Film
Zeros and Ones
- Action thriller
- Action
- Crime
- Relentless
A taut 85-minute thriller set in Rome, where a soldier hunts his imprisoned brother to stop a Vatican bombing. Shot in stark black-and-white, Ethan Hawke carries the film through shadowy streets and moral ambiguity. It's lean, urgent, and deliberately artificial—a fever dream of a war story that privileges mood and tension over plot clarity. For viewers drawn to style and atmosphere over conventional narrative comfort.
If you liked this
The Third Man1949
Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in postwar Vienna, chasing betrayal through fog and shadows. A masterclass in how cinematography can make a city feel like a character. Morally complex, endlessly rewatchable.
But Paced for 1949. If you need constant forward momentum or clear answers, its deliberate mystery will frustrate you.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy2011
Gary Oldman as a burned-out spy in Cold War London, hunting a mole through oblique dialogue and geometric framing. Demands attention but rewards it with an atmosphere few thrillers attempt. Glacially intelligent.
But Nearly every scene is people talking in rooms. No action sequences. If plot clarity matters more than mood, you'll be lost and annoyed.

Under the Skin2014
Scarlett Johansson driving through Scottish landscapes in a film that's deliberately fractured and dreamlike. Hypnotic, unsettling, visually stunning. Proves atmosphere can sustain a feature without conventional plot.
But Aggressively slow and oblique. It asks more questions than it answers. Many people find it beautiful and maddening in equal measure.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Zeros and Ones
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
All Is Lost2013
Both films pit a solitary protagonist against impossible circumstances in confined settings. Both use the city/ocean as an adversary that cannot be negotiated with. Both trust atmosphere and physical performance over exposition.
Robert Redford alone on a sinking boat for 106 minutes, nearly wordless, fighting water and himself. Survival thriller stripped to essentials: one actor, the ocean, catastrophe. Ethan Hawke's urgency meets absolute isolation.
But Genuinely monotonous in stretches. If you need dialogue or other characters to stay engaged, you're watching a man bail water for two hours.

More like this (8)
Alphaville1965
Godard's sci-fi noir: a spy infiltrating a computer-controlled city. Black-and-white Paris doubles as a dystopia. Fragmented, strange, and genuinely disorienting. A fever dream with ideas.
But Structurally chaotic. The narrative dissolves by design. Demands you meet it more than halfway.

A Prophet2009
A young man imprisoned in a brutal French prison must navigate gangs, ambition, and moral compromise. Visceral and intimate simultaneously. Gripping even when quiet.
But Long at 155 minutes. Some prison violence is unflinching. The pacing can feel glacial in the middle hour.

Hunger2008
Steve McQueen's debut on an IRA prisoner's hunger strike. Sparse, unforgettable, shot with painterly precision. Art film seriousness applied to immediate human suffering.
But Extremely difficult. Extended scenes of degradation and bodily decline. This is endurance cinema, not entertainment.

The Man Who Fell to Earth1976
David Bowie as an alien in 1970s America. Visually fractured, thematically haunting, scored by way of ambient dread. Nicolas Roeg directing his most otherworldly work.
But Plot is secondary to mood. Disjointed editing can feel incoherent rather than experimental. Requires patience with strangeness.

A Ghost Story2017
Casey Affleck beneath a white sheet, a film about grief and time and America. Deceptively simple premise, quietly devastating execution. Proves minimalism can break your heart.
But Actively boring if you're not on its wavelength. Devoid of conventional drama. Some find it self-indulgent rather than affecting.

Stalker1979
Tarkovsky in the Soviet Union: a guide leads two men into a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. Contemplative, mysterious, about desire and belief more than plot. Hypnotic if you surrender to it.
But 162 minutes of deliberately slow cinema. Long takes. Minimal external action. Patience isn't just required—it's the entire point.

A Prayer Before Dawn2018
Both follow men imprisoned or hunted, using physical discipline and forward momentum as survival mechanisms. Both are war stories without the war—intimate, bodily, about men reduced to their absolute necessity.
Mark Wahlberg as an American boxer in a Thai prison, training in Muay Thai for survival. Visceral, sweaty, intimate. Shot with documentary urgency. Real violence, real humiliation, real stakes.
But Brutal and bleak. Based on true events of real degradation. The second half is relentlessly punishing. Not cathartic—punishing.

The Seventh Seal1957
Both films stage moral quandaries under duress. Both use theological/political stakes (Vatican, Death, plague). Both employ stark cinematography as a language. Both ask what men will do when time runs out.
Bergman's knight playing chess with Death during the plague. Baroque, philosophical, visually iconic. Medieval but timeless. Grapples with meaning and futility without pretending to answer them.
But Swedish, subtitled, slow, drenched in existential dread. No lighter moments. If you need entertainment rather than contemplation, you'll feel tortured.

People
Cast
Ethan HawkeJJ / Justin
Cristina ChiriacLaughing Russian Agent
Phil NeilsonPhil
Valerio MastandreaLuciano- Valeria CorrealeValeria
Dounia SichovSerious Russian Agent
Babak KarimiMullah- Stephen GurewitzStephen
Carla CassolaWoman in the Church
Anna FerraraGirl in the Pink Coat
Directing
- Giulio DonatoAssistant Director
- Abel FerraraDirector
Writing
- Abel FerraraScreenplay
Production
- Valeria CorrealeAssociate Producer
- Giulio DonatoCasting
- Manuel StefanoloCoordinating Producer
- Alex LeboviciExecutive Producer
- Brent GuttmanExecutive Producer
- Danny H. ChanExecutive Producer
- Simone GandolfoLine Producer
- Diana PhillipsProducer
- Philipp KreuzerProducer