directing a makeshift puppet theatre peopled with a collection of tiny figurines. She is alone, but not exactly lonely. The house is awash with sunlight, streaming in through enormous windows, bouncing off high, vaulted ceilings, encasing her like a wood-panelled womb—a rustic extension of her mother’s embrace.

At night, though, as darkness descends and the chirping of crickets intensifies, Lacy grows restless and covetous of Janet’s attention. She insists that her mother sleep beside her; when Janet tries to slip out, Lacy forces her to leave behind a piece of herself, a strand of her hair. (Hair figures frequently, and evocatively, into this micro-layered story: watch how Lacy’s red-brown locks billow in the breeze during a car ride, or how her curiosity leads her, mid-shower, to sample a visitor’s unfamiliar-looking shampoo.) If there’s a reason Lacy clings to her mother so fiercely, it’s to thwart Wayne, who is obviously put out by the girl’s premature return from camp. You can’t entirely blame him; Lacy can be blunt and overly inquisitive, and Ziegler, a remarkable discovery, doesn’t soften any rough edges. But you also can’t entirely blame Lacy, and her presence merely hastens the inevitable end of Janet’s relationship—the latest, we sense, of many.

“I think you have to break up with him,” Lacy says, when Janet asks her advice. Does their exchange reveal heartening depths of parental trust, or is it a warning sign of mother-daughter codependency? The camera, spying on Janet and Lacy as they walk and talk on a dirt road, betrays nothing. (The cinematographer is Maria von Hausswolff, who brought her eye for natural splendor to the magnificent Icelandic drama “Godland,” from 2022.) And Nicholson, in an exquisite performance of pinpoint subtlety, doesn’t try to sway judgment in either direction. When Lacy later asks how her mother would feel if she were to someday date a girl, Janet’s response is an uncommonly thoughtful one, evincing a kind of honesty that I suspect not every parent would sanction. It’s not just an answer; it’s a declaration of faith in the person Lacy is becoming, and who she already is.

“Janet Planet” consists of three loosely plotted chapters, the first of which ends with Wayne’s departure. The following two each center on a new house guest. One of these is Janet’s longtime friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo), who belongs to a theatrical-agricultural hippie commune, and whom we first see at an outdoor performance, monologuing in full force. (“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a cult,” Janet says to Lacy. “What’s a cult?” her daughter asks.) Regina is warm, chatty, and free-spirited; she is also hypercritical, entitled, and blind to her hypocrisies. Up next in the guest rotation, through mysterious yet oddly logical circumstances, is Regina’s charismatic ex-partner Avi (Elias Koteas), who happens to be the leader of the not-really-a-cult. He immerses Janet in liberation-speak and reads to her from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Duino Elegies.” And then he, too, is gone, as shifty and unreliable as his words.

It’s here that at least one of the title’s meanings drifts into focus. Janet Planet is the name of Janet’s acupuncture studio; it’s also an allusion—oblique and unacknowledged—to the nickname that Van Morrison gave the songwriter Janet Rigsbee, who, during their five-year marriage, inspired some of his most well-known songs. (Although don’t expect “Crazy Love” on the soundtrack, which consists mainly of the classical pieces that Lacy is practicing—those, and the crickets.) But the title is best understood as a lesson in social astronomy: Janet is the planet who, with subdued but undeniable magnetism, pulls various human satellites into her orbit. But Lacy can see, more clearly than most, that Janet’s celestial radiance has begun to dwindle, eclipsed by the disappointments of middle age and the frustrations of an unmet longing.

Baker’s most prominent work remains “The Flick,” which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for drama, and which follows the travails of three employees at a small Massachusetts art-house cinema. The action, such as it is, unfolds inside the theatre, during post-screening cleaning sessions; emotional truth emerges as reluctantly as it does in real life, one stale popcorn kernel at a time. Like many of Baker’s plays, including “Circle Mirror Transformation” (2009) and “The Antipodes” (2017), “The Flick” pushes against the trappings of what we ordinarily think of as theatrical realism or naturalism—two concepts that feel especially reductive when applied to Baker’s leisurely pacing, her precise use of silences and pauses, and the persuasively humdrum quality of her dialogue. But the play is also an expression of profound movie love, replete with wide-ranging cinematic references and even a full-throated defense of old-school film projection—a manifesto against an era of ever more aggressive digital encroachment.

If “The Flick” was Baker’s theatre-based tribute to movies, “Janet Planet” is her cinematic ode to the theatre. There is Lacy’s figurine company, which, apart from the wry inclusion of a bright-haired troll doll (a very nineties obsession), feels like a tip of the hat to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” (1982). There is also the alfresco performance that introduces us to Regina: a beguiling Dionysian spectacle, with actors in flowing white costumes and horned animal masks, which Baker records with an almost anthropological wonderment, plus the faintest whisper of satire. Even as we register, and maybe share, Lacy’s bewilderment, we also feel the filmmaker’s rigorous fascination with what she’s showing us.

We are not, in other words, locked inside Lacy’s head at all times. Indeed, if there’s a reason “Janet Planet” never succumbs to the rosy, banalizing glow of nineties nostalgia, it’s Baker’s ability to juxtapose multiple perspectives in the same static frame—a gift that feels closely rooted in her theatre work. Meanwhile, it’s a pleasure to watch her avail herself, for the first time, of a filmmaker’s tools. Now that she can cut swiftly from one setup to the next, her scenes are shorter and tighter, less dependent on a sense of prolonged duration. And there’s a startling sequence whose effects would be difficult to reproduce through stagecraft alone: Janet and Lacy attend a local dance, which Baker has the inspiration to film as a kind of human constellation, a roundelay of fast-moving, not quite heavenly bodies. By the end, nothing obvious has changed, and yet mother and daughter—one grinning on the dance floor, the other watching quietly from the sidelines—seem strangely, and perhaps permanently, out of alignment. It’s a gifted filmmaker who can draw blood with a single cut, and turn the distance between two souls into a chasm. ♦

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COMMENTS

Zoe movie review & film summary (2018)
Drake Doremus continues his dispiriting descent into dumb drama with his third deeply defeatist look at the deepening difficulties of finding love in the technological era in a row. It started with the bland "Equals," got worse with the banal "Newness," and now brings us to the baffling "Zoe," a film premiering on Amazon Prime today.One only hopes the director of "Like Crazy" moves ...
'Zoe' Review: Lea Seydoux, Ewan McGregor in a Sci-Fi Love Story
Film Review: 'Zoe' Léa Seydoux and Ewan McGregor star in Drake Doremus' sci-fi love story about a future of synthetic romance that does't look so far from our own. By Owen Gleiberman.
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Rated: 3/4 Oct 11, 2018 Full Review Andrew Karpan Film School Rejects Zoe constructs a dialogue between these two critically adored movies and peels apart the kind of fantasy they satisfy in order ...
'Zoe': Film Review
'Zoe,' Drake Doremus' robot/human love story, stars Ewan McGregor, Lea Seydoux and Theo James.
Zoe (2018)
Zoe: Directed by Drake Doremus. With Ewan McGregor, Léa Seydoux, Theo James, Rashida Jones. A story about how synthetic humans can feel and even love and how the people they are involved with react to this concept.
Zoe (film)
Zoe is a 2018 American romantic science fiction film directed by Drake Doremus and starring Ewan McGregor, Léa Seydoux, Christina Aguilera, Rashida Jones, and Miranda Otto.. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, 2018. It was released on July 20, 2018, by Amazon Studios.
Zoe
Full Review | Aug 6, 2018. Slow-moving sci-fi love story falls flat; some sex, drugs. Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 2, 2018. "Zoe" gets most of the way there, but Doremus doesn't know ...
Zoe (2018)
7/10. An extraordinary film about an extraordinary love affair. peterp-450-298716 6 September 2018. There is a fundamental incompatibility. "Zoe" is not just a film about artificial intelligence and the influence it will have on our society. It also shows how artificially our society will be in the future. A world where feelings are reduced to ...
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Film Reviews Zoe is the dopey sci-fi love story that doesn't know it's creepy In the near future of Drake Doremus' sci-fi inanity Zoe , androids (called "synthetics," because it's that ...
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You can't replicate emotion. You can't program heartbreak, anger, or grief; realist artifices aren't enough. Set in a parallel-world near-future, "Zoe," directed by Drake Doremus ("Like Crazy," 2011) and starring Ewan McGregor ("Trainspotting," 1996) and Léa Seydoux ("La Vie d'Adèle;" Eng.: "Blue is the Warmest Color," 2013), mulls over the desperate urge to feel ...
Review: Zoe
Drake Doremus's Zoe may surprise you: once with a standard, "pull the rug out" twist, and a few more times with contradictory shifts in tone and emphasis. The surprises are a mixed bag, but they're a relief after a smug, technophobic opening sequence, in which we're introduced to Cole (Ewan McGregor) and Zoe (Léa Seydoux), who appear to be the two principal employees at Relationist ...
Zoe review
Zoe (Léa Seydoux) works in this lab alongside designer Cole (Ewan McGregor) and the two share a light workplace flirtation. But underneath the surface lies a secret, something that prevents Zoe ...
Zoe (2018) Movie Review
Starts off as a glacially-slow romance movie, then becomes something properly sci-fi and good in the second half. It's quite artistic in the end. Lots of very tight close-up shots of actors faces. Shaky hand-held camera work sometimes makes the close-ups annoying. Also has sex-bot/lingerie stuff.
A Robot Romance on Amazon, American Indies and a 'Taxi Driver
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Zoe
In Zoe, the characters, all in their 30s at least (except for the robots, I know, but bear with me), still believe that 100-percent glitch-free everlasting love is a reasonable life goal. It's this component, even more than the poorly realized sci-fi trappings, that finally make the movie a little insufferable.
'Zoe' Is More Than Just a Movie About Humans F**king Robots
Zoe is the typical "less you know about it, the better" movie. The very basics here are that Ewan McGregor stars as Cole, the man behind Relationist Laboratories, a company that has created a ...
My Zoe movie review & film summary (2021)
In "My Zoe," her latest film as a writer/director/actor, Delpy's character Isabelle is the mourning blue of its melancholic story, which presents a mother and ex-wife grieving over her daughter Zoe ( Sophia Ally) falling into a coma, while clashing with her ex-husband James ( Richard Armitage ), and opting for a futuristic way out of her pain.
Zoe Movie Review
Zoe is a beautiffuly atmospheric Sci-Fi Romance. Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux give magnetic performances in a film that questions the realities of Love. ... Latest Reviews. 4.5 Poor. Spaceman. 9.4 Amazing. Shōgun. 7 Good. Hunter Killer. 8.8 Great. Poor Things. 8.3 Great.
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The film might have been better served by a more intense focus on Cole and Zoe, since the story lines involving other characters like Theo and Cole's ex-wife Emma (Rashida Jones) never really go ...
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80 likes. ★. Not even Christina Aguilera's cameo as an obsolete robot prostitute can save Drake Doremus' inanimate story of designer dating," a high-concept, low-reward romance that hopefully completes the "Like Crazy" filmmaker's trilogy of lifeless movies about the near future of love. It began with "Equals," a moribund Kurt ...
Zoe is the dopey sci-fi love story that doesn't know it's creepy
Zoe. In the near future of Drake Doremus' sci-fi inanity Zoe, androids (called "synthetics," because it's that kind of movie) have become ubiquitous, but true love remains scarce as ever ...
Zoe movie review (detailed and major spoiler -free)
My analysis and review of movie Zoe, starring Ewan McGregor, Léa Seydoux, Theo James, Miranda Otto, Rashida Jones, Christina Aguilera. Directed by Drake Dore...
Watch Zoe
A woman working at a cutting-edge relationship lab finds her world upended when she falls for a scientist who's developing synthetic companions. Watch trailers & learn more.
My Dead Friend Zoe (2024)
My Dead Friend Zoe: Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. With Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman. Engaged in a mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army, a female Afghanistan veteran comes head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family's ancestral lake house.
Zoe Saldaña reacts to 'Avatar' franchise concluding in 2031
Neytiri and Jake Sully in 2009's 'Avatar.'. Twentieth Century Fox. While Avatar 3 was only pushed back by a single year, moving from Dec. 20, 2024, to Dec. 19, 2025, the final two installments in ...
This 'Star Trek' Alum's New Indie Dramedy Is Hitting ...
The indie dramedy "My Dead Friend Zoe" set to hit theaters on Nov. 1, 2024. The film stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Merit, dealing with PTSD and a ghostly friend, Zoe, played by Natalie Morales.
First Trailer for Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez Starring Zoe Saldaña
One of the splashiest and most divisive movies coming out of Cannes Film Festival this year was Jacques Audiard's musical crime comedy Emilia Perez, which stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez.Picking up the Jury Prize as well as the Best Actress award for its female ensemble, Netflix acquired it for U.S. and U.K. distribution but first it ...
The Rookie: Why Mercedes Mason's Zoe Andersen Was Killed Off
The Rookie shocked fans by killing off Captain Zoe Andersen short of its Season 1 finale. Here's what happened and why Mercedes Mason left the series. ... Movie Reviews TV Reviews RETRO REVIEW: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Is Not the Dud Fans Remember Hit Man Review: Linklater's Latest is a Softboiled Crime Tale That's Bereft of Heft ...
Annie Baker's "Janet Planet" Is an Exquisitely Moving Film Début
Justin Chang reviews "Janet Planet," the playwright Annie Baker's début film, starring Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, and Sophie Okonedo.

Film Review: ‘Zoe’

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