Apartment Zero

R

1989

1 hr. 57 min.

Mystery & Thriller

List

75%

32 Reviews

Tomatometer

74%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In a rundown area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the dawn of the 1980s, Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) owns both a struggling movie theater and a shabby apartment building filled with eccentric, squabbling tenants; his institutionalized mother (Elvia Andreoli) adds further pressure. To make ends meet, Adrian takes in a roommate, Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), but soon begins to suspect that the quiet American is responsible for a series of political assassinations that are rocking the city.

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Audience Member

Interesting to view this again after 25 years - how times have changed. Now I appreciate the black comedy more and the cine references - especially to 'Psycho' in the closing sequence. But the complicity and denial of the neighours now reads as a rather heavy-handed political metaphor. Totally unbelievable that they should not recognize the transvestitism of their fellow occupant. Colin Firth is miscast and his Eraser-head 'do' is weird - would have worked better with a younger, effete, blond actor with a lighter voice. And given Jack is an amoral hustler and Adrian homosexual and that the story extends over several weeks or even months, then surely the relationship would have become rapidly sexual and physical.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

walter m

In "Apartment Zero," Adrian LeDuc(Colin Firth) runs a moribund repertory cinema club in Buenos Aires but turns down his friend Claudia's(Francesca d'Aloja) offers to rent out his theatre for political meetings, preferring, in his words, to keep the blood off the walls and on the screen. With his mother(Elvia Andreoli) requiring constant medical care, he puts an ad in the newspaper for a roommate. After a few applicants that do not meet his high standards, Jack(Hart Bochner), a hunky American, shows up to rent the room, with Adrian even making him breakfast. Early on in "Apartment Zero," Adrian admonishes people who watch films on video, saying they prefer to skip through the slow parts. Later on, I was thinking again of that statement, wondering if Adrian could possibly be commenting on the film he is in, as it suffers from a particularly crawling pace, even with its psychosexual themes on full display. Just as the movie finally kicks into gear when it takes a turn towards the baroque in its last act, it also takes an extremely roundabout way to also take full advantage of its intriguing post-junta milieu. A situation Adrian ignores because he has had his head in the sand, apparently due to his love of movies.(He even acts more English than Argentinian.) In any case, Colin Firth is superb, years before he would cause half of England to have a spontaneous orgasm.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's not surprising that a film featuring a main character that can only see the world through the lens of movies would remind me of so many other movies. Not in a bad way though. Martin Donovan's film doesn't collect moments from other films so much as it invokes their mood. The biggest touchstone is Polanksi, especially "The Tenant". The blend of hostile paranoia and repressed sexuality reproduces the atmosphere of that film (as well as invoking its setting).

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Apartment manager takes in a tenant to his own unit with dark mercernary ties to a corrupt Argentinian regime. After a slow start, this one recovers to some degree. Not sure if the leads are supposed to be gay but there is an unmistakable amount of sexual tension between them.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Both the film and Bochner are seductive, erotically charged, and intriguing in this worthwhile thriller.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Disturbing, unsettling, and you just can't get enough of it--A drama lesson!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

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Martin Donovan

Director

Colin Firth

Adrian LeDuc

Hart Bochner

Jack Carney

Dora Bryan

Margaret McKinney

Liz Smith

Mary Louise McKinney

Fabrizio Bentivoglio

Carlos Sanchez-Verne

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Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

[This] film, a dazzling mix of mirth and menace, is that rare find: a thriller that plumbs the violence of the mind.

Feb 9, 2015

Full Review

Peter Rainer

Los Angeles Times

This overwrought and underdeveloped psychological thriller with heavy-handed political implications adds up to exactly nothing.

Feb 9, 2015

Full Review

Angie Errigo

Empire Magazine

Colin Firth is a first-rate young actor and Hart Brocher has the sex appeal to suggest magnetic nastiness, but the deeper they sink into this cesspit, the less you care.

Rated: 2/5

Feb 9, 2015

Full Review

Terry Francis

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

Donovan is a born filmmaker in his own right. With a good script he might establish himself next time out as an important director. Apartment Zero is the work of a genuinely eccentric mind.

Rated: 2.5/4

May 9, 2023

Full Review

Michael Bronski

Gay Community News (Boston)

A calculated attempt to combine the sensibility of the Hollywood psycho-noir with an honest examination of sexual desire’s connection with imagination and movies

Aug 16, 2022

Full Review

Robert Hilferty

OutWeek

Compelling, bizarre and darkly hilarious.

May 20, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

In a rundown area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the dawn of the 1980s, Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) owns both a struggling movie theater and a shabby apartment building filled with eccentric, squabbling tenants; his institutionalized mother (Elvia Andreoli) adds further pressure. To make ends meet, Adrian takes in a roommate, Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), but soon begins to suspect that the quiet American is responsible for a series of political assassinations that are rocking the city.

Director: Martin Donovan
Rating: R
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Feb 20, 2007
Sound Mix: Surround