Tribeca Film Festival 2018: Zoe Review

Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival this year, Zoe is Drake Doremus’ latest movie in the sci-fi romance genre.

Relationships are hard, which is why Cole’s (Ewan McGregor) company, Relationist, matches people based on an AI algorithm from some personal questions. It’s rated by percentage points and if you are completely incompatible or for some reason don’t want human companionship, Relationist also can create synthetic humans to help. Zoe (Léa Seydoux) is one such creation, though she is unaware at first. The film explores the relationship between Cole and Zoe and whether or not their memories are still ‘real’ if one of them isn’t human.


In terms of the plot, there is nothing to write home about here. It’s an overly familiar take on the “what it means to be human” question. The plot starts off slow and only gets slower as time goes on. The plot twist–Zoe is actually a creation of Cole–is telegraphed from a mile away, which severely reduces its punch. It gets worse: there’s a plethora of scenes with Cole and Zoe together staring into each other’s eyes next to an open window and cuddling in bed together, but they feel empty and hollow, which brings me to my next point…

The lead actors have little to no on-screen chemistry. The dialogue and acting seem by-the-book and bland. Ewan McGregor and Léa Seydoux are great actors that have both been in many enjoyable projects in the past, so I’m not sure why they don’t work well together here. I honestly had to mentally restrain myself from checking my watch. I sat and quietly pondered why it wasn’t working. My suspicion is the script. There is one singular scene in an abandoned lecture hall where they seem to be genuinely having fun, and I suspect that that scene was improvised and not rehearsed.

I wanted to like Zoe, I really did, but with a predictable plot, poor pacing, and no chemistry between the actors, there was just nothing here to like.

9:30 PM – SUN 4/22 – REGAL CINEMAS BATTERY PARK 11-5
3:30 PM – MON 4/23 – REGAL CINEMAS BATTERY PARK 11-5
3:30 PM – WED 4/25 – REGAL CINEMAS BATTERY PARK 11-5

★ out of 4

Photo Credit: John Guleserian